Conservation Commission - Regular Meeting

is anyone online Dave you and Jim are muted Danielle you're muted can anybody hear can anybody hear me I can hear you okay good oh there you are hi this is this is Jim I guess I don't think I'm muted can you hear me I can hear you okay great thanks I don't if everybody saw Kent is unable to make it yes David you're still muted um and is uh has anybody heard from Zach will he be no I didn't okay oh and will madon and who else do we have

Andrew are you a new member of the commission I am so nice to meet you nice to meet you thanks for joining and there's Zach um so that gives us one two three four five which I think is a quorum is that uh yeah is that correct yes awesome well then um and will okay there's will great we are moving hello hi Will okay so I think um I think we're we have a quorum ready to can call the order the meeting to order um Betsy you know I'm new to this is there anything anything I have to say in order to call the meeting or sorry not Betsy Kathy no nope you just call it to order at whatever time it is I have 703 that's yep it's a good time all right let's uh jump in uh first on the uh agenda is public comment so um Stephanie I Su you're here for the barnor Hills but if you'd like to make any comments now you know it's here's an opportunity I'm here for barnor Hills we can wait a um hi I'm Lee Lee sh um I just wanted to say I hope everybody had an opportunity to read the de report that I had Kathy send around to you your members um because I think that's probably something you want to address later in the meeting and if there's any questions or whatever we could hopefully answer those for you um I think it shows that there's been quite a few issues with that farmer um you know with the herbicide sprayings that were rather egregious and you know they did give

them quite a few things that they said needed to be corrected so I think going from there we can move forward and decide what it is we'd like to recommend that the town do with it thank you thank thank you for uh sharing that with us um and Danielle was there anything you wanted to any comment you'd like to make at this point um hi um no no thank you not at this time I'm here for the barnor hills um portion as well so thank you thanks all right um next on the agenda and I think that's no other members are no other members of the public are here I'm seeing so all right uh next on the agenda is review and approval of the February 11th minutes um any comments or a motion David uh can you all hear me yes yes good and let me apologize in advance I'm um boiling maple sap outside and I will probably need to run out a couple times um I I just have a bunch of really little things that you know Kathy probably already knows but u under under present Jim Zip's name you know um is a little typoed um and and Kathy I'm sure you have the right spelling and all that right yeah yep okay um under election um you know I nominated Cara Marshall for chairwoman and that was after checking with her to see how she wanted to be referred to so okay and I had that in the chat so on those the two times it's mentioned I'm requesting that it' be changed to chairwoman unless Cara's got an objection no objection thank

you thank you um and then uh under barnor Hills Farmland um I forget which bullet but like the fourth bullet maybe Jim zsky spelling um okay under composting uh oh um the the uh the sentence that begins with d to cerado is repeated okay the final one and then oh under invasives so um we change the time so this the second paragraph under invasives first sentence it should say the next the next will take second sentence the next will take place on March 8th at 10 and uh and I noted that they're held the second Saturday of the month and the start time has been changed from 9 to 10: so they run from 10 10: to noon now um I think that's it oh okay so under Pace the statement uh I don't think Kent said that he and I met with the town manager we certainly didn't and I think I'd remember if I if we did so um some somehow our report or his report uh got garbled a bit and then I guess it's the second sentence K mord would like to meet with him I think strike the word again um and then Jim zsky in the last line and that's it for me and anybody did I get it wrong at all for anybody no thank you thank you for your careful reading oh it's good I mean

Kathy your your notes are so great and so helpful um I hope you don't these are little tiny things so I really appreciate you the way you do it no no no no offense taken good so any other comments um as I'll make a motion so it would be a motion as correct Ed great I'll make a motion as cor that we accept the minutes as corrected and I see Andrew as a second um and so all in favor hi hi okay um so unan unanimously accepted all right um barnor Hills Farmland um so Lee again thank you very much for sharing the report with us um and taking the time to you know care for the the area um I think um and then Jim so we we have that to discuss and Jim I believe you spoke with the um the town manager is that correct I did yes when we were gonna set up a meeting but we were waiting for the Deep report but yes we did speak for a few minutes and so I can whenever we want to get there I can recap that and kind of the the research which I did on the the different guides available for for leasing Farmland okay um so let's start with the report um I had uh I read it very quickly I'd like to go back and and read it more carefully um but uh it does does raise some items for concern um does uh anyone else have comments or um respond es start with the Commissioners then

then we'll open it to public um feedback if we can I guess Cara my reaction and and like I I read it I read it once the second time I read it I took some notes and um just in the interest of time I guess if I just kind of go down to the summary the the bottom page or two of the 10-page report um you know it's you know the conclusion of the inspector andly based on all the input um so we had um uh we didn't follow procedures in the application of the command specifically I guess the 1200 foot um exclusion Zone um so so um and then beyond that there was I guess I I I can only say it is numerous examples of not following WPS or worker uh protection standards um and and and boy that's really concerning you know if you've got someone who says oh I I I G G what is the standard the question seem to be repeated what is the standard no I don't have documentation because I didn't understand the standard now I'm say I'm paraphrasing but boy that that seems to be the gist of of numerous items there in the in the last two pages of the of the written summary and so that's that you know that that that'd be concerning in in I think in in any environment where someone was doing you know work for any of us what what are our options to fix this um Jim um did you did the town manager have any um comment on that as far as options for next steps no that I guess yeah I guess what we discussed was kind of what I I put in my email which was they were waiting for the Deep report

um they U Mike indicated that he and the first selectman would be meeting with the farmer um but we're waiting for the Deep report um and um I uh I I suggested some steps based on the guides I read um so uh no I mean the town manager did not indicate Next Step other than yes a meeting would need to occur but obviously wanted to wait until he had a chance to review the Deep report just to not to answer Andrew's question but one answer I think is we're we're at the stage where we're trying to figure out where we stand and um and and my comment on reading the report I I was I was astonished you know this is somebody who is an experience farmer and he seems to not have any not have committed the time that's important to uh understand how to manage these chemicals and uh I I I was really surprised that that there were so many different areas where the answer was I don't know I don't keep records I don't know I don't know if they're here I do I do it wrong you know um and I where I come down I don't think someone like this should be touching our land and I don't know if um you know you learn once you have an experience like this and you change how you do things he's a pretty experienced farmer right uh I I I just don't think there there are too many ramifications and too many areas of town too many people too many resources affected and so that's my general reaction I was really surprised so that's not about what we should do but um the prior

stage so I I think we also have to keep in mind that we as a commission don't really have the power to do much per se um we can make suggestions to the town manager as to based on the information we have gathered and obtained the same information that uh Mike and Mark will have seen um XYZ I um I would like that to think moving forward that we should make some suggestions as to lease language to try to tighten up the lease language and um give a a um stronger higher expectation of future people leasing our land for farming I think that's a good step um that we can take and um as far as as moving forward next year I I mean I think it's the the town would have to make a decision as to whether they're going to um continue to allow the farmer on this property or not or if he's officially broken the lease and they could remove him those are my thoughts at least thanks Zach well well said Zach and I guess I'd say you know car asked me what did the town manager say and he he wasn't wasn't being koi he was just waiting for for more information but in terms of the information I shared with the Commissioners um you know the the three guides that I looked at are you know I'll just say one of the titles planning for agricultural a guide for Connecticut municipalities and it's co-written by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and the American Farmland trust and then there's the other guides and as I paraphrase those for everyone um you know the long term was about how to have a very good and responsible plan

of conservation and development and lots of key considerations but in the short term each of those guys is filled with um example leases and as I shared all recommend having things like um that we did we did not have now our lease had many good elements but it did not have oh what are you going to plant this year what is your pesticide application plan this year um uh will there be soil testing this year will there be soil amendments and I guess what I then what I went on to say was if you just read our lease paragraph four allows us without changing the lease um to just add through through relationship management dialogue written but firm statements on this right now I sent that to everyone about two weeks ago when I read the report today from Deep um I like and David mentioned you have a lot of concerns you say well wow um you're talking about someone who's been doing this a long time and to comply with all those things or to to comply with those things which he should have had his own records on and didn't um on the one hand would be easy to put in place but then monitoring is where I um do you do you seek to terminate or do you seek to supplement the lease and monitor and in the monitoring Arena that's where I was wondering um you know would we be PR to all of the information could we be privy to all of the information that the Deep officer gave to the farmer to give to us and the town and say well here's here's the yard stick against which you know is appropriate ah this is the documentation you must have oh okay well make that available to us perhaps so I guess I I

put that in the area of monitoring so is it improve the language and monitor for this year um or is it terminate and I I guess just to be clear it does appear that there are grounds for termination but that is not our decision to me it it appears clear will do you want to add anything at this point yeah no I I you know I reviewed the lease you know also known as the license um uh you know the one thing I was I you know I was struck with I I didn't really understand the background of Mr baggot but uh at least in the the Deep um summary he appeared to be very uh receptive and Cooperative um but um you know I and certainly the license agreement gives the town to promulgate rules uh and regulations so uh you know and and I'm not sure exactly which body in the town maybe it's us you know who would promate rules uh that you know prohibit the use of you know insecticides pesticides herbicides uh things of that nature but um yeah uh you know I think it's it's going to fall into the hands of the Town manager who's going to decide what to do you know obviously there's a little Revenue stream that comes from this but I'm sure that other Farmers uh would be interested um I was kind of surprised that you know that the the pesticide and insecticide language wasn't stronger in the license agreement um I think you know in the next Incarnation it should be strengthened and bolstered so those are my thoughts um so I think um the whether or not this violates the terms of the lease um I think is

something that we'll have to have legal con consultation from you know from the town lawyer um I think we can um Jim I I like your suggestion of um at the very least uh suggesting monitoring and strengthening the provisions um I think it's uh certainly within our purview to make a recommendation to the town manager in the first selectman in that area um and um you know uh come up with some language both in the short term and then I I do like um looking for future rfps future lease languages uh language uh future leases uh improving that um and Andrew I'm sorry I uh kind of skipped over you in the the round is there do you have any more comments okay nope I'm good thank you um so I think framing up um some language to recommend to uh the town manager would be a reasonable Next Step um Jim you I thank you for your Deep dive uh thank you for the research you've done um do you feel able at this point to come up with kind of a recommendation for for what we would want to put before the town manager I I can certainly draft something um the the one question I guess I had um Zach if you don't mind is is do do you know if um the the report or or maybe um e if

either Stephanie or or or Lee knows this the the report that has been issued um would we be allowed to to to receive um I guess the additional information meaning the officer kind of went on is like look I I gave the farmer items AB B CDE e f and g as the go by standard to to me obviously language that's going to go in a lease is going to be really short but you'd like to at least be able to maybe refer to those standards um I have to take a look back at the report was this referring to the worker protection standard um items and information yeah so all that all that information is available for free online through the perk website which is pesticide education something um I can let me let me track that down and if I can't I can uh I can get some hard copies and make those available to you guys also but it it should all be available online um let me track down a link and match stuff up with what's there and if there's if there's anything else that's mentioned within the report that you want to see um anything and everything for the most part that um is done or issued by deep is available by Freedom of Information um requests so anything like that we can we can get other other things um if needed okay NOK thank you Z just to clarify Jim I think you're asking um not just can we see the blank forms but can we see how he has filled them out over time um or maybe not yes I I guess for for the purpose of writing framing language of what should be an elisee and and a monitoring

plan I I I would want to be able to point towards the specific Corrections that the Deep officer is suggesting requiring of the farmer and so uh I guess David my my first yeah my my first ask there is and and I guess Zach uh I want to be careful like know I appreciate a link in a large website but but really what I'm looking for is oh okay if there's a hundred things on that website wait a minute these are the five or six that this officer said to our farmer hey look this needs to be improved and and we ought to probably point to those in in the lease um in in the in the lease terms in the monitoring um and just be able to hopefully quickly use the right language yeah so the worker protection standard is uh very convoluted I guess you could say uh right but yeah let me let me take a look and I will pull the specific information that's noted um there and uh provide that as soon as I can I'm I'm actually at a conference currently but I should be able to pull that by the end of the week okay um yeah um and I so just just for clarity um kind of the steps that deep goes through so this report was finalized I I forget the date on it um I'm not sure if an official notice violation has been issued yet to the farmer um if it if it has been um he would have 30 days to respond to any of the violations cited and how he is um complying or

coming into compliance with those issues um and that that is also something that the town um or the commission could request to have copies of once it's available okay thank you Zach that's that's actually that that's probably uh I mean the I I I have no problems kind of doing the research and familiarizing myself at just the awareness level of of of of all the worker protection standards um in in my life I'm very familiar with OSHA and msdf sheets and whatnot I imagine this is analogous but but boy if if there is that document of notice of violation an action plan um I I guess you we'd be hard pressed not to refer to that um I mean I'm curious what others think but I I would imagine we'd be hardpressed not to refer to that in in any recommendations we make to make sure that that is is is being uh uh complied with [Music] and it's always possible that he mounts a a uh you know that what we're what we're reading is the report of the of of the investigator and it's certainly possible that the farmer says no I didn't say that or these are these facts are totally different um but assuming that the the Deep investigation is uh is basically true I I think um you know while we don't have legislative uh administrative Authority no one's coming to us to ask us to approve the lease for the next farmer whatever but um I don't there are all kinds of Power there are lots of different kinds of power and uh right now this is uh he's getting a free ride because only a few people know about this and just think you know one thing we can do is public education right and lots of different ways we can raise a huge stink um that does a bunch

of things has a bunch of imps on him and on our um you know our select people and other other boards that that make decisions in town right so I just wouldn't sell us short as U you know we're we're totally limited because we don't have legal authority to do X or Y uh we have a lot of we have a lot of responsibility to educate the public about uh natural resources and how they're being conserved and not and um so yeah and I just to follow up with that I I agree David but at the same point I think we need to give Mike a a fair shot to see what he's GNA do um he's I I think he's a much different person than the last Town manager that that we had so good good point yeah that that's a great point and I guess Cara um you know certainly what Mike made clear was hey look let's not schedule a meeting until this deep report is in okay the Deep report's here um I'm imagining um Lee unless Lee maybe sent it earlier to to to Mike or something he's he's reading it in the last 24 hours as well and digesting it you're right so so maybe the so first of I'm I'm delighted to help work on drafting language um uh but but but maybe the first thing is is is indeed like that that meeting with Mike that maybe now can can urve quickly um in my mind I guess I was keeping in mind that you know just reading the lease presumably this farmer has paid um uh has paid 50% of the 2025 uh on January in January that's the terms of the lease and and then the other thing that comes to my mind is is the the feedback from from Stephanie and Lee I think started coming with applications of

pre-emergent fertilizers in in May so that's not it's it's not tomorrow but it's not too far away so we'd want to move pretty quickly on this is there any is there any cleanup going to be involved with everything this guys done as if so because we got to put that in the lease for future people too that they are responsible for the cleanup costs I'm I'm not I'm not aware of anything and I guess what the off deep officer wrote was that given the number of months passed they did not I guess even test for you know Trace amounts of of anything so that's okay I'm I'm just yeah I I wanted I did want to add one more what I think is a really important point and that is this farmer is also leasing other properties in town and so what I had shared with the Commissioners was wow um the property on East Street is many many times the size of this one I actually walked the field today it's beautiful um and and it's surrounded by a number of homes and within I think a thousand feet of that field is is our Intermediate School um so so so I mean I I think that the dialogue we need to have is is really about you know Grand's relationship with this Farmer on all of his current leases and and one thing I which I think I I put in the note to everyone to the Commissioners was that um while Mike didn't give me the leases on the other properties in town um you know very large property on East Street um $30,000 a year lease 31,000 uh and a number of very small properties total of less than 2,000 a year in terms of lease cost on Lumis street that that anything

we're we're talking about here in terms of our relationship with this farmer really should be about all all the properties Jim are those all town properties yes sir oh okay yeah when and I I guess I know my email was not short but um uh when I sent the bid results that were on the town website um it was for all it was for all the properties and and and this particular farmer won the leases for all town properties totaling I you know I I intended to get the exact acreage of everything in total but I got to believe it's 200 plus acres given how large the East Street property is all right so just thinking about commission time it's March now our next meeting's in April um so if we're going to take action we definitely have to do it by the next meeting to have any impact on this growing season um and I'm I'm trying to think what we can do that fast um I think um Jim you've mentioned monitoring a few times um can you flush out a little more what you'd been thinking with that so sorry car you broke up a little been you mentioned monitoring a couple of times um think about in terms of that well um um would there be a and I guess the concept of monitoring is is listed in several of these guides yeah um they sort of talk about it at a minimum you'd maybe have a meeting and a walkthrough of the property at the beginning of the season and the end of the season given what we've observed in what

we see in the Deep report um should there be additional reporting from the from the farmer um and sitting here right now I'm not smart enough to say oh that would be items 1 2 3 4 5 however if there's going to be if there is going to be a notice of violation and a 30-day requirement that the farmer produce an action in compliance plan um the monitoring plan could be a simple as look we want to walk through the property I don't know beginning of the Season middle of the Season or or at application of pesticide to see the signage to see the um uh to see the facilities brought in to to such as eyewash and PPE to keep the workers safe I don't know um uh and end of the season Andor say look um um we'd like a depending on what this notice of violation and action plan compliance plan look like we might just simply want to refer to that um so worker protection is important um and you know I don't want to minimize it but I also want to be cognizant of drift into neighboring properties you mentioned school um we know neighbors have been injured by it uh in terms of hayfields um so you know how do we also make sure that you know he's doing it responsibly uh in that way so I'd want to make sure we add something there um so so that that's where I'm sorry I don't mean to cut you off but I want to respond to you that that's where I'd be looking for like for example where the Deep officer said I gave the farmer the reporting requirements which I I haven't seen but

I'd love to see specifically and say oh okay uh you know again based on the work I used to do in the energy business sometimes you were monitoring um you know temperature uh wind speed Etc I I can imagine that in terms of applying pesticides those are all important things but I um any any help we can provide each other in focusing in on oh what are those critical things about the day you apply a pre-emergent pesticide uh what are the key metrics um I I have kind of a a sense of what they probably are again you know wind speed and wind direction and and and things like that but I but I don't know so the the more we can we can get those key nuggets from the WPS standard a focused look at the WPS standard I think the better we can have some some responsible key metrics in in a in in a monitoring plan um so just thinking um about how to how to structure this as an action um in terms of can we make um I think I think we have to let the farmer respond before we really can say what our action is because it you know it's it's possible that there's a a whole a whole different interpretation of this it's possible you know and everybody deserves that right yeah that's a that's a good point as well no great great Point David I think though um based on just the review of typical leases leases and

Lease terms that are out there to to deliver a framework is something I could write out literally tomorrow in almost no time you know um like the farmer should tell us what crops he's going to plant what acreage per crop um what is the pesticide application plan and schedule um um and and then um you know is there a plan for soil testing um are there any amendments that are going to be applied to the soil I mean there's there's some basic language and then you could say look um monitoring plan and and we could just put a TBD next to that and say we're we're awaiting maybe further um f further further guidance from um you know what what we expect to hear from deep in in terms of a potential issue of violation and an action plan and and and and I guess with that kind of a framework but with a TBD but with this report in hand I could i' I'd feel very comfortable having a meeting with Mike Walsh or or or anyone I'll say in the next couple of weeks with that framework but knowing there's some tbds awaiting you know the farmers's response and and other items I mean ideally we'd be able to find a collaborative way to work and uh support him uh I know Farm farming is challenging and so I wouldn't want to make it you know too burdensome a reporting requirement but we do also need to figure out how to balance the interests of the town as well yeah well said um I would um Jim if you you mentioned that you you think it would be relatively quick for you to write up a that kind of framework um draft draft framework yeah if you would write up a

draft of that um circulate it in the committee uh and then you know let's try to get a meeting with Mike Walsh between now in the next um and the next con Conservation Commission meeting with um a recommendation framework um to pass to the town that we could you know vote on and adopt by the next meeting okay um one one thing I'd want to just put in there is is I would offer a draft framework but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a recommendation yet and and maybe you're not I I'd want to I think as Zach indicated we'd want to go to the meeting and say okay Mike you've gotten the report how do you see this right and I I don't know it could range from hey from a risk management perspective we we've decided to terminate the lease I don't know um or we we want to make this work and let's sit down and and do this I mean so so um I think I think it was Zach who made the made the point of like we we kind of got to give also Mike the opportunity to go how's he G to react to this but but we could have a we could have a a a a framework available for potential lease language modification or or or response to paragraph four um Stephanie uh is asking to be recognized so please sorry sorry to interrupt the the meeting part of it a little early but I wanted to provide a little insight I did speak with the town manager several times on this issue we started talking to him in the summer so just to kind of guide your conversations for how you want to work with him and with the farmer the farmer has been very amable to suggestions in person and then has proceeded to not act um um like like talking about worker protections one of

the issues that I had early on was that the workers he had in his farm Fields were not provided with restroom facilities and we using my property instead yep so I had to make a call and say hey you're G to have to have someone clean this up this is not hygienic he did have someone come out and clean it up but then I never saw restroom facilities appear so it was like okay he kind of just had them go somewhere else so it wasn't noticed he didn't actually fix the problem and we had been supposed to work together on getting testing and he never made any movements on getting testing on the Hayfield and I did follow up again with uh with the town manager about the you know results of how we want to move forward because it like we keep discussing it's getting towards growing season I don't want to you know economically impact this farmer more than we have to but we haven't made any progress and this issue was brought up in the summer the farmer did ad to you know using the command and we had many residents from the area speaking at a selectman meeting in October listing concerns not just you know the spraying of command but also what other things would be sprayed postings to notify residents and the many people that recreate in the field that maybe don't live next door and soil testing water testing we had a whole bunch of concerns and the last email I had about three weeks ago from from Mike basically said that he met with the farmer and they agreed to not use command and to have better postings and that's everything that's happened and it was put back on me of what what do the residents want to see happen which slightly frustrating since I feel like everybody talked about it in October and now we are in February nothing has been done so I would just keep in mind when you're working with the farmer and with Mike that it seems

like Mike is reticent to do any actions at all he wants to play it safe and not really do anything not using command technically the lease already said he wasn't allowed to use command because he used it incorrectly so he really just reiterated to follow the lease thank you for the add additional context thanks I have question to uh Stephanie or Lee have have you folks um talk to like in a systematic Way Gone door too on Route 20 or in uh the Strawberry Fields area whatever is within 12200 feet do those folks know about this already or we haven't gone that far uh at the initial time that we had gone through it we didn't yet realized that the 1200 feet is also the property line so we were looking 1,200 feet from the like actual area that was sprayed so we've gone up and down sections of bondor Hills I think we've talked to a few folks on 20 but we haven't gone as as far as Strawberry Fields I mean that that's a lot of people if we started informing them uh they probably have some opinions and that might strengthen our ability to get um you know some more direct action whether it's for the short term or the long term um Jim had mentioned the fact that there's the other properties that this farmer also leases and Jim I did didn't see you this morning when I walked that field you you said you walked the uh the East Street property I did also this morning because I wanted to see you know what was going on there and I didn't I did recall that um he I believe he leased that field the previous year um and one of the items that he had

listed that he would possibly plant on it was tobacco so I guess I have a question about whether or not he planted Tobacco on that not this past year but two years ago and whether or not he possibly might have used command on it at that point it looked like this year when I looked at what he had out there it looked like it was corn and squash I wasn't able to tell that he had done tobacco this year um but that might be a question to ask him because if he did plant Tobacco on it and he did spray command on it chances are it did drift over towards the school and those people that were uh adjacent to the Farmland there so I think we do need to kind of look at the entire all of the properties that this farmer leases and I think that we need to think in a bigger picture about going forward maintaining the soil quality and asking ourselves whether or not we want someone to be put certain chemicals on it or maybe we need to be very specific about what farmers are allowed to spray or perhaps not spray at all yeah agreed in the different guides that um that I um you know reviewed a lot of it as I shared in summary fashion and if anybody wants a couple hundred pages of reading mat material um um I'm glad to send you the the files um but um they they talk about many things that um uh would I guess typically be encompassed in a long-term plan and conservation and development um around your goals and objectives for agriculture um and also they list some

articulate some great case studies there's there's there's um one town I think it's maybe it's Lebanon connectic that has 6,000 Acres that are permanently conserved and are in agriculture annually we are a small small fraction of that but then there's also case studies that are more sized to to Grandy so so longterm um I think we have a lot more U more options I I understand that the plan of conservation and development is due to be updated soon so we might take some of that research and make recommendations along that those lines um but you know again shorter term I think we can you know have these these Frameworks to consider I know one aspect that we will also need to consider would be you know who's going to do the work what resources are available uh and you know are there things that we as Commissioners want to commit to do we want want to put out a call for volunteers from the town to help with this is there special expertise required so that's one one aspect that we might want to consider as well is is who's actually going to do it because you know putting words on paper is not is is good but doesn't always get done what you want done um so yeah so again Jim I really appreciate your your efforts and in research and application um and I think uh I think we will persist in education communication and um you know trying to try

to continue to influence the town manager to take some action as appropriate Cara I think just a suggestion is like I think if again I'd be glad to reach out to Mike copy the Commissioners if if you'd like um and say hey could we schedule a meeting in a week or in two weeks um and and and in that in that that that lead time easy for me to frame something um the more time that passes it might have more detail to it but but like I said framing it is easy and then to the extent that there's information available um um there's information available or or there is a notice of ation or response available I think that would be supplementary but I'd say boy in the interest of approaching a growing season probably better to meet and talk than than than to wait for you know to wait for perfect though though maybe we meet in March and there's an April update because some more information comes in later so um I mean I'd be glad to take the action to to reach out to Mike and see if we can schedule something maybe about two weeks from today yeah good um Zach I saw you come off mute and Dave um David you raise your hand so Zach first and then we'll go to David yeah I think all that um Jim thank you for taking the lead on this and it makes it a little easier on me than trying to have prevent being any conflicts of interest um just uh I I know we keep mentioning the growing season is is coming up quick and to try to give a little of Peace of Mind to Stephanie and Lee and to any of the other neighbors please if if there is an issue I hope there is not an issue but the first call that you need to make when there is an issue is call the state um the state has preemption on pesticide

applications within the state even though it's uh town-owned property um that's that's who Who You'd call um Adam or one of our other inspectors will come out if it if there is a concern of drift and it's a much um there's not a six-month wait between the application they will take samples we will prove drift and there there will be consequences for for issues such as that thanks Zach David I was just gonna ask um if uh I might have missed it but how are we GNA know if there's a u notice of violation and if the farmer um has a response to that is that something like uh Stephanie and Lee are you going to request that or we should we do it or what so that we're informed you know as rapidly uh about about that information so should we ask Adam whether or not that's going to be happening I think somebody somebody should get the information I'm just wondering who doesn't matter who it could be any of us probably but maybe you are the you know well I'm the complainant so yeah kind of makes sense so I sounds like I should call Adam back and say what's going on with this that'd be great thank you and let us know and and I guess just to say it as the landowner um I would imagine Mike would would be or as the representative of the landowner the town manager would also uh probably be pretty motivated to find out that information as well so I'm assuming and that is one of the things he shared is that I I don't know who he spoke with I don't know if he spoke with the inspector directly um but he he did share that he he was also reaching out

to deep um to understand this report and any other actions so um but I'll uh I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll share that with I'll ask him that question as well when when I ask about the meeting uh setting a meeting time all right any um any last comments on the barnor Hills before we move on to the next items all right again Stephanie and Lee and Danielle thank you for joining thank you for bringing this um information bring bringing this issue to our attention and to the town's attention um and we'll we'll keep pushing on you know I should add one thing um thank you not just uh you know for protecting your property but this is a townwide issue this is a you know Global issue and I had an inquiry a couple days ago from Connor Hogan who the director of mlan he said I saw this on your agenda is what's is this what I think it is what's going on so people are paying attention and um aware and it's important that we do what we can so thank you comment on both con I I did try to contact Connor directly good thinking that would have some input and got absolutely no response so I'm glad I'm glad he's figured it out just a six months was a little bit a little bit late I appreciate the commission working on it it seems like the more voices we can get to help out and it seems like the town manager is not really sure what to do so any more formal body to help provide recommendations I think will help move this along faster than how it's been going so far yeah and it may be a a select persons meeting or meeting

with you know their public meetings or U including you know at least the first select person in U a meeting with the town manager might be in order as well or in addition or down the road just I don't I I'm not in touch with Connor much so it was nice to hear you know sort of get a note out of the blue he's a young father so that you know that tends to make you a little crazy having a young kid around okay wanted to say thank you to um to everybody here for giving us your time and um again adding your voices to everything so um and Lee and Steph like thank you guys for continuing to uh just move this forward so appreciate it I look forward to hearing next steps thank you all right um next item up is composting um and will forgive me I have not introduced you to Mindy gold um I will I will do that um have is there any other anything else we want to talk about with composting at at this point uh yeah absolutely um and I actually I got uh Mindy's contact information from uh David um so I've emailed her and I'm you know waiting to hear back um but in the meantime I reached out to Blue Earth compost and for those of you who don't know this organization they they've got a facility like large composting facility um in Hartford um up on the Windsor um near the Windsor Town Line and um you know they Service uh they have they've got 15 employees they service a um you know a handful of towns U they're a growing organization he

thinks that they're be opening up some sites uh new sites in the future uh in the not too distant future um and you know he conf he actually I asked him do you have anything going on in grany right now he said well actually we do we um we get up to um um the Wells Road school and to the Kelly Lane School uh the kids there have a compost project uh going on in both of those schools and so they get up once a week and they pick up uh the compost from from the kids um they also pick up from uh some of the grocery stores um so you basically there's there's a few options in terms of you know uh bringing uh their services to the town of grany um one of one of which is if if we don't reach the magic threshold of uh 50 participating households um uh we can set up a a compost been a collection site uh up at the transfer station and then you know they will go up and they'll you know uh pick up the you know the food scraps uh once a week from the transfer station um the you know the the uh the other option which I'm in favor of and and I have to believe that we can drum up the support uh in this town uh would be if we can get 50 uh households uh interested in participating um in this service and so basically what happens was the the households will will sign up uh and um Blue Blue Earth compost will give them each a a fancy little receptacle for them to put their food scraps into and then once a week they come by and pick it up um they ask that uh I think they said that they get up here on Wednesdays

they they ask that uh um you know the the uh buckets be put out by 8:00 in the morning um you know generally speaking just like trash you don't want to have it overnight because animals could get into it um and uh you know what the the benefit that will come to all these families in addition to to uh you know have having this good feeling that helps them sleep at night that they're doing a good thing for the environment uh they will get a a bag of compost once a year um and uh it's a large grain grain bag that they fill with the compost and they drop it off um you know in advance of gardening season so it's it's a really really cool program um yeah I asked him if if they rely on Public Funding and he said you know we we sell a lot of compost um he said there are some other Revenue sources but we're we're virtually self- sustaining at at this juncture so it it it sounded like oh the other thing that he said to me I I asked him um if they could um help us with Outreach and education um you know to uh you know to drum up support in the in the community he said absolutely he also offered um you know they they have Representatives who are very knowledgeable about composting the program they can answer any questions they'd be happy to um join us for a meeting and make a 5 to 10-minute presentation so um I'm in touch with Charlie he's already sent me some uh educational materials I will review them if any of them look uh you know you know worthy of distribution uh you can expect more items in your uh inbox um but um you know from my standpoint I I'm confident that we can we can find 50 households in the town of

grany who who are willing to um you know participate in this program I mean I live in a homeowners association I can send out a blast email uh and a you know I I can only imagine that at least you know five five or 10 households in our little uh you know neighborhood will sign up for it um he said the last time they uh they looked at gramy they they got about 20 to 30 families that were interested so you know I think it's it's a matter of getting the word word out there um and um you know we could certainly place an ad in the drummer uh you know we could uh we could put something in the in people's mailboxes um and we could just do you know the word of mouth um and uh and you know and and and a uh a little flyer posted at Starbucks where everyone goes to at least once a week so that's my report so thank you will David I just had a couple things to add I really didn't do my assignment I'm sorry U despite your excellent notes um uh Kathy not Betsy um which were to look at uh sites for drop off the one of the two options will was describing and to check back with sustainable Connecticut about their the currency of the grants because we had a presentation from them about their matching grant program and it was a a pretty easy way to get a whole bunch of um funding and sustainable Connecticut has made a priority of composting um so I I'll go back over those notes and and refresh and send you that information beautiful and then um you know I did uh check with hul farm and they they uh Joe O'Grady

felt like they needed to have board approval to um have a a pickup site but you know he identified a place that'd be sort of out of the way um or rather a drop off site it's kind of like a be a dumpster basically that that uh they would pick up and maybe there you know maybe there's part of the um negotiations around the uh the new solar facility on uh the Monrovia property maybe they that would be another corner of the town so so that we could do you know let a thousand flower flowers bloom million flowers bloom whatever people could do individual pickup if they want or they could take it to the um you know to the drop off place and it'd be great to explore both of those oh and they just so you know Blue Earth did a really good Public Library presentation I think it was probably three years ago or two and a half years ago probably two years ago um and I think Charlie came up and did you know there were 30 people in the room so it was a good deal of enthusiasm yeah um this is an an agenda item for later but uh I've been talking to Holly Johnson at the library and she wants to do another series of conservation talks um and uh she suggested composting as a future so we'll we'll um so there may be opportunities to get Blue Earth to present again to the town nothing excites people like rotting vegetation yeah it's it's remarkable clearly you've met my husband um all right thank you so energy conservation initiatives David have you um had any more contact with Pace I think Kent was going to take the lead on this and he's not here tonight so we'll punt that um sustainable Connecticut where are we going um well couple of

items um that we've discussed tonight would be probably uh good things to make fodder for pre presenting to sustainable Connecticut um I think I don't have any updates on this does um Andrew or or will or or Jim do you guys uh need a a primer on on what this is and what we've done so far okay a little bit yeah a little bit um so sustainable Connecticut is a a state program that's designed to um encourage towns and give them a framework for um more sustainable behaviors and there are uh I think eight or nine different Focus areas um and actions you can take and and um there's a a form a website we fill out um we we earned bronze um was it two years ago um for our you know actions and it was merely just cataloging what the town had already done um so it it's a framework um it's a lot of work um but the uh it it can kind of give us um recognition for the work we've been doing and also um suggestions for additional things that we could do um and you have to get a certain number of points and then I think we need to be um re-registered within a certain number of years so I think we earned this in 2023 David do you remember what year we did that I think so yeah so then we would need to be recertified in 2025 or 2026 I think um

so so outside the good feeling that we're doing good stuff what is there anything else that that benefits the town from um doing this a nice plaque for the uh um for the town hall um there's there's some grant money associated with it um some support for other other areas so I will take as an action to make sure everybody um I'll circulate the website um and I I'm um somebody who uh sort of ambivalent about sustainable Connecticut because it's a whole lot of process and in larger towns it's you know it's often like the public works and the Grants Department works on it and it's it's kind of hard for a volunteer group to do it the way it's set up but they do ask a lot of good questions um and nudge in asking and answering the questions we U uh the process nudges us toward being more sustainable in the in the broad sense um and one I just I I was going to put this at the end but it sort of fits here um one thing that we've worried about is that we sort of barely qualifi you have to um you have to meet minimum standards kind of in all areas and one of them is housing and we've done very little on afford it's affordable housing we've done very little on that but we barely got through you know the last time and we've kind of slid back U so we the Conservation Commission have had come have have said have you know sort of worried about that and uh it's also a um since we know that people in town care about sustainable Connecticut certification it's a little bit of an

extra nudge to getting um you know some more affordable housing taking more responsibility for housing um people in the in the region not just the people who can afford to live here now um and uh there's something called the um housing action team that's been recently fun founded uh and I just wanted to tell people that I'm on it it's part of a small group of people so far but we'll probably do more we've had one meeting so I'll tell you more next time than on we're basically educating ourselves at this point so they're tying in sustainable Connecticut with affordable housing it's it's one of to have a sustainable Town um it has to be sustainable in lots of ways it's not just resources um so yeah that's and homeless this is another one that it's you know it's Human Resources as well as uh maybe environmental or or historic or you know physical David as you've had had that discussion I guess I presume you're connected to the U the the potential Redevelopment of the school to Senor housing just um you know aware of it yeah sounds like it's going going great well it's it's at the the early early stages but they they chose the developer and I forget the number of units and the percentage that would be affordable units but of the two proposals put forward they did go with the the the group that had the well both the larger number of units and the larger number of affordable units so FYI and the ability to to do the project the way it was is that is that public knowledge and who won it who's got it yes yeah it was in the it was u a summary I mean I I went to some of the meetings but but a summary was just in the oh thank you two of the applicants um merged their proposals um yes so that made a little bit easier and the the third applicant

you know really different kind of proposal it was it was fun to listen to because our kids went through Kerns and he was talking about you know we can't let let these these beautiful murals go uh disappear um is true but it's also really hard to work with an existing footprint when you're trying to make something totally different yeah so I I watched I I wasn't any more participant in that all all right um I think uh next item up is um Library talks um so a couple of years ago we had a series of talks with um at the library um on various topics um Holly Johnson mentioned to me that there would be an opportunity for the um uh conservation Commissioners to again share uh items of interest to the town or organize uh experts to come in um in the past we've had presentations on electric vehicles um choose to Reuse Recycling reusing repurposing uh composting Dark Skies invasive plants uh no M um planting a vegetable garden pollinators trash and taxes uh and weather and climate change have been some of the past topics um that's a nice list yeah um yeah it's uh we've done some you know we've had some talks so it's good um and then Holly suggests we could have these talks either on uh a Tuesday uh say the third or fourth Tuesday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 in the reading room at the public library um occasionally Thursday evenings are available or uh the fourth

Saturday of the month from from 10:30 to 11:30 would be the timing um so she had just suggested um April to have uh wa water quality um for Earth Day um something on insects um in May um potentially composting I put these in the her suggestions in the chat um composting and food waste in September um that could be a good goal uh that could either be a kickoff of the program or a way to um uh sign people up and and part of an a campaign um and then uh October more invasive species um and the no in November Wildlife diversity and habitat um perhaps including some of the others um so I guess the first question is uh is their interest on the um uh committee as it now stands to continue to uh to help continue to organize these programs for people um and the way we did it I'm sorry go ahead I was just gonna say we often um coupled them with the drummer article either before after you know sorry car was gonna say and I think the way we did it before is each of us took a topic of interest and uh kind of wrote the article and led the led the you found the speaker speakers or or led the discussion um so I would say that we um if you know if we want to do it if we're interested um I would suggest that we each you know pick a topic and commit to a date um or you know if these topics aren't of interest if there's another that you

would find more interesting um we can uh consider yeah we can have other we can make other suggestions okay you know the invasives is is easy um the Statewide group the Connecticut invasive plant working group has a has a speaker Bureau and it would be great to bring somebody in you know who's got specialized knowledge about plant X or Y or you know strategies or uh it it there's some really good people so that that'd be easy great um Zach are you interested and comfortable with the you know insect topic either pollinators and highlighting the uh pollinator um Meadow or you know talking about um mosquitoes and mosquito management sorry um yeah I think I gotta look at my calendar and see that that was May right yes that's May 13th yeah I think um we probably I can talk to the pollinator Meadow people and see if we can't do like uh cover both topics and kind of draw multiple crowds go over pollinators and go over uh p control or something like that that would be fantastic and will would you be interested and willing to take on the um composting and food waste absolutely okay and is September you know tentatively a good time for that

um so it would it could be on a Saturday it could be uh during the week t on a Tuesday evening um yeah I mean I do have some uh travel planned in September but I'm I'm sure I could work something out yeah that sounds right okay um and Jim or Andrew do any of the other topics resonate with you or or is there do you have another suggestion there I apologize um user issue on my end I'm taking this meeting on my phone and I can't seem to find the chat oh no okay um so I'll I'll read it again so the the ones that Holly has suggested would be uh in April um Earth Day Tuesday the 22nd uh water quality and quantity uh including include the Farmington River Water Authority um you know water uh Water waste lawn other I mean she's just sort of brainstorming um maybe the um the water the local water company or companies uh Aquarian yeah that might be well no the the gramby one oh okay maybe I don't know um and then the the other one that would you know need someone be the wildlife diversity and habitat um I'm happy to take on either of those so I wonder if um Wildlife diversity and habitat I wonder I wonder

if um if Connor Hogan would be willing to to to join something like that yeah I think that's that's probably a good suggestion as well you I'm I'm I'm I'm glad to ask him um which which month was that that was November November yeah I mean I'm I you you can put me down for that one and and and I'll I'll start with reaching out to Connor and if that doesn't doesn't work out I'm I'm sure we could go into a a slightly different um Direction um having been to a couple of his annual presentations um that already talk about you know just take kind sort of the bullet points of number of species and plants and animals and whatnot I I I would imagine I mean he's got uh um if if those presentations they're not huge and they're held down at the mlan residence facility so I I see a couple of folks from grandby there but not lots and lots so I would imagine that would be fairly new material educational material maybe for most in town who might join this well then I will uh work with Holly on the April presentation then this a great first list I'm look forward to you know maybe flushing them out now that we've taken responsibility um you know in future meetings and running ideas by each other and you know there are lots of resources out there who's what would so and so stress and you know in their presentation what would be useful for people in Grammy to hear about like it's a great ongoing project thank you all right um thank

you um invasives anything to add or or update us on I don't think so from my end you know we'll do another invasive action on the second Saturday in April I forget the date uh we have changed the time it's now 10 to noon uh we had a great Gathering of you know some really hardcore people in rough wind um and some ice uh was it just last weekend uh on the 8th and um including Jim and it was terrific we got we got a ton done and right on Simsbury road so it's very visible and right across from anyway uh so went well and if anyone wants to talk about it more I'm happy too you all right um topics for April um I think we should keep the barnor obviously keep the barnor hills Farmland um on the agenda um I think um looking over the agenda for this week or this month um I think updates on all of these would be good unless anybody has objections or uh anything to add okay final comments from Commissioners great to see you all yeah what qu one quick mention item um I don't know if folks are aware but um the game Refuge is doing a pretty sizable Capital

campaign um and that comes from Connor's Focus I guess he's been there since 2017 or 2018 now of of maybe and and again I'm only a four and a half year resident so I don't I haven't been here for decades but but as he talks about it maybe his focus on doing research projects is much more than than Maybe previous um stewards and and so the the building that's on barnor Hills Road which is a good-look garage and workshop will be transformed into a zero energy building that is going to be about half office space meeting facility archival facility more towards the research programs and a little bit of shop space um it sounds like it's going to be a multi-year thing but um anyway if if folks weren't aware of it Bo that's a just a neat project in town that's coming along thank you for letting us know about that um uh so my comment is just before this meeting Kathy shared um a notification from um Aquarian um who's uh has a call to nominating projects um to spread the word about environmental um projects in our community uh and it occurred to me that maybe the pollinator measure Meadow would be a good um a good project to nominate um uh for that um a good project to nominate for that award just to recognize the work of the community in um creating more habitat um and then the other comment is the

uh um Native Plant trust has a call for nominations um for uh who your who is your native plant hero um and there's a volunteer service award and David at risk of embarrassing you I would like to nominate you for that for all of the work you do with invasive plants that's really nice can I decline please I mean there are lots of really great people joing stuff I don't need to you know it's not me it's thank you anyway okay well well you're my native plant hero so all right there are really lot yeah and the it would be interesting to talk to the meadow people about whether like the timing is right because it you know it's a multi-year effort and Zach knows a whole lot more about this obviously than I do but they might say well give us a couple more years or something I don't know so um Zach I'll forward this um if when you reach out to the native plant folks about or sorry the U Meadow folks about a potential presentation in May um I'll forward this to you and and you know if you would ask and see if they uh would be interested in being nominated this year can do it okay thank you all right any other final comments uh then may I have a motion to adjourn so moved all right second second all in favor I all right thank you than you anybody if anybody wants to continue we all go meet at the Bears

then but I will uh I will see you guys later see you next month thank you bye bye and thank you C you're welcome