Conservation Commission - Regular Meeting

I have 7:30. It's the um April 14th, 2026 Conservation Commission. I call the meeting to order. And Mike Speltz, can you vote for David? Yes. And first, he's at the meeting I just left early from. Um so, Diamond Edge is up first. Try try to look for this edge. Do you have it? See that on the You want me to help you? Why not? All said.

Good evening. My name is George Chad Wickham with Bedford Design um representing Diamond Edge Realy uh who owns a piece of property at 115 Hy Road uh known as tax map 12 lot 138. Um, our company, Bedford Design, um, did the boundary, did the topography, located the wetland flags that were hung by Luke Curley, uh, certified wetland scientist. Um, there is on this parcel, it's about an 8.7 acre parcel, plus or minus. Um, our proposal is to subdivide it, um, leaving um leaving 2.5 acres with the existing house and the balance of about 6.1 acres or so um will be with the new lot that is being created. On the new lot there is a a wetland on the westernly property line there. Um the wetland itself is a total of and this is the total area of the wetland on our lot and the abuing lot uh 12,665 square ft. So it is under the halfacre size of the uh CU district. Um that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Uh it's a simple, you know, carving one all one lot off a uh off a parcel of land. Uh we're here to answer any questions the board may have.

So there's one house on the whole six acres. One house. For now. What's that for now? Nope. One house. We did several concepts on this land. And the parcel is fairly steep. Um to build a town road in here, we can get 12 lots. Go ahead. Um but based on the topography, the uh materials road standards for the town, um Mr. Lome decided to just carve it in half and sell off one lot and not in half, but carve, you know, carve one lot out of it and uh and sell it. That's a long driveway.

It would be um we plan on building up near the where the well is. Uh you see a 4K and a well shown on the plan. That's where the the house would be located. Um we do have driveway plans and stuff as part of this set. But uh um that's in a nutshell. We're splitting it splitting off one additional house lot. My own concern when I looked at this driveway, I have a long driveway that goes up the hill also. Mhm. I ended up putting in a snow storage area down towards the road because otherwise you just get too much snow buildup. Sure.

So, I had to have a place to put it. I don't see where you've got a spot to store any extra snow. Well, based on I agree based on the town regulations even for a single family lot. I'm sure you all know that uh um we got to look at storing and treating storm water from the driveway of a single family home. Um in doing so, you'll notice on the road plans, can you flip to Do you have the second? Uh one more.

One more. There you go. Um, on the road plans you see a sort of a a drainage basin located at the the base of the the hill in order to collect the storm water from the driveway in the house as it works its way down the hill. So, I agree. I mean, there is a small area um not a large area to push snow there. And unfortunately, that's the only place to I could put a a drainage basin of any size or sort because at the bottom of the hill, it's not going to do me any good putting it halfway up the hill. So, um you know, I would agree there is a small area at the base of that driveway for uh you know, pushing snow. So you you're going to have to put the snow should we should show the snow storage area, but it's going to have to be in here. Is that what we're saying?

Yeah. I mean, they can push it off the sides of the driveway like you normally do, but I think what Jean was talking about was Yeah. at the end of everyone's driveway, you plow the snowbank from the road out of your way and where's that going to go? Right. And I think that's what what he had me what he was thinking. Well, just you always end up picking up more snow as if you're coming down the hill and it never goes all off to the side. It's this gravity thing. Yeah, I agree. Had 30 years of plowing my driveway and I always try and plow it an extra two feet wider than I need to. Sure. So, do you want to say

recommend designating some sort of an area for snow storage down before it gets onto the road? And we need to keep it out of the out of the detention pond. Yeah.

It's a a fairly um hefty amount of dirt that's going to be moved for this driveway. looking at these plans and where the driveway is going and where the natural contours are. Um there are there any special precautions that you can take to avoid sedimentation? Um we can certainly put and I think on the plan it shows still fence but we can put other erosion control you know type measures as a temporary ba basis during construction. Uh once it's all stabilized and the seed is grow is grown up and and germinated,

I'm not sure it'll have too too much. I mean, you you look at the plan and it looks like it's a very very steep driveway. Um it's 8% if I think. Is that what that says there? Yeah, Mike. I think it says 8%, right? Um

8% really isn't that steep. Um, you know, I've seen other driveways in other towns um much steeper than that, but unfortunately topography of the land is the topography of the land, and we don't want to be creating a a large um disturbance near the wetland. We're trying to stay away from it as much as we can. And then you're basically creating a swale on the

correct on the wetland side there'd be a a swale um that would collect runoff from the road uh the driveway excuse me and uh bring it down to that basin and then there is a short section of road uh keep saying road I apologize road on the mine uh short section of driveway adjacent to Hubby road where we'd be big digging in a small little sedimentation swale to get it to the culvert uh that crosses underneath Hy Road right there at the west uh northwest corner of the property. There's a an existing culvert that goes under the road. I think maybe we should just add um um I don't know how to say this and maybe we can ask you what you'd like to see with this uh but some form of additional um erosion control during construction to prevent

above the sil fence that's shown on the plan. Right. All right. Um in the sock maybe

we can do that. I mean, I think or some sort of mulch berm or something like that that can be built up. Um, there will be some trees that need to be cut down. Maybe we can use create a a mulch bm of some sort. Um, juke matting or or something. I can also state that in the the drainage ditch every 100 ft there is a stone check dam during construction to slow the water down as you would if you were designing a road. So there's a you can see those little black horizontal lines or perpendicular lines to the driveway as it goes down the

maybe we should just say take additional measures uh to be determined by the contractor to prevent sedimentation during construction. live with that.

Certainly are. All good. Anybody else? Okay, we thank you for your time. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you.

Um, Jaxbridge Road. Madame Chair, commissioners, Uh my name is Tyler Murphy representing 12 Jaxbridge LLC for 12 Jacks Bridge Road. Um proposed project is a warehouse project. Um I was also involved with uh the entitlement process for 26 JB bridge. It was recently completed as well as 13page road. Um this uh worth mentioning given that this uh proposed project site layout and building is extremely extremely similar to 26 JBridge Road. Um I don't know if you can see it from the highway. It says zippy shelf on the back of the building. Um the the wetlands exist at least from the the page perspective. Basically top page right. Um and our intent is to stay out of the wetlands including the 50ft buffer zone. Um there is retaining wall there that essentially separates the site from the buffer zone of the wetlands. Um there are a couple points where it does get close but the scale of the site is is so large that um if you actually were to scale it and zoom in there is still some distance there. even though it might not look like it at this size and scale. Um, but again, the intent is to stay out of the buffer zone, stay out of the wetlands, um, and apply all, you know, typical practices and erosion controls associated with, uh, this type of construction. Um, and happy to answer any questions.

What's the warehouse for? Good question. It's uh, it's speculative, as was 26 JBridge. Um, but essentially, we just try to design a flexible site that could be for one or two users. Um for it's for dry good storage though. So no hazardous chemicals or or dry chemical storage. Correct. What's the I know there's a nomenclature for that type of warehouse spec. Speculative spec. No no it's like site type one or S2. The other one we were looking at the other day was like S2. Yeah. Not sure. Not sure. But it's in the what's what is Oh, you're talking for the storage classification. Yeah. Yeah.

Unfortunately, my architect's not here. Yeah, I do I am familiar with what you're talking about, but it does get the dry good storage classification.

So, we could um uh just make a note to the planning board that the um our understanding is there will be no hazardous materials stored here. And those um those provisions, it's too bad I don't have them in front of me, but I I do know what you're talking about. Some of those provisions have, you know, very very small carveouts based on square footage areas and certain precautions, lockers and things, but generally speaking, no, this is not for chemical storage or hazardous materials. You know, there may be a cleaning closet or something of that nature that those specific provisions you're referencing state how those have to be stored and how much and how much square footage they can take up. They're they're hyper specific um to provide, you know, to provide protections, right, and certainty. Um but yes, that's not the intent of the warehouse and what it's being classified as.

So this is big. It's it's um it's 11 acres. It's it's the same it's the same. It's more or less. So it's uh 2500 square f feet larger than 26. That's okay. You know, you've done the other one. My question is if it will it be will there be racks and things put in there? What will be in there? And well, what will people be doing and why so much parking? I can understand. Well, if you have all those bays, you need that for the trucks coming in. I understand that, but I don't understand what all the people are going to be doing.

Yes. So, we we haveund the building's 105,000 ft. We have 105 parking spaces. Um, so one per thousand is is pretty typical for this type of market. That actually is more than the town regulation. Not by much, but it is more. the town regulations probably something around 90 95. Um but we do try to provide one per thousand. Um and the parking areas are really for employees. So you know these do show right now uh two 3,000 foot office areas because even though this is this is set up for rack storage. Uh that's true. Um you know an operation of this scale does take um you know legitimate front office typically to run um and to manage this this sort of um this sort of uh these sort of goods at this scale. Um, so like I said, there's a total of two 3,000 foot offices, 6,000 square feet total. Um, and that's really what the parking is for. Um, and of course there'll be some, uh, employees in the warehouse and things like that that will also park there, but it's really to service the office space.

How many parking places for how many employees? I just There's 105 there's 105 total. Um, they're not designated between customer employee. Typically, these are employee only sites. It's it's uncommon. um that there's a customerf facing portion of it, but there there could be. Um so we we kind of look at it as almost all employee parking and this is basically a a one-way arrangement or is that just for the trucks?

That it's it is intended to be a one-way arrangement um in terms of so you know you're moving up Jack's Bridge, you know, closer to the Harvey House, so Pasco Coca-Cola up towards Harvey and the Culdeac. Uh that would be your entry point. um would be essentially plan left um and then they would circulate around and come out plan right. So it's going up the hill and then down and back out is the intent of the of the truck flow. And what about for the passenger cars associated with the staff?

They would basically uh designate one of the entrances. So if you're on, you know, the the planned right side of the building, you basically use that entry and exit point and on the opposite side that entry and exit points. The passenger vehicles aren't intended to circulate around the rear of the building. are or are not are not are not. So basically they come in and exit on the same on the same path essentially the passenger vehicles. So the people that are working on the offset plan, right? Are they going to drive all the way around or are they just going to come in the out exit place?

Well, the in the intent is for, you know, for sort of two tenants here. So, if you can see in the truck court, um there's basically that hatched line there where there's a fire hydrant denoted. That's essentially the the midway point in the building. Uh a remote there if you want to use uh if hold down the top button if you want to point at the

Oh, that is pretty fancy. So, that's the midway point of the building. So, uh, if you're if you're coming in here, you're parking, you're working in this office space, and it's it's planned that essentially there'd be some sort of demising wall around this area is the halfway point of the building. So, you'd be parking here, working in this half of the building, and exiting here. Uh, and then the same the same concept would apply here. And again, you come back to that wall, even though the trucks are doing that movement. Do you have a designated area for first responder access or is it common area with the public?

Um so the the first responder access so this is this plan has been reviewed by the fire chief um for truck turning radiuses the apparatus as well as fire hydrant locations um which has been at least preliminary approved. Obviously it has to go through the planning board and all that thing but he has looked at this and we have met with him in person to review this plan. Um, in terms of like a place of refuge or something similar, we typically try to put that around where the mechanicals are coming in the building, which is right around here. And we, what we discussed, which hasn't been totally ironed out, is basically running

um a sidewalk across most of the building in the front there. And the purpose of that um is so that if people are exiting the building or first responders, they can actually walk around the building, don't have to worry about bushes and uneven surfaces, things like that, which uh the fire chief had noted and addressed where was a problem somewhere else. Um, but that's that's sort of where that came from. So, I wouldn't say there's necessarily a specific area, but we are trying to take into account th those concerns and from that meeting.

If I remember from the planting plan, um, it's mostly on the Jack Bridge side of the building and I can't remember what we did at build uh 26 Jack Bridge. Is there any effort going to be made to screen the back of that building? So, the um what we're going to try to do for screening is simply not remove the vegetation as or remove as little of it as we can. So, that area right now is wooded. I would say that if if you were there in person today, the site is is is cleared, right, to a degree. right?

Your uh vegetation line that separates this site from the highway probably exists somewhere right around where where this hand is moving right now if you were standing there in person today. So this is this is a a newly cleared area but this area will remain as is today. So any trees and things that exist up in this area that separate the highway um will remain. Um and then obviously there there's you know the setbacks and buffer zone from the the height from 93 itself but uh all the vegetation in here of course in here this is all going to remain uh native how about for snow removal where do you plan to

we we have some designated uh snow storage areas here they're mostly in the truck courts the these truck courts are um they're a little bit oversized so we we plan them at 140 ft. The reality is, um, and tenants don't like to hear this, the reality is you really only need 120 feet to move it. That 20 foot provides a buffer for some of the really, really large tractor trailers if they need it, but it's mostly for snow storage. So that there's a place to put it. So you look at a 20 foot depth across that entire truck, which is probably close to 400 ft. It's a significant amount of snow storage.

Um, and the the the storm water systems, this whole site drains to the back. So, it's going uh uh in this area from here to here and the storm water management system is is set up to handle that. Okay. How how do the trucks use the bays if there's snow storage there because the the truck court's larger than the area they need for turning. So, it's oversized. Well, to to get in I mean to get into the warehouse are there I don't maybe I don't understand where you're going to put. Yeah. So, no we have this great tool. The snow storage is mainly here. Not being exact. Exact. Yeah, it sits right here. Okay. Turning radius is smaller. Got it.

Anything else? Could you explain how that detention p plant basin works there with a little separate structure inside that look like a sideways E?

Yeah. Yeah. there or or head our interesting head wall detail there. Um so the site uh right now your you're high right so this is your highest point of the site obviously we're leveling the middle and this is your low point right because J's bridge you're driving uphill this entire way. Um so what we have here is this is draining sort of I would call it onethird of the site. So this parking lot and a little bit of the building here. So this is up at a higher elevation. This is more or less the highest drainage point elevation on the site. What you can't see here is right here. U if we move to a different page, probably C301, um you would see the underground. Yeah, I I remember.

Yeah. So there. Yeah, there it is. Um that's taking um the truck court. This is servicing uh the truck court area. And then your last one, this is your low basin. This is taking a little bit of the building. And then this parking lot here. So, it's basically, it's not exact, but it's a third, a third, a third, uh, is more or less kind of how it's broken out. Um, but all traditional kind of typical head wall details, um, rip wrap details, all that stuff. They they'll look like any basin you've seen in any other site. Obviously, you won't see the underground one, but the other ones will. And how will you deal with um obviously we got dry goods in the warehouse so that's not too much of a threat but we've got big trucks that are full of petroleum oil lubricants and whatnot. Um so that that eventually that paved area there along the truck bays is going to become contaminated. Where does that go? They and they do have um storm sepster systems that are in I don't have the exact spec in front of me but there are storm sepster systems that get installed as part of the um piping and underground system um that essentially helps uh filter uh and reduce the effects of of what you're discussing. You know those drips and things that do come out of trucks occasionally. Um, also the um, uh, the truck core that's closest to the building there. Um, we do put that landing strip in there. That probably is going to move to all concrete. Doesn't change the impervious area whether it's pavement or concrete. It's really a tenant preference thing, but we're probably going to end up changing that. Um, which again just does help capture and separate things a little bit from the pavement area um, and contain things a little bit. But there are storm scepters as part of the the system that go in to help mitigate that issue. And then if I think I remember seeing

there's a maintenance plan that's attached to the

Yep. And then you know for a site of the scale you know we have to bond it. It's a pretty significant bond with the town and then we have to go through um uh a pretty intense process with the town engineer John um that basically talks about exactly how these things are happening on site prior to construction and then we have to go out with him and actually prove that it's happening. So, you know, we have a little bit of um rapport um with 13 page road and 26 JS bridge that that did go really well. Um and I think if if you asked him, he he would agree. Um and there were some wetland challenges at 13 page road. Uh not so much 26, but we were right up against, if you know from Rockingham, you know, that those wetlands w up and around and the site is sort of positioned up there. So, we had retaining walls and some things that were very very close, not dissimilar to this, to wetland buffers and and didn't have any issues. So, um, Severino was the sitework contractor on that and just did a fantastic job. So, hoping we can recreate that. You mentioned some sort of a liquid system for an emergency spill of some size, but that spill runs very quickly. Do you have an initial response for a dry chemical uh storage that will can be thrown down immediately to stop the spill while it's cleaned first before it turns to a liquid removal?

I don't have the answer to that at this stage of it, but we do have to have um uh property management plans and things in place before we're allowed to get our certificate of occupancy. So, those things do have to get ironed out prior. Um there does have to be um uh those details do get ironed out. We have to submit um SDS sheets on on anything that's that's hazardous. So so it's not something that gets ironed out typically now. And I don't want to I don't want to just make up an answer to give you an answer. I hear people do that, but I I can't say that it does get captured as as part of the sale process.

So the intent here is to build a facility and then sell it. the the title will go to somebody who's in the warehouse business, right? The intent's really to lease it. That's that's the main that's the main goal here. Um and and uh again, not to someone from from uh 26 Jax Bridge or 13 Page Road. They run a great operation over there. Um I'm sure you guys have seen the the trucks and and vehicles in and out at 13 Page. It's more active than 26. Um but no, the goal is really to lease it and and to create jobs and and start to um use the park for what it's intended for and warehouse goods. Um

so then the company that you're working for now will be the company that uh operates this management plan and submits the reports to public works etc etc. Typically a lot of that rolls down these are trip on that leases does roll down to to the tenants but yeah we as as as owners do have the site responsibilities so site management cleaning of the basins removing vegetation making sure they're not overgrown um you know and John is is really really good about that. Um,

and typically they the if you if you roll that responsibility down to the lei, they typically hire somebody to do that for them. Is that true? That's that's pretty typical. Yeah. But ultimately like basins and things like that, those are those are ownership items. More of the question that um Harry you were asking, that's more like a lessie type thing because it's hyper specific to what they have in the building and how they're handling it. So, um, but like, uh, basins and vegetation maintenance, um, and and landscaping, those are owner items.

Anybody else? We good? I think we're good. Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you. Happy to be in London again. Have fun getting soaked walking out the door. I I heard it right when I was walking up. I was like, that's an ominous sign. Thank you all. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have I don't see anyone for public comment. We'll move on. Um that's why Ron attends these meetings actually because there's never any public comment. It's quite quite refreshing, huh?

Yes, it is. Um, so old business. Um, we I sent the contract to the forester. Um, Sean Mahan signed it and we forwarded on. He is in the process of getting his um certificate of insurance to us and um so part of our contract agreement is to give him a deposit of $2,275. If anybody would like to motion for that.

Sure. I'll make a motion that we um make a deposit for the forester out of the I've forgotten where habitat fund. Okay. Because it's not I mean that's because that's what it's for, right? pause or do we want to authorize the full contract amount and then pay the deposit out of that so that money stays earmarked? Um yeah, I don't have that amount with me. The total Yeah.

Well, I think we have enough. We have um $109,000 in that account. So there's more than enough to pay for this job. And I don't think we have any other plans at this point. No. And then um he would like to eventually second. Oh, that's the motion. That's a good idea. Yes. All right. So motion by Deb, second by Jean. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I

opposed abstain. Motion passes unanimously. So I was going is that um he would like to come and meet with us and then also do like a a sitewalk through the musquash maybe not at the same time because obviously our meetings are at night and sidewalks would not be fun at well it could be fun but you're not going to learn much. Um, so and he's coming from New London, so he'll work that out. Um, I believe that the Scobby Pond boat launch has been launched. Um, they went and tried to do it or they checked a couple weeks ago, but there was still ice on the pond, so they held off. Pretty sure that ice is gone. Um, but normally, um, Ricky lets me know when it's in, but they might have gotten sidetracked and I'll just check it out eventually, but I'm pretty sure it's in.

Good. The best part of that is that we now have an established pattern with Dave to Yes. make this happen. Yes. Um, I do believe they used heavy equipment. Um, so old business that's um I guess I can just throw in the info about the our accounts. Okay. Nothing has changed. We've not received any sizable uh land use change tax money. Um we are do you remember what we were what our budget item was for this fiscal year? I thought it was a line item. Yeah,

it was like 3,300 or 3200. Well, that's what I thought it was 3200. It has been for a while, but I can't make the the numbers that they took out are odd and they don't they don't match. If I took out what we've spent out of the 3,200, come up with a different number than they come up with. So, I I will call Sarah and ask her to confirm what what that is if you don't know off the top of your head. Yeah. Because for the last several years, we have not been invited to participate in the budgeting process. We've just been assigned our usual number, right? Um, and honestly, that works. It works really. Um,

nothing really has changed from the things that we basically are contracted to pay out of that, right? Um, did we get books for our new members? Yes. Okay. So, there should be a charge for that somewhere along the line. That was Oh, long time ago. That's not in this. I can go back through my book, but I I think we got them in advance of Oh, okay. So, that would have been last a year ago, I think. So, last spring. Um cuz I don't have that here. I'm not What happens to those books when someone leaves the commission? Um they hopefully they turn it in.

They don't. They don't. That would be nice, but maybe they don't talk about it. is what I'm thinking like Harry and Gary, do you have the commission handbooks? Yes. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, good. Well, if they go to the NHACC convention and take the introductory course, they typically are given a book then. Oh, yeah. So if the system works nicely, then they would give us those books and we'd keep them, you know, to give to the next person and we'd always be ahead. A couple books ahead. Books ahead. But I don't think they're that expensive, you know. Well, I think we like 20 bucks a piece.

Yeah, something like that. 25. Who knows what what that cost? Yeah. I just we should go email NHACC and they send them I think we're talking and this is not really old business but I tried to add you to the Facebook page. Does anybody know how to add an administrator to the Facebook page? I pushed every little square I could push and I never got anywhere. Um, yeah, I'm not. But our last hope I I was thinking maybe to reach out to Mike Berley because I think he is also an administrator. If he's still Oh, access has access. Maybe he can do it. Okay. And maybe like write down how to do it.

Well, me and computers are not. And if that doesn't work, find a teenager. Any teenager. My grandsons just aren't quite old enough. Yeah. I know. They don't even need to read the directions. Just do it. Um you said business. Yeah. No. Um anything else for old business?

Um the we we u ran a request for proposals to make the signs, install them for Lithia Spring. Um I never saw them on the town website, Mike, but I know this. I know that the one response we got uh found it in the union leader was there, right? Yeah. Did it go up in the town website and and the you know the that section that talks about look you know proposals? I don't know if I put it there just it might have just been the union leader

because right now we only have one response u which which was good. I mean, it's a fine, but you know, I'd be very happy with them. What I'm what I'm worried about is um if the if that will meet the requirements for the um whatever they call what's that thing they've been arguing about for months now, the purchase purchasing power, right, policy, which it hasn't gone into place yet, right? But there's something in place. Yeah, and it's up, you know, it's a significant amount of money. I think we have to live with whatever is in place right now.

So, I will have I'll check with um finance and see if we can do a sole source justification because we didn't get anybody or if we need to repost it or what. Is that something that uh high school or a trade school could could do? No, no, it's it's a professional. Okay. over the top in my book,

but they're paying for it. Oh, yeah. So, that's the other thing. Uh the the co governor council I think is going to uh consider that report or that um grant um the next meeting which I think is this might be uh today. It might have been today. I don't know. It's like very soon. And so that is the sort of final hurdle to getting the money so we can award the contract and get the process started.

Um I also have drafted a trails RFP to get hire somebody beat the beat the make the trail. Um, and when I I I'll send that out to everybody or you'll you can send it out to everybody so that everybody's comfortable with it. Um, but then right now it's it requests building a trail from where we thought we're going to put the parking lot to the spring house and the and the remainder of the

causeway. The public works is concerned that if we put the parking where we talked about on the east side of high range or of is it high range at Yeah, high range at that point, it'll be a safety issue because they people got to cross the street to get to the trail head

and on the other side of the street it's pretty wet and right now it's it's covered by the conserv conservation easement, which arguably might not allow us to put parking there. And even if we could, it's it's pretty wet over there, pretty low.

So, I I I think we could uh do maybe a request for information on the trail. I'm a little bit reluctant to ask people to do a contract at this point because I'm not sure how we're going to solve this. Can we c can we stripe the a crossing? Can we put a blinking light in? Um uh bully say he didn't want to do a crossing straight. Yeah. Light I know from trailway's experience is expensive. It's a high figure

project and it's way too close to the intersection with 102 I think. Yeah. Oh, okay. So, that was James looking into he was trying to read the terms of the conservation easement and

Right. Right. Well, he's what he's doing after a little and fro about what the easement means is u coming up with two conceptual plans. One for the east side, one for the west side. And then um we can use the one for the east side to see if the owner of the fence company is okay with that. And we can use the one on the west side to see if the EES would be okay with that. Assuming that our engineers can figure out a way to put a parking spot in what's a very low area. So but we're going to do those two things. We'll get those two conceptual plans and and and run them up the flag pole and see if anybody salutes. So that's the current action.

Okay. Um so what I forgot to say is now is the time to make any decisions about money we need to spend on small things. Have we completely given up the cameras? Is that like not being done anymore? No. Bob actually went out. There's the three we have are still running. Okay, that's good. They're not being monitored regularly because Glenn used to do that. Yeah. Okay. It's fine. We did have something going on and I pulled the files and look went through them today. So, we can still do that. Okay. Good. But if anybody thinks of anything, right, that we need.

Um, moving on to new business. Um couple meetings ago, um we authorized I think it was $150 up to $150 to repair a bridge on Porcupine Loop. Um the mountain bike I was going to say people, but it's a guy, one guy who's been doing it. Um put a new bridge uh on Sarah Beth. So if we the total for the two together is $278.13. Um if we could authorize that would be good.

You need that or just an additional increment. We just need an additional $130. So move chair. Okay. Seconded. Motion by Mike, second by Jean. Any further discussion to come from the open space fund? Um, no. From the Do you want to take it from the line budget if we can? Yeah, we could. I actually I want to say we took it from the line item before. So, okay. So, what's the grand total? Keep it in the line item. Another 130. Yeah. 270. No, what's the grand total? Um, 27813.

Oh, that's what I wrote down. better than I thought it was. Um, yeah. Okay. And what else did I have? Um, Bob's found that at um Kendall Pond. Kendall Pond. Somebody has cut down trees and created a bridge to the island. Just laid down the trees. And the water's low enough to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's why he checked the cameras to see if he saw anybody with a chainsaw walking in there, but unfortunately nothing. So we really don't know how long ago it was done. Huh. Speculation as it was in the last few weeks. Oh, really? Okay. Um, but that's that's not you. You you won't see it unless you look for it. Oh, that there's it's not it's it's very close to if you if you go back into Kendall Pond, the blue and the yellow trails come together pretty far in there. Two benches there. It's very close to those two benches going across to the island, but it's not right on the trail.

So, if if you know where to look for it, it's very visible, but you have to look. Is it above the water? They they just they laid a bunch of branches and stuff down perpendicularly across to the island. Um so it's not a real bridge per se. I think it's just shallow enough that they filled it in and you can walk on top of it. I didn't try to walk on top of it. Good. When you said fill, you mean it's filled with woody material. Yeah. just tree trees and branches and looks like they ran out stuff and so they took down two maybe 4 inch trees and one slightly smaller. Is it going to create an impoundment hazard?

Uh could I? Well, water can go around the other side of the island, right? Yeah. And isn't there a beaver dam just just uh downstream from that? There may not that I saw, but I was really only looking for the bridge. Um, so yeah, we didn't Did someone report it to you? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so don't know how long it's been there. It's not real obvious, but the same person reported it to me, walked in behind two other people and walking briskly behind them, they immediately turned and went across it. So

like, they knew it was there. So, I was I was hoping to find someone in front of this person and I didn't because there's two ways to get there. Yeah. And we're only monitoring one. I wonder what they're doing over there. Well, that's the other question is there. That is basically a piece of land that's totally handed over to nature, but not right now. So, should we go in and rip it up? Should we just That's not the Roi. No, this is the island that we can't figure out who owns. Oh, that's

the mystery land. Um that it just is we can't narrow down the owner. We just don't make plans for that. It's one of these things, you know, where the deed said that it was next to the big oak tree where the cow died. I mean, we could we could pay a title attorney to answer the question, but it would be a lot of expense and I'm not sure. They I think they've looked for it a couple times and it's like

maybe what we need to do is come up with a uh boundary line agreement with who? Somebody must own the the next part over. I mean, there's that's part of the real question. Who's the next donor?

Well, is it is this piece that you know now we're calling the Roby piece out there that island is that this island? No. And it was there was a question. I mean, I came across something in one of our files last month when I was staying close to home more. So, I was going through some old files and it was Yeah. something from about 82 or 83 and it was in question then about which piece it was and who owned it. Does anybody pay taxes on it?

Well, that's that's part of this whole question about whether it's the quote unquote Roby piece because the Roies were paying taxes and they claim that theirs is the piece that is now out in the the actual pond itself. is part of that, not this little piece of land.

And as I said, the the original deeds very nebulous about they don't pay taxes, you take it over. Yeah.

Um I am looking for someone again to write some articles for the newspaper. And just we were talking about stuff this week and I was an idea for an article is um to write about the drought conditions in the state that um we're not officially in drought, but it's like so close that it's ridiculous. And if you read any of the projections, we're not projected to get out. This isn't projected to get any better. and to make people aware that even though it's not officially drought, we maybe should be as cautious as we would if it were a full-on drought.

Yeah. And uh I think we're running into a super El Nino, which means we're going to have get worse. Yeah. We're not going to get the snow pack, so it's going to all come in big storms and we won't get to keep it. Yeah. So, so yeah. Anybody up for a literary challenge? That's what it would be.

Or you can think of another topic that more interests you. But um it would be good if we could start doing that. We did put that in our strategic plan that we were going to communicate with the community through articles. But so put on your thinking cap. If you come up with an idea, let me know and we'll work on doing that. Um, you know, if anybody wants to do it and they're reluctant because they're not sure, I would be happy to, you know, collaborate, you know, write something and I I'll I can edit it. Well, I I I'm very concerned about this and I'm fascinated and I just

can't get my piles of paper under control. I don't need a new project. But I don't how long when you when we don't have a deadline. It's just I don't know. I was just looking at the the hottest hottest March warmest March and stuff like that. I just, you know, I think about this is the season when people put in their brand new lawns and this might not be the year to do that. Was never the year to do that. I was going to say neither has the last five years been the year to do it. So, I don't know. But there's some people that just don't get it.

No, they think, "Oh, I have public water. I can use this. I have plenty." It's like, no, but it comes from the ground, same as everybody else's, which is why we need the article, right? Um, so anyway, think about it. I'll be easy it'll be easy to research because there's been a lot of talk about it. Yeah, MUR on their little page every now and then.

I I think there's a website called droughtnew hampshire.com or something like that. Um, if you Google it, it's I would it was easy for me to find the information. Um, I have a a property that somebody has asked us to look at whether we're interested. So, I would like to do maybe a quick non-public, but you want to do minutes before so we can just Sure. I didn't see anything. I have one one other thing that I wanted to say which can I guess can go over on top of the minutes.

Okay. I was disappointed in that newspaper article that said right at the top of the front page article conservation commission mullles whatever it was we were mulling the open space not the open space but the natural resource inventory. We and we do that. I mean, we we we maul that all the time, but he took that little bit of public comment and turned it into a many paragraph, several paragraphs, and it's not really what we're we're always talking about that. We're always thinking about it. And maybe it fits in somewhere with things that are going on now. But

I don't know. I just I find that the newspaper reporting is so different than when I was chair. It was just it was fun. people that would call me and ask me questions. The reporters are in Tennessee or something and they're watching the the recording and writing the articles because Yeah. And if it's a slow newsweek, they make it bigger and we don't say much at the meeting then they have to expand on what's available. Well, let them we got to start having cooler stuff in our meetings. Yeah, maybe. Sorry. I didn't see anything with the minutes. Okay.

I move we approve the minutes as presented. Okay. Motion from Deb. Second. Second from Mike. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. I. Opposed. Abstain. I abstain. Okay. Bob and Jean. Oh, and me. I was there. You're okay. Bob, Jean, and L. Um, abstain. Do the same for non-public. We have Oh, yeah. Okay. Um, so do you want to make a motion to accept non-public

nonpublic last meeting? Oh, that's right. I I make a motion to accept the Okay. Approve the Yeah. minutes of the non-public session. I did read them. I just forgot. Second. Okay. Motion by Deb, second by Mike. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. I

Bob Jean ML abstain. Motion pass. Um, right. I gotta have my little prepared. Okay. I make or I would accept a motion to go into non-public session under RSA 91- A3, Roman numeral 2 for the discussion of an acquisition of property.

So move seconded. Okay. Motion by Mike, second by Jean. All in favor? Roll call vote. I L I L I Susan Malan. Hi D Evans. Hi Bob Maxwell. Hi Marge Boy. Hi Jean Harrington. I Mike Spilts. I Schwarz. Hi Gary Deligrada. Okay. And it is 8:26. And we can just run over into the the little room. What was the motion to end the non-public?

Oh, thank you. Okay. Um, all in favor, roll call vote. I, L. Bickford. I, Susan Malwin. Hi, Deb Levens. Hi, Bob Maxwell. Hi, Maroy. Hi, Jean Harrington. Hi, Mike. Schwatson. Hi, Garrett. Okay. And we're back at 8:48. Um, you haven't got anything else? I don't have anything. I will motion that we adjourn. I'll also second that one. Second your motion. Motion by Jean, second by Mike. All in favor?

I post. Meeting adjourned. All right, let's see.