Commission on Conservation & Agriculture

Chairperson Bob Daniels Commission Vice-Chair Members Brian Gartner Michael Thomas Kate Miller on Jane Brawerman Daniel Penney Barbara Schukoske William Gardner Conservation & Alternates Evan Peterson William Wilson William Harris Vincent Senatore Agriculture Staff James Sipperly, Environmental Planner Corinne Milardo, Administrative Assistant REGULAR MEETING Minutes DATE: Tuesday, November 19, 2024 TIME: 7:00 p.m. Meeting was held in person in Room 208, Municipal Building and via WebEx. In person attendance: Commissioners: Bob Daniels, Barbara Schukoske, Daniel Penney, William Harris, Jane Brawerman (Arrived at 7:17pm), Vincent Senatore. Public: None. WebEx Attendance: Commissioners: Michael Thomas Public: David Winkel Absent: Commissioners: Brian Gartner, William Gardner, Evan Peterson, William Wilson. Staff in Attendance: James Sipperly, Environmental Planner Corinne Milardo, Administrative Assistant A. Call to Order Chairperson B. Daniels called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm. B. Accept the Agenda Motion to accept the agenda. Moved by B. Schukoske, seconded by V. Senatore. Passed unanimously: 7-0. C. Public Forum None. D. Approval of Minutes 1. September 17, 2024 Motion to approve the minutes as is. Moved by B. Schukoske, seconded by V. Senatore. Passed unanimously: 7-0. If you require special accommodations for any meeting, please call the ADA Coordinator at (860) 638-4540, (voice) or (860) 638-4812 (TDD/TTY), or the Town Clerk’s Office at (860) 638-4910 at least ten (10) days prior to the scheduled meeting. Page 1 of 6  E. Request for Comment J. Sipperly heard that the proposed project out on Westfield Street in Middletown and Meriden for the horse riding ring will be coming back. They will be mining two hundred and twenty five thousand cubic yards of rock. Once it is officially noticed, J. Sipperly will bring the information to the commission for their review. Middletown will be sending letters of opposition. F. Officers and Committee Reports 1. Chair’s Report B. Daniels discussed the proposed land acquisition the State wanted to make from the City to expand the Veterans Cemetery. It was explained to him that the open space that was up for sale was not preserved open space. J. Sipperly clarified that it is City land that is not open space. B. Daniels asked if there are open space maps. J. Sipperly answered yes there is an open space map that shows both City owned and privately owned open space. K. Miller commented that there should be a map from the last Plan of Conservation and Development. i. Open Space Acquisition Fund Balance J. Sipperly informed the commission of the fund balance and also shared what projects were done this fiscal year utilizing these funds. 2. Agriculture Committee i. Agriculture Support for Farmers B. Daniels stated that last meeting there were some suggestions for the guide E. Peterson put together. B. Daniels said that he will follow up with E. Peterson and J. Brawerman and have a finalized draft by the next meeting. 3. Outreach Committee i. Conservation Corner Update B. Daniels stated that B. Gartner was to put together a document to show how much we have acquired in open space over the years and get an article out there in the Press or some other media. 4. Open Space Management Committee i. Wilcox Management invasive species study J. Sipperly asked K. Miller if she has any comments. K. Miller answered that she thought it was already sent out. Page 2 of 6 J. Sipperly replied that it wasn’t. K. Miller stated that she will provide J. Sipperly with comments. J. Sipperly informed the commission that firefighters were concerned that the wind was going to spread the Hawthorne fire into Middletown. The State went up to North Stantack with the firefighters and State contractors and the put access roads in and went through wetlands. J. Sipperly will be visiting the site to see what kind of damage had been done to the wetlands. B. Daniels asked if the State informed him of what they were doing. J. Sipperly answered, no. DEEP and Urban Forestry was involved with this. K. Miller stated that we should request that the State inform the City prior to any clear-cutting or disturbance of wetlands. Jane Brawerman arrived at 7:17pm. ii. Open Space Priorities J. Sipperly informed the commission that there is a property off of Stantack Road that the owner would like to sell to the City as open space. It’s adjacent to open space property that the City owns. The property is about eight to ten acres in size. The first step is to have the property appraised before making the purchase. The funds will come out of the open space acquisition funds. J. Brawerman requested to see a map of the property. J. Sipperly will bring it to the next meeting. B. Daniels asked what’s going on with the big parcel of land on Arbutus Street. J. Sipperly stated that it’s currently being surveyed but he doesn’t know what project is proposed for that property. No one has come into the office with a plan yet. iii. Trail Maintenance Needed – CFPA Wilcox Open Space J. Sipperly reported that the Connecticut Forest and Park Association did the trail maintenance at Wilcox. They said that if we want them to do more, they will do more. CFPA did the maintenance heading towards Meriden and they did a lot of work in Meriden because that’s where it connects to the Blue Trail. J. Sipperly also reported that the invasive species at Wilcox is bad and needs to be addressed. Someone put up caution tape where the ATV trails are. B. Daniels asked if we need to pursue getting timber removed. K. Miller commented that the trees are falling down and rotting which is an invitation to infestation. There is also risk of injury and fire. K. Miller suggested hiring a forester to do an assessment of the property. J. Brawerman mentioned using the City Forester. Page 3 of 6 J. Sipperly stated that he will see if the City Urban Forester is interested in assessing this property. M. Thomas spoke about the trail maintenance that was done at Guida’s in October. There were two teachers and thirteen students from Rocky Hill that worked on a portion of the trail that needed to be cleared up along the edges. They did a good job. M. Thomas showed the students around to try to get the students interested in open space. M. Thomas tries to keep the trails up. K. Miller asked M. Thomas if there is a need for trail improvements and/or invasive species removal that we can dedicate some of the open space management money towards. M. Thomas answered yes. M. Thomas listed some areas that need improvement including the painted sign in the parking area and the stone wall that is in poor condition. A gate needs to be replaced. There is a portion of the trail with a steep slope that needs stairs. M. Thomas mentioned one way to get rid of the invasive species mile-a-minute. There is a bug that eats the plant and kills off the mile-a-minute weed but you need a pesticide license. B. Daniels asked if we can replace the sign. J. Sipperly answered yes. We can have the same company who made the open space signs make this sign. K. Miller made a motion to pursue using some of the management funds to develop a management plan at Guida, seconded by J. Brawerman. Passed unanimously: 7-0. 5. Open Space Acquisition Committee i. 470 Chamberlain Road J. Sipperly reported that they’re still waiting on the owner. ii. Country Club Road site J. Sipperly reported that it’s in G. Old Business 1. Trail Guide updating and reprinting and contract – working with Gary Middleton J. Sipperly reported that Assistant City Planner Gary Middleton finished mapping all the trails and is in the process of downloading the information. 2. Ravine Park Lilly Hochhauset, student at Wesleyan University, presented data that they collected on Ravine Park. The data that was collected was on trail ecology, stream ecology, and nine years of plant data. There a multiple classes that go out to the park every year to collect data. They have photos where you can see the changes to the park over time. B. Daniels asked how L. Hochhauset would assess the overall condition of the park. L. Hochhauset answered about a B minus. Page 4 of 6 J. Brawerman suggested that someone write a grant for the park. 3. Nature Gardens – Tree Report- Chris Donnelly J. Sipperly reported that the City Urban Forester, Chris Donnelly walked the property with Director Marek Kozikowski and Assistant City Planner Gary Middleton. Chris Donnelly did a report on the Nature Gardens. Mr. Donnelly came up with recommendations. Mr. Donnelly said that the big tree can stay. It just needs to be pruned. B. Daniels asked about the recent landscaping that was done. J. Sipperly answered that the main trails were redone, the parking lot and fencing was redone. J. Brawerman asked about the flooded trails that are going through the wetlands. J. Sipperly answered that drainage was added to the trails and regrading was done. 4. Right to Farm Signs J. Sipperly stated that Director Kozikowski designed the signs. They need to pick them up and display them. There is a map which shows where they’re going to go. There will be some extras that we’ll sell to farmers to put up in front of their property. 5. Volunteering on Committees B. Daniels reported that he has enough volunteers for the committees. J. Sipperly requested that B. Daniels send him the list of volunteers on the committees. 6. Red Maple Swamp Update J. Sipperly updated the commission. This project was stalled for a bit, but now the City and the Board of Education want to get the survey done. Once the survey is done, they’ll carve out the Lawrence School property and parking and the rest of the land will be open space. D. Winkel asked if the survey includes the land in back of the Mile Lane area. J. Sipperly answered yes. H. New Business 1. Planning and Zoning proposed regulations – Urban Horticulture J. Sipperly reported that on the corner of Grand Street and Main Street is where a greenhouse will be constructed to help with urban horticulture. The zoning regulations needed to be amended to allow this greenhouse in that location. J. Sipperly wanted to present this to the commission before it went to Planning and Zoning but they didn’t meet las month. B. Daniels asked who will be running the greenhouse. J. Sipperly answered the Community Health Center will be running the greenhouse. Page 5 of 6 J. Brawerman expressed her disappointment in the greenhouse project. She doesn’t see how it will benefit the North end community. It’s incredibly costly. The Community Health Center received a grant for this project and there is no green space. 2. CCA Annual Report B. Daniels asked what the commission usually does. J. Sipperly answered that previous Chairs of the commission would put together some notes. K. Millers believes that the bylaws require us to have an annual report. It’s a way to show our accomplishments during the year. It’s also where we can put goals for the next year. 3. 2025 Annual Meeting Calendar Motion to approve the 2025 annual meeting calendar. Moved by B. Schukoske, seconded by V. Senatore. Passed unanimously: 7-0. I. Member Forum Kate Miller spoke about Pameacha Pond. K. Miller said that the students in her Community Engagement class had met with the Director of Public Works and Friends of Pameacha Pond and decided that their primary project to write an Aquatic Invasive Species Grant Application to Connecticut DEEP. They met the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station who will perform a survey of the site. The grant includes two years of treatment. It is with herbicides. With some of these invasive species there really isn’t an option. The grant also includes a research project with the Ag Station for the first year. The second year the Ag Station would monitor for reduction in aquatic invasive species and for impacts to native plants. The results can be useful to the City in subsequent management. James Sipperly commented that he and the Director of Public Works were impressed with the Pameacha Pond PowerPoint presentation that the Wesleyan students presented. D. Penney added that they had a cleanup at Pameacha Pond recently. They removed ninety-four tires from the pond so far. D. Penney then said that when he was working on Pameacha Avenue, where the dam is, just over the bank in that area he discovered a historic plaque. There was a dedication in 1922 or 1924. The Historical Society in Middletown are now looking into it. Jane Brawerman commented that someone should write a history of Pameacha Pond, if there isn’t one already. J. Adjournment Motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:27 pm. Moved by B. Schukoske, seconded by D. Penney Passed unanimously: 7-0. Page 6 of 6