Washington Conservation Commission

Minutes – April 20, 2022

Assembly time: 7:00 PM, Meeting at Town Hall.

Members present: Arin Mills, Jed Schwartz, Nan Schwartz

Visitors: Tim Ferwerda

1.0 Approval of Minutes: tabled to next month.

2.0 Permits Committee –

New:

Habashian, TM 24-64, 18 Lookout Point, Expedited wetlands permit

Voisine, TM 24-108-1, 126 Cove Rd, PBN for dock anchoring pad, also required to do a restoration plan for cutting trees in the waterfront zone.

Previous:

Stubbs, TM 20-182, Beaver Brook Road, Expedited Wetlands Permit application, under technical review as a standard wetland permit.

LaPlume, 23 Harrison Road, Wetland PBN, incomplete application

Barkie, TM25-116, 1681 Valley Road, reported violation, construction of 2 garages and altered an existing structure in protected shoreline.

Town of Washington, Camp Morgan Beach, Millen Pond Road, Standard Dredge and Fill permit application, beach sand replenishment project, permit approved.

Mensh, 38 Lookout Point Rd., TM 24-59, Shoreland PBN, Impact 1392 square feet of protected shoreland in order to raze existing 1016 square foot cottage and build a new 1016 square foot cottage on existing footprint, permit accepted.

*Cote, TM 24-58, 46 Lookout Point Road, installation of dock without a permit.

*Johnson/Kimball – Notice of complaint, dredging in Highland Lake, TM 25-93, letter of deficiency and steps to mitigate. Incomplete PBN for dock.

*Colette - Complaint of violations, TM 12-69, over clearing of waterfront zone, no follow up yet

Longval – Arin will speak with the BoS about this lot.

* these are complaints with no follow up by DES, we are waiting for more information.

3.0 Committee and Board reports:

3.1 Land Protection Committee – Jed has spoken to Brian Hotz (SPNHF) and his assistant and has arranged a hike of the property for April 29^th at 3pm. He has also spoken with Millen Pond Assoc. president to keep them informed of progress. Arin will attend and wants to hike the snow mobile trail and look at the warming hut.

3.2 Energy Committee – They have not been meeting but Andrew has gotten an audit done on Camp Morgan Lodge and is meeting with Arin about the School.

3.3 Planning Board – No new news.

3.4 Forestry Committee – They haven’t met but Jed spoke with Steve Hanssen about a proposed cut of ash trees on the Camp Morgan Town Forest property. Jed was concerned that a decision would be made outside of the groups that should be involved with the decision making. We discussed a meeting with CC, Forestry Committee members, Anita Blakman (Town Forester) and the BoS to discuss. Jed will speak with the BoS about it.

3.5 Legislative update – No news.

4.0 Public Presentations and workshops:

4.1 Nature hike with WES kids – Arin said we are scheduled to do this on April 22^nd (Earth Day) and will meet at the school at 8:30am. Jed informed Arin that he is unable to go on the hike. We will talk to Kelli about taking a hike behind the school sometime next month.

5.0 New Business:

5.1 Tim Ferwerda – Tim came in to speak with us about two permits he is submitting to DES for approval. The first is an expedited wetlands permit for Habashian, TM 24-64 at 18 Lookout Point. They want approval to build a retaining wall near the waterfront and add a perched sandy beach. They want to add a boardwalk along the left side of the existing house connecting 2 existing decks and rebuild a small shed on the side boundary line. They also want to add a 4’ wide pervious paver walkway to the dock from the deck area. They plan to re-gravel the driveway and parking area. This plan would increase the impervious surface area from 25.5% to 27.6%. Tim stated that the previous owner had a stormwater management plan and there are some gravel filled areas along the drip edge. Arin would like to go out and look at the site before we make a decision on signing the application. We made a plan to go out on Wednesday, April 27^th at 3:30pm and will meet at TH before going out to the site. Tim left the application copies with us and we will let him know the outcome after we look at the site.

The second application is a PBN for a dock anchoring pad for Voisine, TM 24-108-1 at 126 Cove Rd.

Tim explained that Voisine is moving his dock to a better location and wants to add an anchoring pad. There has been a SPN filed for the dock relocation and there is an after-the-fact-plan for restoration of trees previously cut in the waterfront zone. We discussed the issues and okayed Arin to sign off on this permit application for the pad.

5.2 Adopt-a-Highway Trash Pickup – We received a renewal contract for our trash route which Arin signed. We scheduled our first trash pickup for May 15^th at 9:30am. We will meet at the parking area by the Library.

5.3 We received our Land Use Change taxes from the Treasurer and will have her deposit the $4560. into our account. We discussed the process for the billing and issuance of LUCTs.

6.0 Other Business:

6.1 Trails and Recreation Guide Booklet – Jed will have the existing trail map printed at the same time they print the ATV/UTV map.

6.2 East Washington Town Forest – Arin asked that we keep this on the agenda. There was money raised at Town Meeting to do an up-to-date engineering study on the lot to find out how much gravel is on the lot. We reiterated at TM that a reclamation plan will need to be done.

6.3 Facebook Page – Arin said she is continuing to post items when she can. To check out the CC’s Facebook page go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2173271309586226/

6.4 Master Plan goals for 2022 – This is a placeholder.

6.5 Tracking Invasive Plants project – The reporting sheets and guides are always available here: InvasiveProject.html

6.6 ATV/UTV road usage map He has sent a final draft to the BoS for approval to print. Arin had an email from the Dirt Donkeys asking permission to put the final map on their website. Jed will speak with the BoS about it.

6.7 East Washington Town Forest – The BoS are putting together a committee of people to oversee the engineering work to evaluate the property for gravel deposits. Jed thinks they have two people so far.

6.8 Nan mentioned that there is a ZBA hearing on April 27^th at 7pm and they are taking up Le Ellen Chontos’ plan for a house and garage that requires a wetland variance. She came and spoke with us about a plan a few months ago, where we suggested some mitigation that they could incorporate into her plan. We will try to attend and comment if we need to.

7.0 What’s Happening in Nature?

Arin said she and Phil boiled this year with a new rig and about 40 taps, they made about 3 gallons in 3 boiling’s. Jed had a couple of taps out and made about a gallon total in the house. The season is over for everyone and it was an OK year for amounts of syrup produced (better than last year, which was a short season with poor yield).

Jed commented that there have been large numbers of rats and other rodents around this year. It must be a boom year for them. He said that Reid reported seeing a Bald Eagle in East Washington, circling their chicken pen. The chickens were safe and hiding under their house.

Arin has had lots of purple finches at her feeder this year. She said there have been many sightings of foxes around LAE recently.

Arin said the ice is off the lakes and she has heard peepers and wood frogs (first on April 13^th). She said the loons are back in Ashuelot and Millen Ponds as of April 13^th. Shayne saw a Green Heron in the wetland by Rte. 31.

Nan reported seeing lots of turkeys lately with the toms strutting around all puffed up and putting on a good show for the hens.

Arin got a call from Phil during the meeting and he said a big black bear just took down their bird feeder while they watched from the window. It is past time to take your bird feeders down for the season. To learn more about the do’s and don’ts of feeding birds, click here: NewinNature.html

8.0 Correspondence:

8.1 DES Notice of compliance for deficiency for Carney, TM 12-153, 139 Washington Dr.

8.2 DES Notice of complete seasonal dock notifications for Zucker, TM 14-1, 731 Ashuelot Drive, Voisine, TM 24-108-1, 126 Cove Road and Merriam, 108 Cove Road

9.0 Adjourned at 9:05PM, the next meeting is Wednesday, May 18^th at 7PM, at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz, Secretary