Lakes and Waterways Commission

City of Amesbury Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting Minutes for 11-19-2020 Location: Virtual GoToMeeting Attendees: Tom Murphy, Cindy Roberts, Matthew Chapin, Thomas Volper, Michael Jewell, Peter Manor-City Engineer, Craig Bailey-Deputy Police Chief and Assistant Harbormaster and Bernadette Lucas Absent Commission Members: Meghan O’Neill Completing Minutes: Cindy Roberts I. Administrative Business A. Call to Order Completed by Tom Murphy, acting chair at 6:55pm. B. Review of Past Minutes (October) Review of October Minutes. 1st motion to accept – Cindy Roberts; 2nd motion – Tom Murphy C. Membership status - Bernadette still needs to be sworn in as an associate member. - The chair spot is currently open as Tom continues to function in the “acting” role until a permanent replacement is established. II. Engineer’s update A. Engineer’s report - On November 1st, Trickling Falls was opened and water is now flowing from NH. Tuxbury Pond and Meadowbrook are now normal pool. Lake Attitash is stagnant but will begin draw down again shortly. Water is being captured for the water treatment plant and the ground water is being recharged, in case of future drought. There is a new beaver dam behind the weir causing issues and there is also a beaver dam at Fern Avenue. IV. Current Business A. Stormwater Management Program Briefly discussed the plan provided by Rob Desmarais. The City needs to determine how to fund the requirements of Phase 2 stormwater regulations. The commission is responsible for helping with public education and outreach. BMPs will be reviewed and discussed at the next meeting and we should get additional direction from Rob at that time. B. Review Bylaws 1  Section 2 was reviewed and 2.2 will be removed. A new item will be added to ‘Review and Advise on the Harbormaster plan’. Tom will update the bylaws and they will be reviewed and voted on during our next meeting. C. Location of past correspondence and documents There are many older documents that are no longer available to the commission. Need to have a better online storage system for correspondence and other documents the commission produces, such as grant support letters. V. Discuss Conservation Commission Michael provided an update to the group on Con Comm recent projects and oversight. There is Conservation Meeting on December 7th regarding the South Hunt Road construction and an emergency meeting on December 15th regarding the new elementary school. All meeting agendas are available on the website. VI. Harbormaster Craig Bailey discussed the role of the Harbormaster in Amesbury through the years. His father, Jack Bailey, is the harbormaster and Craig is the assistant harbormaster. Jack is responsible for checking boat registrations, dock permits and monitoring the river. Currently the harbormaster is on the Merrimack River and does not have much presence on other lakes and waterways in town. Craig would like the commission to help with updating the Harbormaster plan. VIII. Waterbodies A. Merrimac River - Matt brought to attention that the Merrimack River Watershed Council is requesting groups and individuals to write letters to help pass a bill to ensure that that the public is alerted when a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) occurs on the Merrimack River. The bill is currently stuck in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The ask is to write a letter to the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the Senate President. Matt is going to write the letter and Tom is going to review. B. Lake Gardner - The Mayor’s office reached out to Tom Murphy. The town is considering a method to help control beach access and help reduce vandalism. The Lakes and Waterways commission and Open Space committee may be called upon to assist in looking into this possibility. C. Lake Attitash - The LAA is planning a public hearing with the Conservation Commission to add an amendment to the current Order of Conditions. The amendment is to add ProcellaCor as an option to control Variable and Eurasian Milfoil. The LAA is also looking at the Nicol Farm permitting process in Newton, NH to ensure that excessive phosphorus is not entering the BackRiver. 2  IX. Review Action Items  Group to continue to review Stormwater Management Plan. Specifically, we should review the BMPs and determine which ones each of the commission members feels comfortable working on at a public meeting.  Peter will reach out to Rob Desmarais to help determine the next steps for the commission on the Stormwater Management Program.  Matt to write letter of support for the CSO alert. X. Next meeting: December 17, 2020 Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. 3