Lakes and Waterways Commission

RECEIVED City of Amesbury By City Clerk at 12:32 pm, 1/25/22 Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting Minutes for October 21, 2021 7:00 PM Location: Virtual Zoom Meeting Attendees: Tom Murphy-Acting Chair, Meghan O’Neill, Kate Mallory, Tom Volper, Art O’Dea, Cindy Roberts, Matt Chapin, Rob Desmarais- Director of DPW, and Steve Stanganelli- City Councilor. Completing Minutes: Meghan O’Neill, Secretary I. Administrative Business A. Call to Order - This meeting is being conducted under the Act Extending Certain COVID-19 Measures Adopted During the State of Emergency, signed into law on June 16, 2021, by Governor Baker. Public access to participate has been made available. - Tom called meeting to order at 7:07 PM. B. Review of Past Minutes (September) - Discussion about changing language to more generic statement about Cindy’s work on fertilizer regulations in part 5. - Cindy accepts minutes and Matt seconds this. - Meghan will adjust minutes and send to city clerk for posting. II. Engineer’s update A. Engineer’s Report - Rob provided the following update: currently trying to draw lakes down, both lakes above normal pool, there is a lot of water in system so this will take some time. - Inquiry from group about plans for Lake Gardner sand replenishment. Rob shared that the current plans went before Conservation Committee last month and the decision was to pursue a peer review. There is a November workshop meeting to complete this and if that goes well there should be approval in December, this includes the sand replenishment. Inspection was completed on Clark’s Pond Dam. Peter Manor has the report and can send it out, this was also just sent to DCR. The Dam passed inspection, trying to get it de-listed as a registered dam so it doesn’t have to keep being inspected. - Kate asked about the Weir on the Powow River and if this is accessible for viewing? You can walk past fence at the end of Newton Rd., this is public property. III. Harbormaster Update - Craig Bailey provided an update on overall harbormaster efforts to Tom via email: a jet ski was purchased for patrolling the lakes, no change to the harbor management plan currently and no work to purchase a public dock yet. - Group discussed the first mayoral debate between Gove & Kelcourse and their comments about lakes and waterways oversight, as well as fees for launching from Merrimack River. 1 October 21, 2021  - Art added that boats in Newburyport have to pay a fee to moor to the harbormaster, is this something Amesbury could do at their marinas? No fees are currently charged. IV. Current Business A. Membership - The vacancy on commission will be adjusted to associate member. A list of current associate members of Lakes & Waterways will be sent to Mayor’s office to select move to full member status. Afterwards vetting will begin to fill open position. - Jim Babbin will be joining the commission from Conservation Committee. He is an engineer and was a former L&W member. B. Waterbody Assessment i. Status of Web Ready Version - Discussion about overall goals and outcomes of the document. Ideally, the result would be to show that a resource is needed on the cities payroll to oversee all Lakes & Waterways and this commission would now support that person. - Cindy is currently formatting revisions. There are some inconsistencies with language and style as each waterbody was completed by different members. Formatting will remain consistent but some variations throughout due to writing style. - The 2016 completed document was never posted to website. The 2021 revision is almost completed, and the matrix would be a separate document, both to live on the website. ii. Review & Discuss Waterbody Assessment Matrix - Many of the matrix squares need to be filled in. Meadowbrook will be completed by Meghan, Tuxbury to be completed by Tom M., Matt to complete Powow. - We also need someone to complete Lake Gardner. Possibly something Bernie can complete since she has the most knowledge of that waterbody. - Tom V. to work on Bailey’s Pond; a new column needs to be added for this. Discussion about accessing this pond and if kayaking would be helpful to gather more information. Cindy shared that you need a life jacket after Sept 15th on the waterways. - Discussion about unknown for many of the matrix fields. This should be highlighted and provided further evidence that a full-time city funded resource is needed to manage the waterbodies. Pattens Pond- a lot of the fields are unknown. - Kate asked about the potential for a Board of Health member joining our meeting to discuss the monitoring of the blooms ad hoc. A few of the smaller ponds are getting water features to help with water circulation. Also, Board of Health has been completing testing on Patten and Park Pond for Cyanobacteria concerns. s board of health purview, although they test for this in our drinking water. - Group further discussed who to contact with concerns about water quality. This is under the Board of Health’s responsibilities, not Department of public Works. The group felt understanding who to reach out to would be helpful. Rob mentioned that there is a new director of inspectional services. - Tom asked that instead of emailing each other questions please pass info to Tom M. versus one off communication to avoid a quorum. - Lastly, Kate has dam reports from Peter Manor that may be a valuable source if info for the matrix, she will email those to the group. C. Kate Hydrologic Budget 2 October 21, 2021  - Kate to provide a summary in another upcoming meeting. Rob mentioned that this was done professionally in the past. Kate will continue to correspond with Peter. We will discuss more in the future. D. Cindy CEI PowerPoint Status - Cindy received OK to post CEI presentation on the L&W website page. E. Weed Management Mitigation - Cindy provided an update on efforts to mitigate fertilizer usage in the watershed. - Discussion about replicating what cities are doing in the cape and Newburyport as these communities are seeing cyanobacteria blooms more frequently. - Discussion about storm drains and this being a large contributor to water pollution. - Discussion about regulation and education to landscapers, increasing awareness to residents, and approval process for penalty of violating state law/city ordinances. - Rob will look into historical ordinances and provide to Cindy. - Cindy & Rob discussed possibility of posting signs with regulation details and a dollar fine penalty. V. Additional Items - Rob asked that the MS-4 please be added as a standing item on the agenda moving forward. VI. Meeting Adjourned Tom M. motioned to adjourn- Cindy seconded at 8:35 PM. Next meeting is November 18th and will be conducted remotely. Next meeting: November 18th, 2021- Remote 3 October 21, 2021