e e e e e e e e e e hey B oh you're un still muted there we go how are you I'm doing good good I'm good summer is here yep hold on my window yeah I just opened up the house today was nice actually today was I know you're not you might not be in the area but um today was in the 80s and it was actually you know kind of nice but it's U definitely I feel like summer has uh well we just passed the solstice right it was like super hot I think the sun wins it's all downhill from here we're we're headed we're headed towards Christmas at this point how many more shopping days do we have you better get out there you better get going what are we doing we're on the concom meeting we should be out hitting the stores but yeah I feel like I close up the house you know and turn on the mini split with the either just the dehumidifier or maybe the air conditioning and then you get to a certain hour where you feel like you can open all the windows up like at night but today it was nice most of the day so it was good it was good as long as we don't head into any kind of drought type stuff I'm I'm happy so far so good um let's see I see Jan and Bob is here too which means we can open our meeting all right it's 7 pm on June 27th 2024 and I'm calling this meeting of the shutesbury Conservation Commission to order this meeting is being recorded and um see our first thing at 7:15 I but I I do I have a couple announcements um one is I think you guys all saw my email that Carrie's leaving so sad um she's been great you've been great Carrie and it's it's a real it's a loss I feel like to the town of shb um but your job that you're going to sounds great and uh happy for you thank you yeah and I I don't know maybe you do you want to just mention sort of how you're planning to do your hours for the next couple yeah so um I will be starting my new job on July 8th which is a lot faster than I was anticipating um so next week will be my last week in the office uh typically I would be there Tuesday Thursday I still plan on coming Tuesday but Thursday is the 4th of July so I don't think the town hall will even be open but um I do plan on coming up a little bit uh Friday morning afternoon-ish for maybe like three or 4 hours just doing last minute things um after that I will I will still have the laptop that I've been using since I'm here um I plan to do some um catch up on on the minutes I'll still answer emails here and there when I can I still plan on doing like the agendas um I believe Janice is very graciously taking over minutes until possibly the new hire the same month um and yeah I don't know if anyone's had a chance to check out the Excel sheets that I shared but that'll also be very helpful for everyone during this time I'll still fill in stuff as they come in but yeah yeah that's great I mean it basically means car's gonna kind of overlap hopefully with the new hire um and she's gonna you know keep doing all the the many things that she does for for a little bit um you know that includes like legal ads and the billing for the legal ads and working with people with about their butter notifications and all that so thank you Carrie for being willing to help out over the next couple weeks um so there has been somebody who came forward because car's job's been advertised for a while actually um because she had been thinking of going um and so somebody did come forward and so we're interviewing that person next week so hopefully cross your fingers that that works out because he's person's the only only person I I know of who's come forward um and if that all works out then it'll be great because he'll get we'll get him on board soon enough that he and Carrie can kind of overlap and Carrie can really show him um where everything is I actually stopped by Town Hall today and talked with Carrie more about the organization of the office there and she's doing a huge project right now to get it even more organized before she leaves which is which is awesome um yeah so that's where we're at with that and yeah thank you Jan for offering to take minutes on the 11th and the 25th [Music] yay that was nice of you um other announcements I'm assuming you guys all saw that we got an email from furog about a work a workshop series they're offering on um what did they call it resilient rivers and watersheds I mean if if anybody's interested I might try to go it looks like they they provided three different dates um for the workshop same Workshop they're just offering it three times it's uh sounds like it's going to be about providing towns with um tools and and ideas for dealing with storm water management and water quality of resource areas so tools for planning boards um cbas and conservation commissions so I think it was yeah July 17th 24th and 31st if anybody's interested I think I might try to go to one of them I'm not sure which one but um so there's that um the other thing is J and also volunteered so nicely to sort of be in charge of site visits um you know really we should be doing a original site visit when an application comes in before we open the public hearings then we should be doing pre-construction site visits to inspect erosion control before construction starts if it's a big enough project you know we may want to do a site visit during construction just to make sure things are okay and then there's all there's the inspection after a project is complete to make sure vegetation grown in um to really let the applicant know that everything that that they completed their project in accordance with the order or conditions um and that they can remove their erosion control and that we we can issue them a certificate of compliance um so those are all the types of site visits and so Jan is going to be our site visit leader and just um organize them I guess is kind of the main thing when we get applications in she would reach out to set up a date for the site visit and then let us all know when it is and and try to do the scheduling for that initial site visit do the site visit inspection form um and then when the project opens you know she she can be the one that can describe what happened at the same visit what the site looked like because that's always a good part of uh when a when when a hearing opens and we start talking about the project it's great to be able to have a little description of an actual site visit so thanks Jan I think that's great because that was one of the things it was starting to kind of fall behind definitely we with everything going on um hadn't been doing the site inspection forms we i' organizing site visits and we've been trying to go see the sites and everything but we hadn't been doing the form so so that'll be that'll be super helpful um and I guess the no minutes tonight because Carrie's gonna um spend a little time catching up on them before she leaves but we don't have any to review tonight and those are all my announcements does anybody have any other announcements no yeah Bob are you driving in a car now I'm making him crash but making him unmute he ring anyway he looks like he is looks very busy look very busy um just some other information um this is more from my job is that the town of Amis just bought a bought a little piece of land in shoots Berry for Watershed protection I got a grant drinking water supply protection Grant is the state Grant from D um it's about 11 acres on Sand Hill Road right across from the Houston Gage Conservation Area I don't know if you guys have ever if you're going along San Hill Road if you're heading out of shs berry on the left is this it's marked there's a there's one of those white town of ammer Conservation Area signs a wooden sign says Houston gauge and there's a a trail and there's a little tiny little parking area maybe for like one to two cars at the most on the left side um and if you haven't been to Houston gug it's it's a that's a nice Conservation Area it has a trail um but anyway across the street from Houston gagee uh where the grade of this there's a pretty steep slope actually is where this new piece of land is and like I said it's about 11 acres same family the Gage family they wanted to preserve some more land and um so they asked if the town was interested so we wrote a grant got the Grant and um Town Council just approved the appropriation last Monday and so we're basically all lined up to get the grant get the town money and and buy the land so that's exciting preserved did you say you bought land in the town of shs spry yep yep we bought 11 acres on sandill road um it's right across from the Houston gug conservation is it did you buy it to be like Watershed protection or just a good deal the town ofmer no yeah I mean we bought it for watered protection so we got a state State Grant under the drinking water supply protection grant program um so when you do that when you use that grant money you have to put a conservation restriction on it and declare that the land is for um drinking water protection and so that's that's kind of the path we took you know the family came wanted to preserve it so we um looked into me methods of doing that and that's that's the way the town went with it so so that's exciting um it's still only 7-Eleven yeah it has uh I'll just keep talking about it it has um two streams that come across it um which are Zone a for drinking water protection which is all the tributaries to the akkin reservoir are U mapped as Zone a um wat said protection land so they have special protection The Zone a goes um 50 feet on either side of a tributary to a surface water that's used for drinking water so this this parcel's got those um and they actually flow right into the dean Brook across the street which is like the primary water source for Atkin Reservoir so it was definitely an appropriate piece of land to buy for drinking water protection and what else do I know uh be if we're still killing time can I ask you a question about two um MVPs that ammer did there was one I think it was the campus Pond was suting in and I think the same thing for puffer Pond and MVP grants were applied for by the town is that correct um I don't I don't think they applied this year for puffers they they were thinking of applying this year MVP for puffers but I'm not sure they did because I know because I know what we did apply for is more money to replace some coverts um we got MVP last year to do the design and permitting to replace three covers and that's all done just finished that up and so we applied for FY 25 for the money for construction um I don't think they applied for MVP for puffers because I know that they actually ammer actually applied for uh the dam seaw wall Dam uh seaw wall and Dam Improvement or whatever it is State Grant four puffers this year I think that's probably the one I about yeah that's the FY 25 application um Scott you have your hand up yeah on something different but um I was just following up on our meeting from last night and I know we got partway through talking about the rag some just wondering if uh maybe we would have a little bit of time just talk about next steps for that we would timeline for review and what we were thinking collectively so just I i' mention that yeah I have that that's on the agenda for tonight um and I I guess I just I didn't feel like we probably had enough time right now to get into it but no that's what I what is it it's uh yeah it's after all of our our hearings start Time stuff tonight there's it's on the agenda so yeah I wanted to thank you talk about that yeah next steps all right it's um 7:15 um so it's number two on our agenda 5759 short drive D File 2 286 0300 um this is a request for a minor administrative approval um and I see Doug hi folks hello hi thanks for the introduction Beth um my name is Doug surl I work with Berk Design Group I'm here uh tonight on behalf of uh Donna and Gary West with 5759 Shore Drive um we were uh at uh in attendance on a a previous uh Hearing in May and we had uh presented uh uh revised uh plans for an amended order of conditions um and a small uh when we when we uh received the amended order of conditions there were were uh comments in there that um we uh uh saw uh that were related to the garage and the uh the homeowners uh had previously stated earlier in the winter in the spring uh that they uh did not have the funds to build the garage and they wanted it included in the permit in case they were to get it uh and the previous site plan labeled uh the garage area of the proposed house as future garage um and then uh not long after the last hearing uh with the amended order of conditions uh they uh came back and said actually we'd like to uh keep the garage on the plans and so uh that's that's essentially the the gist of it nothing else has has changed U may I share my screen yes all right hold on one second here to do that uh H here's button that larger okay so uh the previously approved plan I'm going to click to that right now uh can everybody see this screen yeah okay wonderful uh uh I'll zoom in a little bit um just a little more legible uh this area labeled future garage um that was uh discussed and and uh included in the amended order of conditions as as to just be an extension of the gravel driveway uh the uh uh owners would like to make this not future but uh part of the the uh new uh residents and uh so I sent uh earlier today we submitted uh this plan which is which is the The Identical plan except uh the one change is the word uh the label here is is garage versus future garage and just for uh uh kind of clarification we just in you know extended the the color hatch to show that it's it's part of the uh residence otherwise um uh nothing in the site plan aside from that label change it uh has occurred um in the uh amended order of conditions document itself um uh we wanted to request uh just this is the minor administrative change was uh the word Garage in the findings of fact f1a uh the sentence reads uh changing the layout in footprint of the house including removal of the garage storage room retaining and retaining wall on the north side of the building an addition of a raised deck on Piers on the southwest corner of the building uh these changes decrease the overall footprint of the house the former garage will now be part of the gravel driveway we simply request that you uh remove the first uh uh mention of the garage so that it would say including removal of the storage room instead of uh the garage since they want to they want to keep that as as part of the uh U uh new uh residence the new dwelling and then the very last sentence this says a former garage will now be part of the gravel driveway to Omit that sentence in this amended order of conditions um and then on uh I think it's f13 or 14 it refers to a uh plan it's f-13 G simply refers to uh the site plan and uh just wanted to request that it simply refer to this revised site plan with this new call out to S garage but otherwise that that is the um uh minor administrative uh change request we wanted to make today okay great thanks for presenting sure of course I have no uh concerns or questions to any of the other Commissioners nope NOP okay um Doug can you stop sharing absolutely thank you there now I can see people um okay if there's if there aren't any uh questions or anything then um we just need a motion to approve and issue the administrative uh approval what we're calling it yeah administrative approval for the change to the actual to the plan and the change to the amended order of conditions as stated so motion second second all right con hi Douglas hi Rowan hi and Wilson hi all right so well I'll put together um an administrative approval which is really just a letter stating those things which then will go to you and go to D um wonderful that's basically how that works so wonderful well thank you all for your time appreciate this very much thank you all right take care well that was easy all right yeah I thought last night's meeting went pretty well I thought it was so great if Mariam and Janice to put that much work into the regulations uh for all the time we've spent on the first round of rags and the Violet it's just amazing there's still so much to kind of work through and talk about I know a lot of work and but I was I too was very appreciative of all the work that they have put into it to make it U to frame up the conversation yeah me too yeah I think I mentioned last night that um at our next meeting Donna MC McNichol is Gonna Come and um just go through the um attorney General's comments which were pretty minimal but just to just to get her sort of almost like approval of of those would be great time is it 723 so Madam chairman it's Penny here um since we're not an official public hearing can we go ahead and present um our information for the library hey do you want to wait till 7:30 yes you can I'm fine I think I'm I'm fine with that that sounds great I'm frantically packing to catch a plane early tomorrow morning so I'd um I love spending time with you guys I've got a Computing interest tonight so uh have a couple of updates for everyone uh the contract for construction of the library has been signed and construction Yahoo uh construction will likely start sometime in July and we've scheduled Maryann has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday August 2nd if any of you can come we'd love to have you there oh very nice yeah um and then so as once again as the commission required in the order of conditions for the library construction notice of intent um we submitted a trash and debris plan which we have completed I think everyone saw the lovely pictures of of the remarkable amount of stuff we found and this is after many truckloads have been hauled away previously so I'm sure I'm sure impressive I know I'm sure we'll find more and we'll keep looking and we'll keep caring it away but um that felt like a real Milestone to get that done and then for the invasive species plan which you guys okayed at the last meeting um step one has been complete Brian colerin came last week and um sprayed I think it's aquanite on the plants that um we talked about and um we will start hand pulling things soon um one interesting thing regarding the um construction project is once the contractor begins we don't really have access to the area within the limit of work so we'll have to see how that all goes um and that brings us to the two things we're here to talk about tonight we have the plant list which I presented to you and I thought hopefully that is fairly quick we can just um talk about that I don't if people have opinions things they'd love to see on there plants they don't love um you know we're open to suggestions yeah sure I I I think I looked at it and thought it looked great but if you want did you want to share the list uh well I I'm not very good at sharing um but I can try I have it up here on my screen if you give me sharability Carrie can you give her sharability yes I think I made her a co-host if there's any troubles I can probably share it if needed uh where is it there it is can you see it yeah maybe you're seeing it's funny I can't see it on my screen is it not sharing properly it's what I see is a list of it says tree tree species and common name but then yeah everything to the right I can't see anything else but but that's that's all yeah I don't know why I can't move anything around right now um there is that better oh yep yep okay so um you know there are some pretty cool trees in there um you know Lura dendrin is uh the Tulip popular as a tree that I love so I was happy to see that that was added by the landscape architect and the others are all things that are I I imagine pretty common to you um the shrubs um you know it's a of shrubs that like wetter conditions and drier conditions um several rad dendrons there'll be a sort of a hedge a screening hedge of rododendron Maxima along the East Boundary to screen the a butter on that side um and then the herbaceous plants there are many on the list um and I mean we can talk about them or you can just sorry [Music] um that looks great I love Joe pie weed I love Joe pie weed too and uh I was gonna say the same thing I was happy to see that I didn't know about any of the milke weeds I don't think I don't think we're planed well I think we're scheduled to plant [Music] um uh sorry oh I thought I think we will likely put in um oh gosh I'm blanking on the name the orange perennial milkweed around the building other things will be replanted in the field as time goes on so there'll be they won't be landscape plants right around the building but they will be present on the site once um work is complete yeah that's great they can always be I mean be a great thing for kids or other folks to to raise those and plant them later on but I thought your list looked great good okay me too well I'm excited about it you know I've been growing native plants in my yard for a long long time so I'm uh excited to see how the Landscaping on this site turns out with all native plants that should be fun definitely I wish I could start over with my yard and have a list like this well so don't we all I mean you know we all know so much more now than we did when we started yeah starting new is always kind of fun yeah so so um I will stop sharing that um and then the long-term long the Landscaping long-term maintenance plan just as a reminder this um in the special order the special condition the commission requested that the plan include maintenance methods replacement of dead and unsuccessful plantings and who will do mainten maintenance work and frequency and I will tell you that the plan was put together by the landscape architect and um I think it includes a lot of things that perhaps you're not that interested in um things like when you mow um you know mow at 180 degree or in in a a different direction each time you mow um there's a lot of information in there like that um that are important to a landscape architect but maybe not so important to the commission [Music] um I think the things that are more significant are um just sort of the the plan of how things will be installed and how they will be maintained over the long term and um the landscape architect wrote the portion on how the metals will be maintained and I'm interested in your feedback on that um it's actually a hard thing to do to install a meadow so starting with a raw surface like we have I think will be um uh a good way to do it I don't know if you've read through that and you have any thoughts about what they have proposed nope guilty well do you want do you want to share do you have that on your computer well it's it's nine pages not that long I should have read it I feel I mean it's it's um yeah I'll try yeah I have it just a second let me or if you want to just sort of summarize um because you're right what I mean what we're really concerned about is that there sort of is a plan um for for it to be m mained over time and and and it's a plan that that people can do you know because I guess who's going to do it and and what's the schedule for being done and and who's going to do it can actually do what this landscape architect is saying you know is it is it more complicated than just the average librarian can do well I think I think uh we actually talked with them a lot because I think I shared that concern I in particular shared that concern and um things were modified some to um to address that so the contractor will install all of the seated areas and that includes the the tiny bit of lawn right around the building maybe um Carrie do you have the plan handy the Landscaping one right the landscape maintenance plan yeah I should be able to bring that up if you could bring that up and maybe go um to page nine which is uh the drawing the site plan that shows the different areas sorry I use my space bar to unmute but that's not helping me at the moment um let me see if I can make it single page and then nine yeah and unfortunately nine seems to be a larger format page than everything else so well oh there it is okay so you can see the building and the driveway and then there's the area that is sort of um brownish gold colored is the ray septic system and the blue areas are the storm water basins and then that sort of um lime green area surrounding everything is what's called a low Meadow mix and I think it's a mix of fescues it's meant to be something that uh doesn't require a lot of Maintenance um and it's meant it's designed to be mowed only once or twice a year although if you read the plan carefully they talk about how in the first year or two is everything's getting established it requires a little bit of uh mowing to get it started um and we have talked with the highway department well let me step back and say the contractor is installing all of those areas that are seated and those are the ones we just talked about um the dark green area at the very bottom of the page is the um restored Wetland and that's outside the limit of work and it's been seated and is growing is and is not really part of um this plan other than that it will be mow once a year not the Wetland itself but the buffer zone around it um the the areas that are brown are a mixture of shrubs and perennials um the from the list that we l just looked at and then the little tiny green areas are lawn and that will be maintained and cut regularly um as a place to have programs for kids and um maybe outdoor Story Time things like that and each one of these areas is maintained a little bit differently particularly in the beginning when they're getting started u the contractor will seed all of this all of the seated areas the highway department after and they're responsible for keeping it live for the alive for the first year the town takes over responsibility after that um most of these and they will I understand bring in some sort of temporary irrigation system after it seated to make sure that it stays alive and then that will leave after the first year and we will be responsible for all watering after that and there's um there are water spigots and three different locations on the building and we'll we'll have to do hand watering after that starts um and I don't know if you can see on the plan there are lots of little gray circles those are trees or shrubs that are dotted throughout the site and again um the the contractor will install all of the trees that are on the outer edges of the area that's seated so that um those will go in with by the time the building is complete and they are responsible for keeping those plants watered and alive for the first year and then the town takes over responsibility for keeping them alive after that and also for watering them um after the building is complete the town and that's a group of volunteers with the assistance of the highway department will plant all the perennials and shrubs in the dark brown areas around the building and in the turnaround for the driveway and volunteers will take care of those in the same way that a group of volunteers takes care of the plantings at Town Hall the existing library and in front of the highway department BM so we're pretty well organized at doing that and I've been part of that group for the past I don't know 14 years so some of us are going to age out at some point but we're good for a few more years um and I mean that's really the Crux of it okay so um when is construction starting so you said the contract you the ribbon cutting is August 2nd I'm just wondering well when the when some of the plantings would be going in and then they'd have a year of they won't go in until well I don't know Maryann do you know the sequence of work right so I think the the plantings so there so there the first order of business is to going to be to get the building um you know the slab foundation in and then the building the exterior of the building done so that they can work on it in the winter um then the Landscaping will be done after that so I would think that seeding and any planting that the contractor is responsible for will be done next spring um so construction so so we've we have a signed contract with the contractor now they're working on getting the building permit and then we expect them to sort of mobilize by the middle of July um but it may not that may not mean that you actually see things happening at the site it might be us having a bunch of meetings um but but we will have started um and then the the ground baking ceremony is August 2nd and that's just that's a symbolic thing that doesn't really you know other than us sort of each putting a shovel into the ground it's really more of a symbolic thing it's not we're not going to accomplish anything that day other than um you know other than have a little party right and you know it's a time to thank our Representatives um who have supported this and the mblc who has supported this project and the architect and etc etc and all the people in town and all the people in town who have supported it in many ways yes so you know that's sort of what I thought Maran that it would likely be next spring um right before um any seeds go in or any trees go in right Scott yeah thanks and thanks I for for presenting all that I was wondering on the for the the meadow the grasses that you looking to to establish there and you have the no mo Fescue and then you have the warm season plantings and you make reference to mowing those and I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on what your plans are for mowing I I didn't see that in there it said that the the no mo Fescue would be mowed three times a year and um but I didn't see anything else about your your plan for the rest of that uh I think there is more information well the the the turf area near the building as I said will be mowed pretty regularly the warm season Meadow which is the uh septic area let's see um it says the desired effect is to allow these species to grow to a mature height of two to three feet um they'll M the grasses the grass species planted will mature in the second growing season uh they usually don't start growth until late spring um okay U my understanding is this would be modowe once a year and typically they're mode in the fall um I think what I wrote for long-term Meadow management Mowing and that really includes all of them this is the highway department will mow The Meadows in either late November or mid April depending on favorable conditions and in my mind that is dry soil uh that is can be driven on without any compaction I know the commission has sometimes specified mowing in the winter but I feel it's unreasonable to ask the highway department to mow in the winter when they're all geared up to plow I think I think their time is much more available in the fall um from being out on the site this year I think mowing in the spring is a challenge because it was wet until I don't know maryan may um I don't think you know I don't think I would have wanted to drive uh a riding mower or the tractor mower out there most of the spring I think I think the conditions for mowing in general are much better in the fall I would say if they weren't suitable in the fall then you would do it in the spring at the earliest time that you could do it without damaging the soil think the uh in looking at that and I I I do I like the idea of dormant seating I I know um we actually had some of the best results seating just over we used to broadcast seed over the snow and um in the late late winter early spring and the challenge is trying to get those seeds and you know very shallow so that they actually germinate um I I do think just for consideration you know annual mowing is I I I don't know if that would be the best to to establish those warm season grasses I think uh when you especially when you're mowing in the fall you're disrupting the the ability of the plant to reive itself and uh so I and I didn't see that and I did see that it might be mod in the fall but I didn't know if that was planned every year so I in general I think less mowing is better yeah I don't I I take issue with you on that Scot you know I've managed a field uh on our property for 30 years now and um it's amazing how many trees we mow down every year I yeah I would agree with you in terms of setting back succession um it's important to to be able to mow it I'm just saying if part of City back sucession is establishing what you want there uh which is just as or maybe more important than trying to get rid of what you don't want and so I'm I I have some experience managing grass lands as well um I just pointing out there the annual mowing I think you're likely to get more invasives and weeds and and Pro I think you'll maybe be disappointed with those results so when just for clarification Scott when you're talking about this so what we've been talking about so far is the the more managed area that is currently depicted as within the limit of work is that what you're talking about or you talking about the broader field area I'm talking about your warm season your ground area Okay so the warm seasoned grass is over the septic system and my understanding is that you need to mow it annually as part of Maintenance of a septic system a raised septic system site that I can see not having woody woody vegetation on your annual on your septic system I don't know if annual mowing is required there or not um I'm just telling and and I don't know the answer to that I can only tell you what I was told when I inquired about that um from the landscape architect I mean I can I can ask again about that but um and see if I can find out more information yeah I just I mean generally speaking especially in the Wetland areas to yeah but this is not the Wetland this is part of it's in the buffer zone part of it's in the Upland right y so I'm I guess I would be referring to the jurisdictional buffer areas where I think some of the the seing of the grassland was mitigation for impacts right area just saying less less disturbance is a good thing okay well we should talk more about that because that's uh you may know more about this than I do um I will say from looking at the meadow now the invasive plants in the past three years since it has not been mowed have spread dramatically so there's Bittersweet throughout that field at this point and multiflor row and um burning bush and a number of other things that I don't recall from long ago um you know five years ago so I I don't you know I'm I'm no expert here I don't have a definitive answer I'm just telling you what my personal observation has been over the the handful of years that I've been spending a lot of time on that site um so other questions I will I will inquire Scott of the Landscape Architects and see what they have to say about mowing I'm I'm thinking about um I think the storm water basins have to be mowed every year to keep them um functioning properly and I my understanding is the mix of grasses they suggesting for this low Meadow area which is sort of the PE green color are recommended to be moan annually as well but I will ask more I see Bob has his hand up and it looks like you're driving it's a it's a simulator don't worry um you know obiously you said they they they've come up and grown and uh I just wondered uh what component of that uh uh you have you have the contractors at first and then the the town is taking it over uh what is the plan for monitoring and taking care of the invasive plants well um I I think that is included within the invasive plant plan that we provided already I mean we will do long-term okay um and honestly I when construction begins um some of those big clumps of trees that are coming out are full of Bittersweet in particular but um glossy Buckthorn is in there and um a variety of other things so those multi Rose yeah multiflor Rose so those will Barberry at least leave the site temporarily we'll see what happens over the Long Haul but I think it's going to be an ongoing um effort to keep things at Bay yeah I it seems to me the combination of the maintenance plan thank with the with the invasive species plan um kind of kind of covers it in terms of of you know know having having it be kept in good condition I think it's going to be great I like that for for pesticides you've got use of chemical controls within the ore will be reviewed and approved by the Conservation Commission um so if that ever comes up it would have to come back to us right I I mean I that's very different than what the landscape architect stated in the original document um so uh I pulled back a lot on that I mean and that's the kind of thing you'd have to hire someone to do anyway aren't most pesticides yeah I think our Highway Department superintendent has a pesticide or is he had a pesticide license I think he's in the process of renewing that so he could do that um but hopefully it won't come to that I mean hopefully with what we have done initially and and you know volunteer digging and pulling hopefully we can manage things without any more pesticides that would be my preference I think everyone's preference yeah oh definitely and even the the U the liquid fertilizer the chemical fertilizers if we can limit all any of that would be limiting all of that is great yes well I and again that was um that was the words of the landscape architect and I I expect that we won't really be doing much of that and the commission could say we won't as far as I'm concerned uh and I'm trying to remember the we can look back at the order of conditions and see what I remember I remember we we we kind of made twe those you did you did make some comments about that um and I'd have to go back and look at that again I know I looked at that when I was making some Visions in this plan um to try and make it more in line with the statement that you had in the order of conditions yeah I just can't recall exactly what it said I feel like we referred to the eventual um uh invasive management plan that would be coming we sort of said you know we would we would approve use of pesticide you we would have to come through the invasive management plan and the m plan I think was what we said I think the the modifications as I recall I think originally they were drafted that they would prohibit the use of any herbicides within the resource areas and we modify that to allow for the use of herbicides in accordance with the invasive species management plan for the reasons P that you had talked about with I mean there are a lot of invasives there um so not to tie the hands you know of of you all as managers be able to use a more of an integrated Pest Management approach to addressing them yeah I think when we went over the invasive management plan we we definitely were okay with using those kind of chemicals with the invasives because it's it's the only way to get to really get rid of them but sort of in the general mainten of all these other areas if we can really try and and limit it and not I think that that is our intent and I think at least I tried to modify the language in here yeah you did to reflect that um which that isn't how it was stated when the original plan was provided to us and it's how we manage our own properties you know like we don't uh well we don't I don't use herbicides at my house at all um and um like never once and and we we might you know very judiciously use some fertilizers on certain plants but they're organic fertilizers but on this it's you know it's it's so much of it is so close to that resource area and and that's not we're not kind of going for that kind of look where we're going to we want a certain Bush to flower right like in those the way that we used to Garden um and uh and this is going to be we're we're our goal is a sort of a more natural setting it's sh Berry it's got a right right right I think the fact that all the plants that are being put in are native plants means you don't even need those things right right right in general yeah all right well it all looks it looks good to me um then oh sorry Penny were you were you still presenting no no um um so Scott it sounds like you would like me to ask a few more questions maybe it would be helpful if you would email me what those are just to make sure I ask what your you want to know I I think what I was just asking about I couldn't tell what the mowing regime was going to be I think what I heard from you penny is it's going to be annual that the the whole site would be mowed at least annually the turf areas are being mowed more frequently but your the rest of the metal and the worm season area would be mowed every year right eventually I think I if if I remember correctly there's a fairly lengthy description in there about mowing the let me find it again uh are you looking for mowing the um I just had it the meadow mowing page seven on page seven it talks about uh mowing the meadow and this is about the new Meadow that's being installed that we're talking about mowing the meadow is an important management practice during the first growing year um mowing favors perennial Meadow species over annual weeds the first mowing should start when the tallest grass is 12 in likely mid June mow to a height of 6 in to cut actual weed flowers heads seed heads uh continue mowing into October this is the first year and then um refrain from mowing uh after October until the next year and after that I think it goes onto an annual schedule but I guess there's some art to getting um the plants you want established in that first year at least according to the landscape architect yes I would definitely agree with that I I think um what I'm understanding from you is that that after they're established you're going to be mowing every year I think my only comment on that is I I just encourage you to to think about a less frequent mowing schedule and if you are going to be mowing to really think about you know for the invasive piece of it you know the sterilization of the of the mowing equipment when it's coming through and how you're mowing it because that can be actually a a bigger source of spreading invasives than actually controlling invasives well that's interesting yeah I hadn't I mean I thought about that with regard to knotweed uh yes yeah you and I talked about that but I could give you lots of papers and studies on that but there's um how things are mowed a lot of times the equipment itself is you know you're you're exposing soil and you're spreading seeds and you know think about it that's I I understand the reason like it makes us feel good because it knocks all that stuff down but it it actually can make it worse okay I'd be I'd actually be interested if you could send me some information on that sure and then we could see once we get rid of that bittersweet um that has really taken over that Meadow along the stone wall um uh and then we're planning to plant to put plugs in um of you know of appropriate Wetland wild flowers but I think it actually calls for a mix doesn't it um it calls for a mix ofland and up was mix of both Upland and Wetland right right and um and you know and then and then we'll monitor it and it's going to be um kind of like a you know I think there are a lot of people very interested in this and it's going to be um a hobby you know and like yesterday there were three of us who worked on the little the restoration that we did on the east side of the property on on um enhancing that and uh and it was you know put plants in this time we put seed too um but we put plants in and and so I think it's going to be that same kind of thing and then we'll monitor it and see how it goes and um and and really the goal is going to be to really drastically reduce that Bittersweet up front there um because if we don't then it's just going to be Bittersweet um and so it's we have to get it out of there which we have a plan and then replace it with plugs and a lot of them so like hundreds right Penny like I think what we specified was um three flats and each 50 plants of what plugs and three Flats of Upland plugs yeah 200 plants yeah fine well maybe by next spring I'll have more time and I can help you that would be fun that would be a lot of fun it would be about um putting the plugs in the in bbw1 this year but I think we would be much better off putting them in in early spring next year when we have um subdued the the invasives out there and before the grasses get Too Tall it's almost impossible to walk out there right now you know the the grasses are up to your chest so and the Bittersweet is up to your chest the Bittersweet is over your head yes yes so do you guys feel like you have what you need to sign off on the building permit um I know we were required to submit these three plans it sounds like we may want to discuss a little bit more long-term mowing on this um which of course we are happy to do yeah I'm um you know I'm good with approving this maintenance plan with sort of a agreement that you're going to change that mowing after um looking into it a little bit and talking I guess with Scott maybe a little bit um we already approved the invasive right ises management plan um tonight we can we can just Pro approve the native plant list sure and I so I think then everything has been submitted and approved under the order of conditions that needed to be prior to approving a building permit right although you're you did specify submitting plans not approving plans in the order so but I think they're all approved anyway well if you if they approve this one they approved this one right right then you've submitted everything right yep yeah so then yeah so so you guys are yeah you're GNA be getting your building permit into the system to be approved by everybody yeah that's so exciting yeah so Marana I don't know what the timeline is I'm thinking it's by the end of this month that it may be yeah soon soon yes yeah yeah that's great yes yeah I I um I right now I'm I'm happy to approve these things tonight and then I can take another look at the order of conditions and let you guys know if there's anything else that we would still need before um basically saying that everything that was required under the order to be submitted prior to construction is there and then we can approve the building permit so I'll take a look at that it' be great if you could do that perhaps within the next week or so absolutely in your all your free time you have no idea my life is so insane um all right so do any Commissioners have any other um comments or questions or do we feel like we're ready to approve the maintenance plan yes I move to approve the maintenance plan all right second I'll second second all right so I guess we're approving it with the thought that Penny's going to look a little bit into the mowing question and and maybe make an adjustment but we're will send me some information to help with that okay great all right um Douglas hi con Rowan hi and Wilson I all right thank you thanks for working through all of this uh with us it's uh exciting to be at this point it is and thank you for putting all the plans together because I think in the end it makes it a better project yeah it does it does I think we're all gonna be very proud of the Landscaping it's going to look you know instead of you know I don't know just there's it's just such a mosh of you know that that that Grove of Christmas trees that are all grown together that you know at one point looked nice but now look terrible and it's just going to be beautiful you know and then there's so much Bittersweet and that's all going to be gone and um there's going to be a beautiful building with a little bit of nice grounds around it and then a beautiful Meadow and I I think we're going to be thrilled so yeah and then then knowing that it's you know stre spr doesn't have that many buildings to maintain Landscaping on I think this one is one that for years and years everybody's GNA maintain it and a very nice way right and the highway department does maintain the um you know they maintain all of the the like the the town common and the the area around town hall although there's a lot of invasives there now too um so um but we're but we have this awareness and this intention of at least reducing the invasives there and keeping it that way and having it be just something we can all focus on together and sort of the beginning of that because there are invasives all over town that we could really be going after and some of us are actually going after so um you might be hearing more about that too well great that all sounds good okay thank you all okay thank you okay all right good night so much all right all right item number four is 70 Lake Drive um noi D file 286 0306 and this is a continuation of a public hearing and I see Mark you guys hear me yeah so um I guess so I can I can tell people that we did a site visit oh Bob you have your hand up yes Madam chair I'd like to refuse myself as I'm a director butter of the project all right okay thanks um Jan and I uh did a site visit last week out to see the site and Jan do you w to um provide a little summary of the site visit yeah Mark showed us around it's a pretty um clean straightforward project um it only requires a couple what maybe four helical piles to be drilled to support the deck uh and the deck conversion to a mudroom and a and it's a fairly simple extension on the deck it's all uh it's pretty straightforward it is um and I think so Scott did you you were not here for last week's meeting um I I wasn't but I did watch the video so I up to speed you did okay because yeah I think Mark Marky gave a pretty good presentation of the entire project last week we looked at the plans and everything um I don't know Mark do you want to just do a quick summary again of it all just to refresh our minds a little bit you don't have to go through everything but so if I can get this right I'll do a start screening share uh say share can you is that visible yep yep okay so we have here is the is an existing deck and the this is the house this is the deck here and here uh set of stairs going down to the to the you know the lower level um so what we're trying to do is make the house more handicap accessible currently the house doesn't have any three-foot doors to get into it uh and so we're trying to add a a three-foot door into a mud room which will be on the same level as the existing house and at the same time add a porch on the same level as the existing house um uh the stairs will be removed and so basically we're going to just you know Square this whole section off here um we're going to put in three helical piles here and one helical pile at this point we're going to reuse the piles the existing concrete piles that are supporting the stairs um uh and some of the patio or some of the some of the the porch area or the deck area here um uh beneath the deck is a um um you can see it right here in the outline is a gion stone patio that won't be dis Disturbed um that takes that takes will take care of most of the water coming off the roof uh because it's effectively you know it's got a foot of gravel below it and effectively it's a dry well um we also o have a a dry well out in this area so any additional water that comes off the gutters will go down in here and some water that comes off the mudro here we go will go under be routed onto this grassy area here so which is all in place nothing's got to change um that's kind of bit in a nutshell we'll put a Sil fence in here although it's you know there's there's almost going to be no ground dist because we're using the helical piles which will just be drilled in um that's it the nutshell any questions thanks um I don't have any questions I I think I may have asked something at the last meeting so I'm fine um Jan or Scott do you guys have any questions no I don't do was pretty straightforward yeah it does I think Mark you ins said equipment would most likely be driving around in front yeah there's a I have a it depends on the size of the equipment we have a 4 foot fence over here that they can go through uh and we or we have an 8ot fence um on this side that they can literally go down and drive around and come up over all you know well established Lawns uh or grass and uh so they're you know they should there should be I don't think there be any disturbance at all of any of the activ um of any of the grass areas here um and the sil F will take care of anything that comes up here which again should be minimal okay all right well it it sound it sounds sounds good to me um all right so if there's no other questions I suppose are there any questions from the public and Mark can you um stop sharing okay I can see the if there's there really isn't any public at the meeting anyway so but Bob has his hands up Bob sure I'd like to comment as a member of the public uh the um uh the construction techniques seem to be very sound uh helical peers is the minimum of digging uh the uh DP has is currently under regulation changes to make it easier to put handicap accessibility into public spaces so I think this is not a public space but entirely consistent with uh the kind of work so as a as a resident I support the project thank you all right if there are no more comments from the commission or the public I'll take a motion to close the public hearing so motion second second all right um Rowan hi con hi and Wilson I all right so um so Mark we need to put together the order conditions which I think I'll I'll put that together and and bring it to the next meeting um and if you can come to the next meeting which is July 11 we'll just quickly go through that order conditions um and issue it most issue it definitely at that meeting if that works okay sounds good okay great thank you thanks for presenting all right thank you all appreciate it all right have a good night you too all right next on our agenda is to talk a little bit more about the the bylaw and the regulations um after our big meeting last night um I guess my thought is that yeah we should just keep going with it and I this is just one potential plan would be that you know right now we divide it up um by section and then and kind of review it in sections and I was thinking the first section and the third section right now which is the introduction and where's my sorry introduction and the general Provisions so skipping definitions at this point so I was thinking if between now um and our next meeting if people would would want to go through those two sections so it's article one and article three and then I guess I pose the question to you guys do you want to kind of have little discussions built into our regular meetings as long as our meetings aren't really long like say all of a sudden we have a meeting where we have three nois coming or something then maybe at that meeting we we don't in include it in the agenda or even if it's on the agenda we just don't talk about it that night it could it could just be something that's just continually on our agendas for a while um and so like the meeting on July 11th we when we get to that point it' always be kind of at the bottom of the agenda we just talk as a group about those two sections article one and article three and talk about what people's concerns are about them and um does that sound like a way to approach it Bob yeah speaking just for myself I think that's a good way to approach it uh sometimes when you dig into the regulations over a long period of time it's easy to get burnt out on them so I think that that might be a way to keep them fresh yeah I think we should dig into them right away while they're kind of on people's minds um but at the same time I I don't want us to all of a sudden like go through the whole 90 page thing all at once either you know I think dividing it into sections like that makes it more digestible for everybody and everybody's busy you know um I like the sound of that I like a lot um the only thing that I would request is that maybe you send us all whatever version we're going to start with right yeah I haven't um Miriam has I mean we just talked to her last night so I'm assuming she's going to send me kind of this final version from last night's few changes that we made hopefully um I would hope by the beginning of next week um yeah I'll get that to you guys and then I mean do you guys think doing articles and article three is doable by next meeting article one is actually relatively short it's kind of the introduction and it just covers jurisdiction and that kind of thing and then article three is a little bit longer but it's not huge yeah yeah Scott what do you think I like that approach of doing it and I'm chunking it up so that sounds good to me okay great great yeah and I think it'll be able to fit into our regular meetings for a bit if it starts getting where we're just not talking about it because our meetings are so long then maybe we actually set up special working meetings you know in addition to our our regular ones just to just to get through it and get it get it done I mean in the end we've we've all put a lot into this even before now um um so there really shouldn't be too much left to kind of clean up a little bit you know so great well that sounds like a plan I like that plan I can't wait to get them just approved and so we have our working bylaw and working regulations kind of on the books um so that's all I had on that I thought last night went pretty well I thought it was it was it was good um all right and for site visits and scheduling I don't think Carrie we don't have any new um any any new applications coming that we need to do site visits before July 11th no but um I think in a recent email we received a um building permit for nine Birch Street Road I can't remember what it's called but um actually the uh homeowner did call me right before I left asking um what the practice is for that and I informed him that I would inform the commission tonight at their meeting that he has um building permit that he was looking to get signed and um that I would assume that you would need to do a site visit in order to sign off yeah let me take a look at it sometimes so I usually go in and look at those uh building permit things in the building in that whole system where you can go in and look and there's usually site plans and things in there already so I will look in into it and see and if we need to do one I'll let Jan know thank you um so that might be our only site visit between now and then we we kind of things have slowed down a little bit I think our July 11th meeting is going to be quiet which is very nice I like quiet um all right so I don't have anything else does anybody else have anything do we keep track of any projects as they're going along um you mean projects that have been permitted yeah do we wait until the the owner contacts us again before we go and have another look for any reason um it kind of depends on the project um if it's a project for example like the Culvert under lock Pond Road when that was going on we did a number of construction site um site visits Miriam mostly did a lot of them um to you know just to because larger projects like that have many more issues with erosion control um and you want to and you do want to do more site visits um so I think it's kind of project dependent almost there's obviously the initial inspection of erosion control um you know I guess that's kind of it's you just kind of have to well for example I'm wondering about Dudleyville do they do they press the launch button and then we know they're doing stuff or yeah they'll let us know so I haven't finished that emergency sht yet I've started working on it um I'm hoping to get it to them like the beginning of next week they already I reached out to them and said that it's a big ask to for an emergency SE for that kind of a thing and uh so they understand why it's taking a little longer to kind of put it together um but I mean yeah certainly so any any project it's written in the order of conditions that before any construction can start erosion control has to be installed and we have to inspect it so you know the project really can't start until we come and and inspect where the erosion control is and that it's been installed appropriately so that's kind of how we get contacted about the beginnings of projects okay that's a good example though of a project that I feel like we would want to visit a few times during construction and it's a short yeah short season there for them okay right and they are supposedly gonna do it really quickly um guess that makes it easier for us because we go out during that month that they're supposed to complete everything go out a few times um yeah so does that answer your question yeah okay Carrie another thing I was going to add is that um so typically yeah like the land owners should reach out um but if it's been kind of like quiet um that Excel sheet that I made keeps track of when um permits expire so if you happen to look at it and notice that oh that this expired you or about to expire and you haven't heard anything you could always Reach Out as well yeah I mean I I that would be something I hope that um the new land use clerk you know we can work with with him on those spreadsheets that car's created and once he gets a little familiar with the Wetland protection act and our our regulations that's the kind of thing would be great for him to take note of is just every now and then look and see oh there's an order of conditions that's about to expire and it doesn't even look like you know anything's been done than reaching out to the applicant yeah yeah um all right well if there's nothing else is there a motion to adjourn I would like to make a motion to a Jordan there you go second my second okay Douglas hi con Hi and marowan hi and Wilson hi all right thanks everyone thank you we'll see you in a couple weeks thanks good night everybody good night good night