Lakes and Waterways Commission

RECEIVED By Ellie at 11:41 am, 4/26/21 City of Amesbury Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting Minutes for 3-19-2021 7:00 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, Meghan O’Neill, Thomas Volper, Bernadette Lucas, Kate Mallory, Art O’Dea, and Peter Manor- City Engineer. Completing Minutes: Meghan O’Neill, Secretary I. Administrative Business A. Call to Order Completed by Tom Murphy, acting chair at 7:08 PM. Tom murphy read the following to the committee in regard 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 3/19/21 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.” B. Review of Past Minutes (February) Adjust ownership of Lake Gardner to Cindy. She agreed to complete with help from Bruce McBryan. Bernadette did offer to help if needed. Also change working around Harbormaster Plan. Cindy made motion and Meghan seconded approval in minutes, all approved. II. Engineer’s update A. Engineer’s report Peter provided the Engineers report to the group. All water bodies look good. Have put more boards in Archbrook culvert at Meadowbrook to try and increase the water level of both Attitash & MB. We have until May to get the elevation back up. Attitash and MB are the easiest to control. Allows for extra capacity for spring storms. Last event 2009 where flooding occurred across road on Kimball. B. Stormwater Management Plan No feedback on storm water management plan from Rob. Pete will speak with Rob and consultant about next steps and guidance. Tom will resent as a high priority. We would like to help but need guidance. 1  III. Current Business A. Membership status - No takers for chair role currently. Tom will continue to ask group. - Art and Kate still awaiting next steps for confirmation of appointment to L&W. Will most likely be inducted in April meeting. - Kate Mallory introduced herself. Very interested in water and sustainable cities as this is her focus on her graduate degree. Working in Newburyport on some water projects to identify best practices and elimination tactics. B. Meeting with Open Space Committee - On for 7:00 on March 29th, Tom will send out invite and login details for the open space committee. If agenda exists Tom will send out as well. The purpose of the meeting is to strictly discuss Lake Gardner and provide feedback on proposed items: gate with card access, kiosk access, and/or a person checking credentials/pass. - Concerns about parking overflow on road and in other parking lots surrounds the beach location if parking fees are enacted. Concerns about costs associated with building additional fencing. Need to have someone with authority on site to help manage access. - Kate suggested using the same tactic as Arlington as they use a bracelet that is purchased. Pete would like this feedback sent as an option. - Discussion about federal funds being used to build part of the beach facilities and this may preclude restricting access. - Question about persons bypassing enacted rules and accessing the lake through other means like side roads and trails. - Questions about current capacity limits for people present on beach property. There is no current limit but limit to parking spaces. C. Additional Discussion Tom Murphy brought up an article he read in the Boston Globe. Massachusetts is looking at tightening water restrictions during draughts due to previous years impact to communities, especially Ipswich. Tom will send to the group to review and we can discuss next meeting. Questions around if changes will impact us here in Amesbury? D. Stormwater Management Plan Revision Review - Peter will speak with Rob about next steps and have Rob attend next meeting to discuss. IV. Conservation Commission Activity Update - Michael is absent but there are a few updates from other members of the committee. - S. Hunt Road project kicking off soon and will be occurring during the summer. - Peter mentioned that the police, specifically Craig as Harbormaster will be interested in the new marina that was just purchased. Access to the Amesbury Police ramp abuts this marina. - Conservation Committee did pass the Lake Attitash items they are working on with Cindy. Cindy needs to finish paperwork on ProcellaCOR. Everyone has so sign so it does take a long time to get all members signatures. 2  - Cindy spoke about working with Con Comm to assist with a cheat sheet to help understand rules and regulations when living on or near a waterbody. Future goal is to have a guide to “living on water” and being able to distribute those out to residents. V. Website update efforts A. By laws Tom M. provided an update that he has not heard back from the Mayor’s office on bylaw changes for L&W. B. Website Content Meghan did add watershed plan to the website and still needs to reach out and get the MACOP link removed. C. Waterway Assessment - Pete will be reviewing these and updating where needed. Everyone should be reviewing each other’s to provide feedback. Pete has time to review over next week. - This overlaps with the water management tour document, which can be used to pull information from. - The goal is to gain feedback from each other’s review at the next meeting. Ideally you can come to conclusions, such as, “can we utilize the same tactics as Attitash uses to fight invasive species in Gardner?” - Questions about salt spread as well. Cleaning storm drains more frequently. Budget constraints. How can we add this in? - Question about Amesbury owning street sweepers. Pete responded that they do not, and there are not enough DPW employees to man this responsibility. This is contracted out as the most cost-effective option. - Discussion about a conclusion section that draws summaries and commonalities about all waterbodies and provides suggestions. - Pete will review, group should review each other’s and be prepared to discuss at next meeting. VI. New Business A. Status of Harbor Management Plan Craig not in attendance but can provide updates when he is able to join. We can also reach out for updates via email. Need to check in with him on preference. VII. Goals/Mission Discussion Follow-up A. Lawn Care Companies and Fertilizer Usage - Unable to enforce fertilizer rules at this time, which state you cannot fertilize 100-feet within shore. Discussed that this is mostly unknown throughout community. - Should we be writing letter to Con Comm to enforce fertilizer usage on Battis Farm, bordering Lake Gardner? Group agrees we should, and this is a good place to start. Bernadette will draft letter and share with the group. - Cindy shared that she got confirmation that NH DES will review concerns at Nichol Farm. The background is that human septage waste has been dumped on the land for last 20 years. This then flows into the Back River and then into Lake Attitash, contributing a significant amount of phosphorus and nitrogen, which feeds the invasive weed issues. The 3  goal is to have property assessment completed before they can continue to dump waste so close to the water. B. Open Discussion - Discussions about current sand on Lake Gardner beach. Con Comm is preferential towards raking out existing sand to try and make that cleaner. Con Com does not want more sand added and does not want to move forward with the nourishment due to concerns about the sand slowly shifting into the water. - Cindy added that historically they have prevented Camp Bauercrest from adding sand and thoughts about keeping the message consistent on all waterbodies. Sand on beaches is controversial in the community. - Marina @ Amesbury Pointe, website for new location and what they would like to do. Will add a lot of traffic to that location. Residents received a mailer. Tom has a copy of the plan; he can send that out if anyone wants to read it. - Pete asked about L&W Committee advocating for DPW to the mayor and request funding for items. Always dealing with budgetary issues, subdivisions now all have retention ponds and that becomes part of the DPW responsibility, but additional funding is not always allocated. Is this something the committee could help with? It is appropriate? - Pete mentioned the PFAS water testing. This is becoming an issue in NH, especially those with wells. Giant issue coming down the line that will impact us that we need to keep an eye on as there is a significant resource need to adopt. - Discussion about meeting in person. Agreement to aim for June and make sure everyone has been vaccinated. IX. Review Action Items - Tom will send SMP questions to Rob and Pete - Tom will send Boston Globe article out to all - Bernie will draft letter to Rob about constraints around fertilizing on Battis Farm. - Cindy will send references to laws and regulations previously sent to new residents around Attitash. - Group will read all the waterbody assessments for next meeting. - Need to schedule a waterbody tour for summer so we can be outside and distance. X. Meeting Adjourned: 8:54 PM meeting was concluded. Next meeting: April 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM 4