Lakes and Waterways Commission

City of Amesbury Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting Minutes for 9-17-2020 6:45 PM This meeting will be conducted under the ‘Executive Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law G.L. c.30A, §20’, signed on March 12, 2020. Location: Virtual Zoom Meeting Attendees: Tom Murphy, Cindy Roberts, Matt Chapin, Meghan O’Neill, Peter Manor, Amesbury City Engineer and Caitlin Thayer, Amesbury Communications Director. Minutes Completed by: Meghan O’Neill, Secretary I. Administrative Business Tom murphy read the following to the committee in regards to meetings held in person: “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 9/17/20 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.” A. Call to Order Completed by Tom Murphy, acting chair. B. Provide for Minutes Review of August minutes, completed by Alex Poole. A few additions provided by Cindy to add detail around invasive species cleanup and professional divers at Lake Attitash. Meghan will adjust minutes accordingly and email Caitlin to upload to the website. The minutes only need to be approved by the L&W committee members, not City Clerk, as previously understood. Minutes approved by all. C. Review of Past Minutes (February, August) D. Mode of future meetings Group discussed keeping the meetings remote moving forward. All are in favor of this. Caitlin shared that there has been no pressure from the city to move meetings to in-person. The state of emergency is still in effect and once lifted this may change. Cindy suggested we re-visit if starting a new project. Questions about location of in-person meetings, as previously the DPW has been used instead of city hall, like all other committees. DPW can continue to be used and has been renovated to include new conference space. II. Introduction of New Member: Bernadette Lucas (Lake Gardner) Tom shared that he connected with Bernadette and she will be joining the committee in the next few months- date TBD. Discussion about the need for more members. Bernadette will make 5. May need to look for others, especially someone interested in taking on the chair position, who has the appropriate background. 1 III. Engineer’s Update A. Engineer’s Report Peter updated the group that water is still being used from the treatment plant. The draw down will still be occurring but later in the season due to already low levels. This is typically scheduled for September 15th but is being pushed to November 1st due to being ½ foot lower than past years and what is considered normal. We have had a few rainstorms that have provided very small increases in levels. (2/10”) If we drop another 6” this will put us at a concerning level. There has been no flow coming from NH since mid-July. B. Recent Correspondence IV. Current Business A. Membership Status i. Alex’s resignation: Alex has resigned his position and will be moving out of Amesbury. ii. Meghan as full member: Paul or someone from city hall will be reaching out about full member status and any action items necessary. iii. Contact Jim Babbion: Pete asked if he contacted Jim B., a member of Conservation Committee that may be interested in joining L&W. He has not contacted him yet but will reach out. iv. Status of Chair: Tom is OK to hold acting chair for time being but does not want to hold that position permanently. Tom posed the question to the group about finding people to join and take on a leadership role. Caitlin recommended speaking to Lake Gardner and Lake Attitash Associations to inquire about interest in L&W. B. Review Bylaws - The bylaws state that there should be at least 5 full members; both the harbormaster and a member of ConComm should also be members as well. This is not the case currently. Questions about who the harbormaster currently is and that this is a part time position currently in Amesbury. Should also inquire about interest from any member of ConComm, although concerns about level of involvement for people to be involved in both. Tom stated that there is a lot in the bylaws that the group does not currently do- i.e. harbor management plan. Is this the responsibility of the harbormaster? Does the current plan meet state requirements? If not, need to address with city. This position currently reports into police. - Tom discussed that L&W committee is strictly an advisory board and not an authoritative body like ConComm. Much confusion about the origins of the current bylaws, are they appropriate? Previous leaders were also members of Lake Associations that may have driven the content here. Cindy expressed concerns about extent of responsibilities and the body of work and associated time commitments. - Should we ask the DPW and/or Mayor to help define the role of the committee? What do they expect of our group? Tom posed the question about deciding what we want to do. Meghan asked about how information flows to L&W currently. It comes only from members, not the general public. Information is heard in other forums or committees and passed along. This is how the committee was made aware of lower Powwow kayak ramp that was stopped until water quality testing completed. - Cindy added that there is some accurate language in bylaws- the group truly should be keeping track of, observing and recommending changes to appropriate authoritative bodies. Important to reflect on past projects and respond to requests from external parities. Writing letters in support of grant proposals are also part of the L&W committees’ role. Additionally, Meghan added that L&W 2 should be a forum for community members to express concerns and questions. Tom added that the role is not to “fix anything” but provide guidance and pull others in where necessary. C. Awareness of Conservation Commission Activity Discussion about communities’ awareness of what you should and should not do if you live on or around water. Are people aware they should not fertilize? Should the committee work at better communication and initiatives to educate? Currently DPW and Lake Attitash Association are working to implement barriers to Sargent Farm run off of fertilizer adding too much phosphorus to water and increasing invasive weed growth. Questions about engaging other groups and associations to spread the word. V. Website update efforts A. Website Content Questions about what information should be on the L&W website page. City requires agendas and minutes for past 3 years. Only the agendas go to the clerk at this time for approval, the minutes do not need to. Meghan and Caitlin can both post minutes on the website at this time. Caitlin shared her screen and walked the group through the current L&W page. We need to update the meeting location to ensure it shows “virtual” and points public to agenda with login details. The group would like to clean up the entire left side, which has a lot of older information and verbiage confusing to a layperson. This can be organized into a parent-child format so documents can exist under the main heading document. Caitlin is currently working to reorganize other pages on the Amesbury website and can help with consistency. Recommendations to list top 3 items community may utilize the committee for and make those most prevalent on page. Additionally, want to ensure the page is mobile friendly based on layout and organization of material. Ideally, we answer the following: who we are, what we help with and why, and when to reach out to us. The group would like the information to be more user friendly. Some back and forth about removing old documents. Cindy feels the waterway surveys and e- coli data could be important to some so it should still be accessible. Meghan and Caitlin to work together separately to adjust website based on committees’ feedback. B. Waterways descriptions–status of posting revision C. Bylaws—Draft Revisions Tom offered to start making revisions to the current bylaws based on discussions during meeting. This will be sent out to group to review prior to next meeting. Cindy is available to help. VI. Goals/Mission Discussion Follow-up A. Lawn Care Companies and Fertilizers & herbicides Near Water Bodies Group briefly touched upon reaching out to local companies to ensure they are doing their due diligence and following guidelines. TruGreen was referenced as a popular company in the area. B. With ConComm—Homeowners’ Guidelines Tom spoke with John Lopez from ConComm and asked about more involvement from that group. John wants to better understand what L&W is looking for. Would it be helpful to have a liaison join L&W and should a L&W member be a liaison as well to ensure pertinent information is shared and be in the know about what is discussed. Concerns from group about being involved in too much and where L&W purview begins and ends. Cindy expressed concerns about her own conflict of interest. The group is not currently apprised of all-important information but it’s not clear how to filter the flow, as everything goes through ConComm. Tom is going to think on this and will not get back to John Lopez just yet. 3 VII. Waterbodies A. Merrimac River Matt updated that it is very low, there is minimal flow and weed beds on sand are visible. i. Sewer Overflow efforts status: This occurred multiple times this summer and hoping notification will go out within 2-hour window to notify public who may be using the river for recreational activities. ii. PFA Tracking (Local, State, National): B. Powwow River i. Water Quality Testing Issue: C. Lake Gardner i. Status of beach project ii. Lake Gardner Association updates iii. Review 2020 E. coli D. Lake Attitash Association and Lake Status - Cindy brought up Nickel Farm in NH, as a site that may have runoff into the back river. Rob and Pete to look into this and travel to farm. Concerns about water quality and the need to notify NH DHS. DASH boat (diver assisted suction harvesting), completed work in back river. It was a mess of invasive variable leaf milfoil. There will be a fundraiser to pay for this same effort, or potentially another treatment which is more expensive- ProcellaCor aquatic herbicide. Cindy is attending Merrimac ConComm to discuss these efforts with them as well. - Pete stated that Attitash has a larger voice, more community members involved and more resources to clean-up. Ideally the concept of a clean waterway is to have the whole system cleaned or it will keep coming back as each waterbody feeds each other. One large weed treatment for the system would be the best solution but there are no funds for that currently. All bodies of water in Amesbury have the same issue E. Clarks Pond F. Tuxbury Pond G. Meadowbrook Pond Meghan updated that water is very low; pond lilies are widespread. Large root like weeds are prevalent throughout middle of pond. Very minimal water flow in deeper portions. Pete also mentioned the beaver damn at the stateline damn that is causing almost daily trips to remove. H. Patten’s Pond I. Park Pond J. Bailey Pond VIII. Review Action Items  Tom to work on revising bylaws and sending out an initial draft for review.  Tom to look into locating harbormaster plan.  Meghan to work with Caitlin on revising the website based on feedback from group.  Pete to look into Nickel Farm and connect with Jim B. on interest in joining L&W committee. IX. Next meeting: October 15, 2020 4