Lakes and Waterways Commission

City of Amesbury RECEIVED Lakes and Waterways Commission By Amanda at 9:08 am, 8/27/20 Meeting on June 4, 2020 Location: Remote Meeting through GotoMeeting Meeting Minutes Commission members present: Assistant Chair - Tom Murphy, Matt Chapin, Alex Pooler and Cindy Roberts Communications Director of Amesbury: Caitlin Thayer The meeting began at 6:50 through GotoMeeting 1. The following was read by Tom Murphy: “Pursuant to Governor Baker’s March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, §18, and the Governor’s March 15, 2020 Order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the Lakes & Waterways Committee on June 4, 2020 is being conducted via remote participation. No in- person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort is being made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the Order.” 2. Previous Meeting Minutes: February meeting minutes were unavailable but will be approved at our next meeting. No meetings were held in March, April or May due to covid-19. 3. Engineer’s Report: Peter Manor was not in attendance but provided an update through email. a. All the ponds are roughly at normal pool with just a trickle of flow over the spillways. b. Lake Attitash will receive the 2nd Alum treatment that was part of the project last summer. c. The DPW removed the beaver issue at Fern Ave. but the beavers are probably damning it up again. d. The Lake Gardner Beach Project Contractor will be finishing up the work on the beach. It’s a little early to be getting closer to low flows in the Powwow River so it would be great to get a little rain. 4. Lake Garnder: Work is being completed on the beach nourishment project. 5. Clark’s Pond: a. Dam working well b. DPW is dealing with the beaver dam blocking the Back River at the Fern Ave. Bridge c. Clarks Pond Watershed Association has started to pull weeds. 6. Lake Attitash: a. Weed monitoring is underway. Additional curly leaf pondweed is being found and Eurasian Milfoil is moving into the main lake from back river. Solitude will officially be surveying next week. b. The alum treatment is expected next week to help minimize cyanobacteria blooms. 1  City of Amesbury Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting on June 4, 2020 Location: Remote Meeting through GotoMeeting 7. Merrimac River: John Lopez, Amesbury Conservation Commission agent, requested through Matt Chapin that the Lakes and Waterways Commission write a letter of support for the Pleasant Valley Road MVP Actional Grant Proposal. The Commission agreed to support the project. Tom will write a letter of support and send it to members for any comments and deliver to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. 8. Powow River: Exploring whether the water quality on the Powwow River at the tidal flats below the city center can be tested. Will be discussed at a future meeting. 9. Membership: a. The L&Wcommission is in need of associate members; Caitlyn Thayer will include these openings on the town website. It will be beneficial to have all bodies of water represented. A commission member is invited to take part in the interview process. b. Alex’s membership expires this month and Matt Chapin’s membership already expired. Catilyn said that they will be re-appointed at the City Council meeting on June 9th. c. Tom’s membership expires on June 30, 2021 and Cindy’s membership expires on June 30, 2022. 10. Website: a. Needs some additional updating and clean-up; Alex and Cindy will begin this process b. Descriptions of water bodies in the city need to be updated. 11. Bylaws: Need to be updated and worked on at the next meeting; The plan will be to do this at our next meeting. The Commission would like Bruce’s involvement if possible. 12. Waterbody Assessment: Alex will make formatting changes to the waterbody assessment document. 13. Conservation Commission: It was agreed that a member of the L&W commission will try to attend Conservation Commission meetings when there are topics on the agenda associated with the Amesbury bodies of water. Currently the Conservation Commission agenda lists addresses only of the locations so some review will be needed. Matt Chapin will attend the July meeting. This is exploratory and it will be determined at a later date whether the commission can take on this additional work. 14. Tours of Waterbodies: Tom is going to work with the mayor’s office and the DPW to arrange a tour of the waterbodies. It will be beneficial to also invite the Conservation Commission. The target date is June 18th. Meeting Adjourned: 8:20; Next Meeting June 18, 2020 via GotoMeeting, if the tour does not take place on this date. 2