Conservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Well, I have 7:30. A little quiet in here. Um, so I'll call the meeting to order. Um, Leo is a full is he full or look on the minutes.

We're not voting on anything. Well, so eventually No, we don't. For the sake of the minute taker, can we just do a roll call real quick from Mike Speltz present. Susan Malin, present. Bob Maxwell, present. Jean Harrington, present. Marge Bedoy. Deb Levens, present. David Heathy, present. Eligford, present. Thank you. Um, so starting with old business, I was You should start with public comment with all the public. Anyone for public comment?

Ray, where's Ray? Um,

have financials. So monitoring I Cheirsten was able to get me all the records that um Glenn had over at the police station or police department because once he left as conservation officer, he said he couldn't get back into that computer. So Cheerston got me all the records of the encroachments and what was done with it. So, um I was thinking maybe not wait till winter to do plumber maybe because I personally think going out in blaze orange when the trees are all blaze orange is really stupid that I would maybe like to do it before just you know because the bugs are down and maybe before we get all crazy busy. So, um, I'll try and work on setting that up.

And then our CCD is doing Ingresol and I haven't heard from the them on the others. It was just Ingresol on that contract, right? It Yes. So, we're working on it. And then, um, the second thing I had was the boat launch. One of the criterias for that boat launch was it had to be removed for five months out of the year. And I thought in one of the documents, and of course I can't find it, they specified which month they wanted it removed. Was it October? I think so. Yeah.

Because I was trying to figure out is it better to take it out in October and put it back in earlier or leave it and then put it in later? I mean, you know, what they're worried about is just turtles nesting in the mud, you know, hibernating in the mud. So, but yeah, I don't see that as a triple nesting area. Yeah. Um, but in the actual Well, it's not nesting, it's living. I mean, Oh, yeah. Because if we take it out in no, you know, for the month of November, December, January, February, March, we could put it back in in April. Yeah.

So, about like end of October. End of October. Beginning of March. Um, so then there's the question of do we need one of those wrenches that are four feet long or how are we going to do that? I think just a rebar, right? No, it was it was a pipe wrench. It was the biggest pipe wrench you've ever seen. I I've got one that's 3 feet, not four feet, you know. Do you think that has enough leverage to unscrew those posts? I'm not sure. Watching the way they were pushing at it. I know. He went swinging all the way around it. Yeah. Um Well, we have a little bit more weight on our end than he had.

Give it a try. As best I can say, if you want to get a bigger one, make sure everybody's got it. Is that something they would do for a reasonable price? They would do it, but they I can't remember what that It's like $500. $500, I think. Yeah. And then we'd have to pay it again to put it back in the spring. And all it is is literally twisting these posts. They got it. They have a They're threaded on the on the the bottom so that they just dig right in. Um, before it's pulled, we ought to look at it and try to figure out where to locate it next year. Right. I was thinking part of our removal plan would be to put in some some sort of marker

marker like a wooden stake with an orange ribbon or something to so we don't have that gap that you have to walk in the water to get to it. Well, something changed because we didn't have the gap at first, right? And and we don't have the gap now. Oh, it's gotten Yeah. My daughter was out there and she says there's no gap. Okay. Water levels are down there. Yeah. But was it because it was rainy or were the beavers playing with it, right? I don't know. I It's probably rainy. It was pretty rainy. It was very rainy and now it's very dry. So So where is it? Might be all right. So I don't know if we want to practice your wrench one day. Just we can we go out and try it.

Okay. We'll work on that. Is it just a pipe wrench? Yeah. And you have a three-foot one, but you think we might need a 4 foot pipe wrench? They had They had a 4 foot one. Yeah. And you know, they were working at it. Yeah. Okay. I can ask around and see if I know anyone who has It's just called a pipe wrench. Everyone will know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Giant. Okay. Um I know how people tools. I'll see if anyone has a giant pipe wrench. I take it they're they're expensive.

I can't imagine they wouldn't be. Yeah. But but if if if we wait against the $1,000 a year to take it out and put it in again, all of a sudden it's not so expensive. So see what see what Susan can find and maybe somebody should price one out. I'll do I'll do that. A pipe wrench that we need. It's Oh, she it was four feet long. You can take a pipe wrench and put a pipe on the end of it, believe it or not. Yeah, probably because all it was was for the leverage. Yeah. Um, and that I just wanted to say that little boat launch has been more popular than I ever thought it would be really because my my daughter said there was a bunch of people there when she was there and other people have told me when they've gone there were others

using it. So, are the car are the cars parking manageable? Did she say anything about that? Um, you can fit like six or eight cars there. So that doesn't seem to have been an issue. So I'm I'm pleased a sign that says brought to you by but and no complaints from anyone. Good. Good. Other than that in the beginning the woman who wanted us to have people not park in her yard. So um anybody have any old business? Well, do you want just a quick financial? Sure.

Okay. um that it's the end of the fiscal year at the end of June and it always takes a month to get them but that's okay. Um our we did not make the the the cut for the uh land use change tax. So the only income from the land use change tax was $91,659 which was under $100,000. So it all goes directly to us and that means we have $1,538,4329 available minus the contingency whatever which I never got a good number but I don't I think we're from Lithia. Yeah, I think we're I think we're good. Okay.

And um no more additional expenses. Uh no no big deals. No big deals. uh general fund. We did not spend all the money we we could have. So, what can I say? Maybe somebody appreciates that. And uh that's it. Okay. Unless anybody has any questions. I I had a question. I got to remember what I was I was thinking about the So, we had talked about u somehow noting obligated funds and I

Right. That's what I was saying. I don't have that down because I never got the exact number and I you know we have enough money right now that I don't think our when we talked the other day our obligations were not that high. Right. It was just the it was like $26,000. I think I was thinking and then I I don't have the u estimates yet for the uh the sign research and and whatnot. But in fact it's you know it's probably worth mentioning. Do you want to put an estimate in for that then?

I mean, we have I have an estimate to fabricate it, which is about 6,000, but I don't have an estimate for the historian or the graphic designer. The good news is I found somebody that will kind of do a a onestop service. So they they are basically the historical people, but they they're familiar with the lady that's been directing us from heritage, the historical division, and um she's done good work for them before. So it's a good reference, knows what they're looking for.

Yeah. So I, you know, I think it'll be smooth and but I just don't have it itemized yet. She said sometime this week, but I just I don't have it yet. So once I get that, then we can put in a request for additional funding from ARM for the difference between what we budgeted and what this is going to cost. Okay. Which I think is going to be in the neighborhood of 10,000 bucks probably. But see, they seem fairly optimistic we would we would get it. The the people at the historical uh division are really hot on this. They want this to be a showcase. So, wow. Nice.

Which brings me to the matter of we're going to have to find a trail contractor, I think, but I haven't done any research on that yet. um new business. Um NHACC has some upcoming training opportunities that are Zoom and one is GIS tools for wetlands assessments and that's in two parts on September 12th and September 19th both at noon. Um, and then

who's teaching it? What do they say? I'm sure it does say, but Maryanne Tilton and Emma Burgerer. Maryann's from Wetlands Bureau. Yep. Well, New Hampshire dees was at UNH convent extension for quite a while, but I think she picked another job up with It's not Emma Tutin. No, it's Emma Burger. It's not a different Emma. She didn't get married. Toutine was her married name.

Oh, that that's right. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Um so another one is called beyond boundaries collaborative largecale land management

and this is um UNH extension and distant hill gardens and nature nature trail um to learn about the benefits of managing land across property boundaries to benefit wildlife and your community. So that seemed interesting. And then the last one that was on that's going to be on September 17th. And then the final one on September 26th is wetlands assessment field study. And this one is actually on location at Lock Road in conquered. It's a field study session with focus on learning how to visit a site and identify basic wetland functions and services. So, just go on NHACC and you can sign up for them. They're I believe they're all free for NHACC members. And then a couple meetings ago, you have we had uh a DRC for a cup for up near Stonyfield Farm. It was a a recycle

place. Well, when they're done with their process here in London, they ship it to a place called Recycle Works in Brainree, Massachusetts. And I have an invitation here for two of us to go tour, I'm sure it's not just for us. There'll be a group, the Recycle Works facility on September 23rd. If anybody's in Brainree, Mass, which it sounds interesting, but it's an hour and a half. Yeah. Depending on the time of day. Well, it's it begins at 9:00 in the morning. Yeah.

Yeah. That means you have to leave here at 6:30. If there's other departments from town that have been also invited that if we could like carpool carpool or cart take a helicopter. Yeah. Yeah. I like that one, too. Um that if there's multiple people going, it would be good if we could consolidate. But if anybody's interested, it doesn't I would be if it were Oh, that's a I think that's the parent company of the the guys that are doing this at Stonyfield. Correct. Yeah.

Yeah. But they they you know they're all about zero waste and utilizing everything. And then the final thing I have is we will be on the September 2nd um town council meeting discussing the Murray's property. Can we have a PowerPoint for that? Yes. second. Not that far away. I know. Yeah. So, if we if we can get it to Sean ahead of time, he can have it queued up for us.

Yep. I've I mean, I have four or five slides already that did I share those with you, Sean, or not? Not for Maurice. No. Okay. Um but yeah, that's that should be doable. Um Okay. When when do we have to have them? you can send it to me just before the meeting and I'll put it on this screen. Okay? And that way we can we can pull it up and then you'll have it displaying. I'll make sure the chairman knows that you're going to be doing that too. I'll make sure that's all set, ready to go. And that's all I had. You had a request for $100 or something.

Yes. um two of the U projects that we're trying to develop are are going to well they all will eventually but at least two that are in the near term going to require data checks. So if you remember um anytime a developer or anybody is going to disturb a an area they have to go to what used to be Natural Heritage Bureau but it's now housed in dees um to determine whether the area of the proposed work overlaps with a rare threatened or endangered or species of concern. So that's just something that we have routinely we do it for even for a conservation project not because we're going to disturb soil because we want to know what are the resources in in detail that we're protecting. Is that with granite or just separate?

Uh, it's it's probably granite drive, but it basically you I just send them pretty minimal information on who's asking who owns it, where's the parcel, address, lot map, and lot. And then they look they look at it and they they say either nope, there's nothing that overlaps. and then doesn't cost you anything. Or they say, "Yep, there's stuff that's overlap and you owe them 50 bucks to find out

the details of what it is." And that price has gone up. Um, but, you know, because we're trying to find natural resources, it's almost always the case that we we'll have an overlap, which is a good thing. Yeah. So, I' I'd like to uh get those two checks cut. I I could send you the um the form invoices.

Yeah, it's just it's a form and that after you enter all this information, they they print it out and then um you just sign it and attach a check and send it in. And I I'll finish there's a couple things I can fill in the blank for and then I'll I'll PDF it and get it over to you. Okay. Do you want to just make a motion then? Uh, yes. He can't. I'll make I'll make the motion that we appropriate $100 to send to dees. Yep. For the um data check. It's called the two data checks. Data check. Two data check. Right. Right. Second

motion by Jean, second by Bob. Any further discussion? All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion passed unanimous. Anything else for new business? Um, this goes with the boat lodge, but if you're three foot, my husband said it's huge. So maybe if not, if we're going to be doing it ourselves, it's $265 to buy for the 4 foot one. um if you're three foot doesn't I think maybe if we're going to be doing it ourselves I think it would be better for us to buy one and save five right that's half the cost for doing it once so yeah

just if it doesn't work thank you for that information um and little maybe we can all go down a little elbow grease I don't know I don't even did he happen to mention where we would find that yes he sent Home Depot oh no kidding of All right. And it can be delivered or they can pick it up at the store. All right. And what did you say? 200 something. It is um $264.97. Okay. Do you want to a motion on that just so we get it done? The three-foot didn't work. I I don't know how, but

we we have time. Okay. Um did we say in that that motion where we were taking the money from didn't previous motion. No, I don't think we it should come out of the space line item. Line item. I think good. I'll amend my motion to say line. Thank you. Um that's all I have other than minutes. Ray, you missed public comment. Would you like to comment um briefly? Ray, nothing is brief. Come on. Nothing's brief. Okay, I'll do my best. Okay, I assume everyone has gotten a copy of this, right?

No, we have not yet. Okay, where did you get that? What is it? I could Well, uh, it is a survey that the town has put out. I'm not sure perhaps the town manager could explain that. There's no microphone at that stand. Oh, wait a minute. For the folks at home, Ray Brees, three Gary Drive. Um, I think this is really important. I I'm not sure whether Kirsten or the town manager or who come up with this. So, I think it's the master plan. Master plan. Yeah. Committee. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, this is really a great idea and I think everyone should um check into it and uh participate and and you can imagine I I certainly am going to Good because we need your help. Yes. And um I guess that's about it. Can you tell me where you got that? Where are you see at the library? I I got it from the town manager's office. Okay. If you just hand it to them, they can all take their phone and take the QR code and they could do it. I probably got enough to pass up. Good for you.

I wonder why they were all disappearing from the office because I'm much like last time we had them at the library and other key locations. So, I'm hoping they are there as well. Thank you, Ray. Thank you so much. Oh, this is what Sylvia was talking about. They were trying to find I couldn't I didn't get it. I told her I didn't get it. There was an email and there was a big mess up with email whether it was at Southern New Hampshire planning or some Yeah, supposedly the email has gone out to me. Great. Um, thank you Ray and continue your great work. Thank you, Ray.

Thank you. Um, you want to look over the minutes and then we have to do a non-public piece. Yeah. Um, Madam Chair, um, as long as the town manager was here and kind enough to give us, uh, a chunk of his evening, I wonder if it'd be worth just going around and, uh, introducing ourselves so he can kind of figure out why we're here, you know, who you are and what brought you to the Conservation Commission. I guess I could start. Okay.

He's he's already gotten sick of me anyway, but because he heard me on the utility committee and you know, I've been up talking about junk and everything else. Um, but I'm Mike Speltz. uh been at the forest society for close to 11 years doing uh land protection and I u have been on the commission since Nixon administration not that long for for not as long as Deb but pretty much beats me.

Yeah. Um, and I know my sort of portfolio here is is doing the managing the land protection projects, writing grants. Yep. He's our grant expert.

Hi, Sean. I'm Susan Malawan and I have been on the commission since 2019, I believe, and I've been in London for since 2018, but my partner grew up here. And I joined the commission because there were multiple large construction projects around my home and there are still multiple large construction projects around my home and I wanted to learn a little bit more about the process and what was happening. So that was my motivation for joining. Thank you.

I'm Bob Maxwell. Um been on the commission something like six or eight years. Um been in London area for over 40 years. I'm retired engineer and just want I've always really appreciated the musk squash and the preserves in town the conser conserved lands and just wanted a chance to contribute a little bit. Civil engineer or

uh mechanical engineer by training uh spent most of my career developing equipment for semiconductor manufacturer. So spent a lot of time in Asia. I like it better here. Jean Harrington. I've been on the commission since 83 or 84. I can't remember which year it was actually appointed. Um, my college training was in wildlife biology and regional planning. So, I have always had an interest in maintaining the outdoors and proper use of it. I basically for fulfill the historian aspect now because of the decades that I've been here. and expertise in conservation.

Well, I was yes, I was on the New Hampshire Association of Conservation Commission's board of directors for 25 years.

Marge Bedo been on the commission for 13 years. I've been chair for 10. Um, I have a degree in horiculture, which kind of got me into the plant end of things. um a real estate agent and been in town for 35 years. I'm Deb Evans. I've been in London Derry since 1970. I've been on the conservation commission since 1990. I think they had a project to get the wetlands buffers. And somewhere it said, "Well, we'll teach you shrubs if you come and take the, you know, you can learn some some more things." And I just barely knew my wild flowers. And I said, "Well, that's a good opportunity." And that was in 1990. And Jean twisted my arm to get me on the Conservation Commission. And the rest is history. But I I also serve on the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission, which I I didn't know anything about when I started doing that because they wanted me for my conservation information. And it's fascinating, but it's frustrating, too. And um yeah, that's it. David Heathy. I've been on the commission since I think Mike dragged me on and that was about three or four years ago, I think. And I've been in town about seven years. Lived in Massachusetts most of my life. I work for the um IT department for the state of New Hampshire supporting the education. And um I like being outside so I wanted to see what I could do to help preserve those spaces.

So do is where you work.

I'm El Keller Bigford. I've lived in London all my life. I was born and raised here. Um my husband is also on the planning board committee. We have a three-year-old. So I wanted to cons I wanted my son to grow up like I grew up like have the old legendary still with new buildings around you but still have that old town feeling. Um, I'm an emergency room nurse, so I have no plan, no nothing background. Um, besides chaos, which is what's going on in London right now with everything coming up. But, um, I just want to make Londereerry the same for my three and a half yearear-old. And I want that old time feeling still with new buildings, but still know everybody around you. That's why I joined the commission. I I was we were pleasantly surprised when we came here because, you know, there's so much growth in southern New Hampshire and we were living up in Lebanon for the last seven and a half years and a lot of wildlife. I live on 5 acres of land, lots of 16 deer in my yard every morning roaming around. But when we came here, especially the rail trail up in the northern end of that, the beavers out there, the snakes, um, and the heron that's always out there, I'm sure you've all seen. Uh, and of course the turtles, even on the southern end, too, the turtles. There's quite a bit of wildlife, a lot of rabbits,

and there's none up there because the bobcats and the coyotes have been eating them all. So, they don't exist up there. But, you've got a lot more down here, which is really, it was kind of a surprise to us because we expected this was more like a suburban urban area. It's turning into and a lot of that's disappearing from southern New Hampshire. And I grew up in Raymond, not very far away from here, where we used to have a lot of wildlife. And you're right, with this growth that's uh exploding and it has been since the 1980s

in southern New Hampshire, uh it seems unrelenting and a lot of things are getting bulldozed over and they're disappearing and um so I I have a I have a lot of interest in the things that you are doing. There's a lot of value to that and obviously you've got some experience here on this uh commission. So, I'm very much interested in working with you and we've already kind of started some projects and got some things taken care of like that deed finally and we got this uh junkyard I shouldn't say junkyard, Murray's auto recycling facility. Um, you know, that's an option there for us to take a look at and we've made some progress. I've worked with Marge and and Mike to be able to try to get to the bottom of some of those issues. So, when we have this discussion in a second, hopefully it's a fruitful one. And there's some other things that, you know, I'm sure that you'll talk about that I won't get into that we're working on. And I did look for that fishing pole, by the way, in the tackle box. Couldn't find it last night. You sent me an email at like by 10:20 last night and said, "There's there's other fish out there." I'm like, "All right, well, I'll go grab my fishing pole in my tackle box, see what we can find."

And I got my reply about 11:30. Yeah. So, we're getting our money's worth out of this guy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm making like $2 an hour, something like that. You add up all the hours. Don't ever make that computation. And I should I should let the commissioners know too, we are I think probably Marge and I are going to take the town manager on a tour of the town and point out some of the areas that he hears about but hasn't had a chance to see yet like the musk squash and kennel pond and whatnot. Nice.

And then he he did mention the deed. The deed is for the Pariner Road property that that was donated. Finally had that all buttoned up. Good. Good. And I I should have mentioned earlier the Lithia Spring um causeway is no more. It's it's they did a beautiful job. They took a lot of the plants that had managed to get established on the sides of the causeway and replant them into the the front. So, uh, our wetland scientist estimates that we've got about a 5year jump on Oh, nice.

Now, can you see the the new the new area from the road, like where it's been removed? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's pretty obvious. Oh, okay. I have to go check it out. Yeah. Nice. So, all we need now is a parking lot and a trail. Yeah. At least on the parking lot. Um, do the minutes.

I saw anything. I did not have any changes.

My little speech. If nobody else has any other comments, I'll move that we accept the minutes from the actual August 12th, 2025. Second. Go ahead. Did we get a second? Yeah. Mike. Okay. Um motion by Jean, second by Mike. Um all in favor?

I opposed. Abstain. Okay. Susan abstained and minutes are approved.

Okay. Getting the the cheat sheet. I Yeah, I can't find my I I have the wrong book. Oh, no. No, I have it. Yay. I have to go through my bag, I think. So, give me a second. I would accept a motion to go into non-public session per RSA 91A colon 32D for the purpose of discussing acquisition of property. So move. I will second that. Mike, you haven't been appointed. That's right. I'm sorry. I withdraw that.

Okay. Somebody else want to make a motion? I'll make it. Okay. Motion by Deb, second by um Go ahead. Um then we need a roll call vote. So you can start this time. Just say I I Carol Bickford. I David Eyee. Hi Deb Evans. I Marge Bedoy. I Jean Harrington. Hi Bob Maxwell. I Susan Mowin. I Mike Spelts. Okay. We will head to the next door. Someone would like to make a motion to come back into to to close the nonpublic. Yeah. So moved and seal the minutes.

No, we don't. No, we don't do that anymore. Right. That's right. Sorry. Want to second my move? I'll second it. Okay. Motion by Jean, second by Deb. All in favor? I. Um, anything else for today? I'll move we adjourn. Second. Motion by Jean, second by Dave. All in favor? I