Conservation Commission

MINUTES OF THE MEETING January 6, 2016 LACONIA CONSERVATION COMMISSION CITY Hall Room 200B Approved at the January 20, 2016 meeting I. CALL TO ORDER : Deb. Williams, Assistant Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:15 PM PRESENT- Deb. Williams, Assistant Chair, Lisa Morin, Mike Foote and Dick Christopher (A ROLL CALL VOTE WAS PROVIDED) ABSENT - Marnie Schulz and Dean Anson II. REVIEW OF THE MINUTES: 1. Review of the public and non-public minutes for the December 9, 2015 meeting L. Morin made a motion to approve the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by D. Christopher. The motion passed 4-0-0. III. New Business: 1. Milfoil Subcommittee Discussion L. Morin added she will again pursue alternative funding grants in the amount of $3,200.00 for the remaining milfoil work and cleanup activities on the Winnipesaukee River in downtown Laconia. 2. Update on 30-foot water-body buffer February Planning Board presentation. S. McPhie explained that all data has been gathered to address concerns raised at the December 2015 Planning Board meeting. He will have a draft power point to review at the upcoming January 20 Conservation Commission meeting. He has created an outline where he will begin by speaking about the Conservation Commissions role in advising the Planning Board. He will cover the USGS stream definitions. The definitions will delineate the areas impacted by adding back the 30-foot wetland buffer. Rick Demark will speak second and cover why Laconia placed the 30-foot water body restriction in place back in 2002. He will also be able to address any technical questions as to why a 30-foot buffer is needed. Dean Anson will conclude with some final concern not covered in the initial presentation. Additional information gathered will be available for those with specific questions or concerns. The Con Com will not have all the answers but at least we will be able to address the majority of concerns. It will be important to hold all questions to the end and limit the presentation to around 10 minutes. 3. Soak up the rain 2016 L. Morin reviewed the Soak up the Rain event scheduled last year. Jillian McCarthy, the State expert on the subject, trained members of the Con Com to assist property owners to create low impact stormwater control devises. If sufficient interest can be generated in the upcoming months a second training session will be looked into. IV. Old Business: 1. Non-Public Session concerning land acquisition per RSA: 91: A: II (d)–(“roll call vote required”.  D. Williams requested entering Non-Public Session concerning land acquisition per RSA: 91: A: II (d). A Roll call vote was made with Deb. Williams, Assistant Chair, Lisa Morin, Mike Foote and Dick Christopher all voting to enter Non-public session. 2. Brook Subcommittee updates Black Brook- Upcoming meeting in Concord S. McPhie and D. Anson will meet with NHDES personnel to expedite the Black Brook Geomorphic and Watershed study. Current circumstances have made it difficult to complete the Watershed Study by the deadline of late June 2016. One three month extension has already been filed taking us into the fall of 2016. The original chosen Consultant was EPA trained. It was felt his past accomplishments would assure a quality well bid job. The Expert has since left the company. Since that time many additional tasks have been discovered that were not planned for due to the goal of creating NHDES acceptable data that would make Laconia eligible for impaired water grant funds. The Con Com felt right along changing the Consultant halfway through the project could make things worse. Since private fundraising has been a major part of the effort additional costs have been able to be absorbed so far. D. Anson requested the DES meeting to get a commitment from both sides when the continued requests for data would end. It is obvious continued requests for improved data collection is a major impediment to progress therefore delaying the start of the watershed grant work. Jewett Brook- Signage L. Morin said remaining grant funds are available for placing fowl control signage along Jewett Brook. The signs will be created in a fun way. One sign example would read “Feeding the water fowl makes them sick”. L. Morin passed on some sign ideas to K. Dunlevy, Director of Laconia Park Recreation Department. A general enforcement fall back sign was also included in case the more creative sign route was not possible. K. Dunlevy was excited with the concept. He requested the sign be designed to be 10” by 24”. They both liked the sign S. McPhie provided from an exhibit at the Mystic Aquarium. Unfortunately the Aquarium staff did not return phone calls which could have possibly granted permission to reproduce the sign. The Con Com was in favor of creating a fun educational sign rather than a standard plain one. All agreed regardless of what the final sign design become signs should be installed regardless of the design. The Jewett Brook Data gathered by a high school Science educator is no longer available at the High School level. A computer glitch may be the reason for the loss. The Con Com made attempts to get a copy of the data but to no avail. The Con Com may want to reach out to the retired teacher to see if he could at least provide a summary of his work. Past discussions indicated Jewett Brook was quite healthy. Jewett Brook still provides a great laboratory for living organisms and creates a great educational living laboratory for students Durkee Brook/Meadow Brook- Union Cemetery Abutter discussion S. McPhie reminded the Con Com the Cemetery is still witnessing issues resulting from the two streams located on either side of the plots. The negative impacts are due to natural and manmade impacts. It is now January 2016 and L. Morin hopes we can schedule a training session or information mailer to the abutters of both brooks. Once again the mailer needs to be careful to indicate some work can be done in the buffer but  independent actions by homeowners should be discouraged. S. McPhie added it would be great if all property owners could file a permit with NHDES to alleviate the issues. L. Morin added unfortunately the answer is not that simple. V. Liaison & Sub-Committee Reports: 1. Permit Sub-Committee review and updates No permits were received this past week. VI. Other Business: 1. Subdivision/ Site Plan update S. McPhie added the Langley Cove subdivision and site plan was submitted last week. He will be working on that project for most of next week. 2. Commissioners Comments None 3. Staff Comments None VII. Adjournment: L. Morin made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by M. Foote passing 4-0.