Open Space Commission - Regular Meeting

I will call the meeting to order at 5:2 uh I would ask uh if uh we could have your approval to amend the agenda I would like to move the May uh potential town home open space property to our executive session that will be held at the end of the meetings second all in favor okay I I um also as we start given sorry Fred's absence I would like to have Joan seated for this meeting [Applause] okay would I have would someone make a motion to approve the minutes of the January 8 meeting Christine a second and uh are there any comments any any corrections needed on those minutes Andre you're usually a good proof reader everything look okay okay so uh may we vote to uh approve the minutes all in favor I oppos abstain minutes are approved uh and public comments is anybody online so nobody there so let's move on to open space property stewardship and would ask U Andrea to basically go over a little bit of what's been done basically when I was away I had the opportunity to see a lot of her great images and her great stories that she received publicity on through lineline and it looks like things were handled very well in my absence so um first I'll I think you all saw Peter's um Steward

report and Isaac had nothing more to add other than some Fallen trees and he sent some photos of that um Peter had um added some stones and some U wooden planks to the mulic tree in the Gap property um but as um the two biggest projects um were first in sequential order the environmental Club to the bench and um thank you for Joan and Russ for being there and Peter Norris um I will pass around just for inform visuals we copied the bench of the old Li land trust and there was a good learning curve in the beginning because um this is just one bench but the first feet of it took us an hour we were trying to let the students figure out yeah figure out what was what the real kicker was you didn't quite didn't quite get it so basically if you look at this photo the of the feet it looks like an a you're two feet you're supposed to make it into an A and the critical part is the measurement from the bottom to the bottom foot to the first bar things and um this had already been cut yeah Peter had already precut it and labeled them AB C D and um but that took and they think figured it out but and I did it in the workshop but I what we were all concentrating on was the distance between the two planks not the distance from the bottom to the top but anyway it was a good learning curve and it was freezing it was below freezing and um they wear t-shirts or sweatshirts and um low socks and no gloves freezing they were

freezing but that's what you do in high school um torture so limeline has an article I think I sent it around and then Logan did his project on February 1st which was really he hit that out of the ballpark I was really impressed in it's a gorgeous French um a and the other the other two besides his brother who's an eagle scout the other two Eagle one's Eagle Scout the other is a another TR 26 boy um they really they were cranking and then his Logan's family and in-law brother and or uncle was a real um Sharpshooter with the tools and all and so it went up um yeah it was good pretty quickly and they even had Donuts in the beginning and pizza at the end wow um so Peter and Peter goes do you want I could go I said why want you stay pizza here might as well a lot of pizza yeah there was a little extra but that good you know you never know um so I thought it was great that the water was frozen so they didn't have to yes yes that was uh initially was like go get off the ice it's like okay right but they they had all these incredible equipments and and pleats for their shoes you so uh the dad really had his act together and um uh Logan I learned mind I won't say that is he okay yes he's fine um but he had been ill earlier um but he's fine but um so it was just even more impressive um but yeah great job and

limeline also wrote something up um and um I don't have the agenda right in front of me but I don't know if this is an opportunity to talk about the other projects that are coming up or in mind well there's a reroute of the yeah we can talk about them I just want before we go on the I just want to a couple questions yeah yeah Evan was concerned about going around corners and the wideness of the trail getting no problem issue at all he Peter and I at the beginning this just a little cutting and clipping of the branches uh so we were the first ones there and we had no problem doing that and there was no um damage and snafus their equipment Little V wagon was very effective and um maneuvered easily how did they get the telephone calls to the site eversource dropped them off did okay but then they had to bring a um this kind of a machine and they had they to come along pull it a pulley a pulley type NE it's like a h and then you roll 20 questions they had all the necessary equipment to raise it up move it over slide it onto the v card move it in and then use another um machine like this that has like was like a pulley to lift it off the V wagon onto the um two Max the beautiful Locus logs that are um you know as wide as anyone's body here and the length of the um the bridge the bridge Y and they laid

them out they measured it it was pre-cut to be um notched and they had a Locus uh step that they put under the bridge and so they connected it and they had a spike like this big to secur it so it wouldn't move not that it would otherwise and they had a um a mesh on top so that it's not too slippery yeah did ever Source Supply those he did so eversource um through a contact of the landries provided the telephone poles middle sex trees all of whom were mentioned on the in the article um provided the Locust logs um Beard Lumber provided all the small uh planks to go across the bridge Teddy provided a pizza um I think they may have bought the mesh but um that may have also been donated I don't remember what the reference was did he end up getting did we have to pay for any of it at the end are okay that's great yeah nice job so now we're set for our first hypers Happ so I you may address this when you said you had additional things to talk about now that we have experience would you suggest we put up a second or additional benches was there a second bench you you had thought about I had thought of a second but I was on land trust land um so we have the material I believe it's already cut up and um I [Music]

um am open to suggestions as to what trail we might want to put something on um and I'm speaking to Peter to identify something I guess my my two quick thoughts would be are the other benches that that Jim mildrum did still holding up well the baron oh the one at the bar is beautiful overlooks the one on rook's Meadow no no the ones uh remember we we did the two spots on ases on the Blue Trail overlooking the the water where where we had the beaver signs and stuff was was oh those oh those are fine okay yeah the one on Rooks Meadow which is why we were prompted Lo it was a Cedar Bench built by Jim mum and that back just oddly deteriorated it's still functional it's a bench without a back but the other has a has a back also looking over the the meow the bench at at horse Neck Creek is it's not a great bench it's I think it's something that Mike Barnes came up with that might be something to replace with a more sturdy bench too yeah that's what I was thinking and who benches on the property presently if it is there any ownership to it the the bench's on there now Michael Barnes placed it there so I would presume it's his okay or I or something he obtained for from somewhere okay but it's it's not very big and it doesn't have a back to it okay um well uh I we have one possible window to work with the environmental Club um but having whether they do it or we do it or Peter does it you'll need at least two

people right um it can be done easily I think um especially after having done it once um the Environ so yes we could put up a bench the question kind of is who depending upon the schedule so for March the environmental Club has a wind window and I'd have to just look I think it's in the later part of the month um nothing is particularly planned but April 5th Tim vargos from um Stuart B McKenna's um preserve the one in Westbrook mhm okay yeah um is it Westport wook yeah salt met rest Westbrook yeah oh um uh she's going to come and do an invas species identification educational program like this is mustard seeds this is a blah blah and this is how you identify and it's April 5ifth or 6th I think we're going to go with the Sunday in the afternoon uh initially it was Saturday but the kids tend to have track oh f um so I think it's going to be the sixth Sunday at 1 from 1: to 3: and this is for environmental Cup this is for the uh invasive species identification and removal project is that what you asked me yeah so so the the kids are going to come she's going to point out stuff and then they're going to remove that yes okay and what property is that it's Champlain I confuse them the one by the O Lan North North North shame on me um so it's going to be

pretty much right at that opening at the gate where she's going to hold the identification and there's going to be a group depending upon the number of students there and then you can walk in uh just beginning on the yellow red Trail by the tree and there could be another Bas of party there um so there and there could be further down on the path um but another um so two kind of projects that I would put in the front burner is the um rerouting of the uh Red Trail on uh Flat Rock molic Farm mulic property there um Evan I know he's going to be traveling soon so we were supposed to get together to stake out and tie ribbons around the tree for the path um that never happened this last week um so I'll have to touch B with him I walked it with him but it's not precisely marked where we would want our path but there are spread pink flags for the U open uh affordable housing and um the other is um a bridge a foot Bridge doesn't have to be very high but also at Champlain north um by the in front of the the Cedar Bench cuz it gets very wet there and spring is coming so if we want to do a walk on that um that would need to be done before I guess September um right they start in June July may may yeah May and June May and June May June September October May June September

October all right um do you know who will be your coordinator for that will it be Mary probably me okay or Mary I can and I think we're being we're kicking off this year sure okay Andre do you and Joan want to work on that sure so you're going to be May and September and we're J um June and October sure yes didn't speaking I know it's I I don't want to put you on a spot and I know you could perhaps be knowledgeable directly uh family connection but do you have any sense of of how the affordable housing U think at M colleague moving along um I believe there's going to be be yet another survey but I'm not sure why um it's going slowly there's a change in chairmanship um the affordable housing so who's the new chair um Fred and Fenton and um Jessica I think her name is okay so so michaelinda Mel I think it might be Melinda go ahead um so Michael is still a part of it but he just doesn't want can't take on the chairmanship at this time so that was a discussed and voted in uh thing okay well I hope we can have good working relationship with so do I Jennifer Miller Jennifer Miller okay

yes I think she's a neighbor of yours yeah oh um she she's yeah she's she bought she used to I think if it's the person I know that used to live on Shore Road kind of a little bit one or two houses down from Ron sweny and then she she moved to to our neighborhood W okay um and uh I was I think Evan was going to look into the chainsaw training for Isaac and Peter um I have a vague recollection that it was February March so it I'm not sure if that's accurate I can I can check on that I I have a a contact from the government [Applause] okay and um I dropped the ball on the um eversource followup because of a there was some correspondence with you and Martha that um seem to indicate there was some progress happening or communication but I did not follow up properly on that I can if do you want to still look into that or you want me not that I don't want to I I can see what I can find out about okay I think these were so just your note on that I'm just finding it now it looks like my paper oh there you go Susan stots so the the gist of that is is uh a while ago uh Peter Norris noticed some uh survey markings on champ PL nor and wanted to know what it was and um through somebody

I know that works for eversource we found out the person that's um coordinating this they are taking out once one section of power transmission line uh and they Mark the wetlands uh by a survey and they're going to actually have some people on the ground but actually move the poles and some of the other material by helicopter so it's going to be gave Mark kind of heads up there definitely going to be people call the town hall so and I think that's going to happen happens this summer but see if I can find out more information about it also just as an FYI I don't know if you he was expressed to you that um Isaac just sent me his time cart late uh and he said that he had been under the weather not working as much as he wanted but he did manage to walk all his properties uh in January and he's feeling better and he hopes to get back to a fuller schedule although he seemed to work pretty much the same hours as Peter so all set um yeah there was just some seminars or Workshop that you sent my way and oh yeah but there ended up being a cost to them trust Alliance you know they do a lot of great educational stuff but I don't know that we need to belong do you guys belong to be here no I think we talked about it and I think they decided that it wasn't um it wasn't worth it to to do that with the you know because we're in the CCC you know interesting do you get do you get an insurance help or whatever from clcc insurance Health yeah like they because that was for an organization I worked with a while ago one of the

reasons we belonged even though we weren't a land Tru was that you got kind of a break on your um insurance I'm not sure about that okay see you don't get our [Music] [Applause] [Music] insurance probably cclc does offer some interesting um let's get into that okay is our um properties covered under Town Insurance it is yes well we our town our town property um the town property has a state liability uh exemption if there's there's no revenue generated by the property this is the main reason that we don't make it a point to say that we don't charge for that was an issue when we were looking to enter least to have horses property by Mr K he gave us a $1 here was hard that would threaten our state we also have a town policy which covers people work going on the property and particularly at covers which is which is one of the reasons we transitioned our stewards to become Town employees that covers their work on the job so they used to pay $5 $600 a year for their own policy now that's covered by the town policy it was it was about a quarter of what they earned for I'm sure um I do have an important um information about Mr Tevis um he virtually is not living on the property

just FYI and um um Amanda sibl and her husband and CH children are printing from them with an option to buy and they are engaging Young right local um uh people people um who are [Music] very who seem to really care about the property and all but in just in FYI that like there are no horses that's what I was going to ask so so the the Tes are not not having the Riding Club or anything on the property any longer interesting and and um Anna is Holland is pleased that there's not the writing on the property and that um it should be conserved land for just hiking um but also when you suggested oh maybe he could help with his little go-kart too he's he's a he's gone yeah yeah we had a while ago Wayne said that he had a lot of equipment he had a and some other things there and he was more than willing to help us so we had any things to do which is I think when he at that time envisioned having a robust writing Club there so he he still owns the property to the best of your knowledge okay yes they're renting the other okay couple thank you and would you like to talk a little bit about discussion with Mr Carrie yes attorney car um you may recall we looked to we

considered the idea um favorably I think General sens consensus of placing a conservation eement on fairy landing and barcel you um the notion sort of came out of this uh Grant application that we had made with Aon and um Army Corp engineers and that was one of their first sort of out of the gate comments was you know we are not going to invest in this unless there's a long-term protection here and it's true I I don't I mean I guess another question from might be um you know what would is it possible for the town to sort of repurpose land that's already designated with open space but for the for for our purposes um I think having easements conservation easements um as sort of a think it as belt and suspenders but um it's a good way to make sure that the intent is you know follow through on so anyway Mike is our kind of new attorney and um he he got all lawyerly about which is what we wanted him to do but I think to to back up for a second the the the best way to understand why the process is going to be as kind of hop jumping through as it is is that um a conservation easement or any easement is essentially a transfer of certain rights that are associated with property so for our purposes conservation even would say things like know constructing no um you know no building any structures no excava

no um motorized vehicle it could do yeah I mean know there's any number of restrictions you can place um as part of you know normally if you are a land owner you have the right to do all those things on your property um within Town ordinance legality but so because it is kind of like conveying property rights it has to be almost considered the same way as a per as a sale so we would have to get um not not only what really surprised me so Board of supervisor Board of um select selectman thank you Board of selectman possibly Board of Finance um and then it would have to go to an actual town meeting and be voted on um but it might also require initially uh running it past planning because if that you know there's all kinds of little statutes why he feels that that might impr and it wouldn't probably that big a deal but um I guess it's think thought of as prudent to just touch face with all the possible related commissions just so that everyone is on board and aware well and then if that weren't enough he's like you know you maybe should also um we we'd have to ascertain whether it would be U necessary to get either deep or the Attorney General State Attorney General's approval so State Attorney General does have jurisdiction over conservation easements but I don't I'd be very surprised if their review or anything for this kind of transaction but and would clcc actually have some guidance on this because of their uh I don't know because

they mostly work with Lantra all right so you know we're the property owner and we're a government you know as opposed to so I think it's a pretty different animal in many ways and um then he also pointed out that because you because you need uh somebody or an organization to hold the E and uh that he said might want to look into whether we have to go through an RFP for that to select the the organization to hold the inent which again I don't know that might have to do with evaluation of what those rights are words or something because it's over a certain amount that you need to go to RFP so it's it's a lot who might be one of those holding organization pardon a land trust for example only we do one nature consy also an option you know are any of the other open space properties under line conservation I I believe most of the major properties the town most of the major open space properties our own have conservation eement the two particular properties we're looking at are barfolomew and faury Landing I I know that molic bull shamp planes and parts of a are under conservation e were those by previous owners were those set up by previous owners the town yes um the molik easement was set up by the molik family a long time ago um and I think the Steve Ames had a conservation I believe he may have had an eement on some of his property uh and

uh in the acquisition of of the Champlain property somehow the state was involved that was well before my time and I have sketchy records on it but anytime the state is involved in an acquisition one of the requirements is that there be a conservation is in place on the property so I think it's good uh management it's good policy um but it's going to take some work and and you know I haven't really had a chance to but seems to me we might want to make sure if these are the only two properties that don't have that protection then great if we can somehow maybe track them simultaneously then it won't be like yeah I hor Creek does that count um that's a great suggestion actually I mean if that's not covered then make it all a package right think that's that's a really good point what would um the land PR actually would they what would they have to do well it would be how the the actual easement is set up Karen um the the easement with molik calls for an in The Nature Conservancy holds that easement and that calls for an annual inspection which they do uh I believe they also hold the easement for Champlain North and they don't do anything with that so similar to how we monitor our other um another thing that we just monitored basically it's a walk through uh to to to ascertain that there's been no development or no exactly no development as a said you

know no coring or anything that disturbs the N the natural dumping like storage of hea material St yeah but um yeah I mean I think that it would be normally there is a monitoring obligation and pretty much it thank you um so that kind of leads very nicely into the next uh agenda item the fairy Landing Wildlife Refuge so um I don't know if youve all heard this but uh Michael had the and been really kind of excited about the possibility of getting a uh inlo fee uh 2024 Grant um through the Army Corps of Engineers to help with the rehabilitation of Fury Landing Wildlife Refuge uh and and Michael met with uh someone from ottan and someone from army cour yeah he was he's not with Aon but ovon has contracted him to run this grant program for so otan wrote on behalf of the Army Corps uh you have copy of that sure I do um this is Michael berer executive director vice president otan Connecticut uh in short they said that at this time we don't meet their criteria for a grant however uh it was seems to be sent U without prejudice which means that if we meet some of the criteria we may be able to return to them and see if in fact we are eligible and one of the things they stay say on there is um feasibility to establish a site protection instrument for example a conservation easement or deed restriction for all resource areas

proposed for restoration enhancement or preservation so there's a actually a pretty great justification crust the conservation e we were made somewhat among other criteria made ineligible for a grant because we don't have permanent protection on that property a interesting is that really the only criteria no no I was going to say I I have to add that basically this rejection letter was an outline for how to how to get one of these gr super [Music] useful so they asked for they want protection they wanted a commitment to a long-term management plan uh they wanted more more detailed description of the the the area and the Wetland types that were included on the property um they wanted a uh idea of proposed activities to enhance the Wetland and buffer restoration areas uh a notification of project objectives associated with proposed restoration and that's about it I I don't think I don't think anything was in there it's just for more information well what's frustrating though is that the the process for this grant is you just sort of throw your hat in the ring with a letter of intent and it's you know very short and there's sort of a f to what um you provide them with for that and it would not have allowed for us to go into anywhere near that level of detail which is fine I think that you know the purpose of the letter is obviously to to help us understand what they are

looking for and with that we can work on it I mean do we need like a survey or like what I mean what yeah how do we go about doing or taking on those tasks and being able to be in a situation where we can apply for the gr so I I think the the two um and correctly if if you think I'm off based but the two main things that we need to do is to come up with a more detailed plan of what our restoration would include and and come up with some type of permanent protection for the property the conservation eing for example I think we have a fair amount of information uh that Nancy am provided us and we have to look through that and uh see how we can use that in this application as an said the thing that's a little frustrating to me is Michael fired off a basically a profunctor letter saying we'd like to get in the game and and someone came out and looked at a property and and we didn't really get a chance to subsequently offer well you have more comprehensive you have to be invited to do that so that's like you know you say you would like to and then they say yes you may and then you can go into all this detail so that's you know that's what was a little frustrating you know I think it's actually for the best for us to really get our ducks in a row and it's a big bucket of money so um and then given whatever even minimum amount of that bucket is to it would help you um be more specific about the restoration and it and it may not be this much or but this much given the size of it or time frame like how how much time we don't know it's it's been very Loosey

Goosey you know like their their deadline for letters of intent was you know the beginning of September and we didn't hear from them until November and then really we kept like wondering when when is when the actual application have to be in and there's nothing on the website about the application so um little I I kind I kind of pushed Mike to find out what was going on and Mike kind of pushed his contact which results in this letter but in hand said it really was I know not not well organized but I I will say one thing that is encouraging is that um this is money this is a pot of money that I'm pretty certain isn't going to go away because no it's money that is um for it's a a penalty if you will or a fine to people who've done a development project and have not been able to avoid Wetlands destruction so um and not been able to mitigate it or replicate them on site or whatever and so they pay a fee in living so this is money from the you know from the [Music] neighbor not Federal money which who knows what kind of federal money anybody's ever going to going to make a comment and this is not political at all obviously there's a lot of uncertainty about all the various Federal programs and and I really don't I'm frankly I'm not that familiar with the Army Corps of engineering I don't know if that's in the defense department or where that is but I don't know either I know we did work with them from at the Museum I'm pretty sure they had something to do with our new deck after you know I think they're off Department of commer okay and I and I we are the Gateway commission also is working with

them because I don't know if you've seen the Articles they are attempting to do a pretty comprehensive assault on hydrilla Connecticut River they've been putting these dyes that flow down the river so they can see how the currents and everything go so the Army course yeah just just my curiosity since it's a penalty payment is it is the pool available to us only from penalties in Connecticut state by state or is question it's Watershed based okay so this pool is that we would be eligible for is for the Connecticut River water there's also pools for the other excuse me the other wires and P on pools yeah it's a big r be so there's there's two issues uh about fairy laning I want to address number one is is we need to again in line what they're asking is to kind of develop for our own use and potentially to share with other people maybe grant us what our future plans for that property so just as an FYI and uh in my absence arranged for p Lake to apply for a geep permit to do a final spraying this fall uh and we have the monies I hope we'll have the monies because we have to ask them to be once again carried over Monies to do a fall treatment and that's that is the end of the money that was appropriated by um the board of Selectmen and finance so we'll have to Pond Lake seems um quite pleased with what the what what the the Mowing and spraying has done so far the fragm might seems to be really dramatically reduced uh but I think we did to think about what's the next step

and it that kind of leads into what Ann talked about it too wases right well um Andrea allerted me to the fact that there were several blowdowns on car Landing that one of which may have damaged one of our saplings but fingers crossed it it has happened before and they seem pretty resilient you know but um so I you know it appears that I mean there's there's a lot of um intense storms that are taking trees down all over the place but I think probably not too hard not too big a elite to make to say that when we killed these trees the Lis trees and left them standing that they're obviously going to be more sus and um we do have carryover funds that um I would really like to use for some significant tree work there which could help us out a lot if you do then decide you know it's sort of part of the decisionmaking process around are we going to keep planting and or we going to just try to protect and maintain and keep the dry Ro and the the otheres um from consuming what we have planted already um but you know there's we still haven't really resolved a couple of the major challenges with planting there one in water and the other potentially you know Manpower if for the watering right now we have you know I think we've

covered the um need there pretty well but it I think it it used up a lot of hours for Isaac um and when we're in a drought it's Relentless how's the sun like those those trees that obviously those invasive trees that work that were killing if they are falling right like obviously the the good stuff that we planted needs needs sunlight so maybe we get rid of those other trees because the ones that have fallen um I don't know if there any advantage to keeping them there really no well there is and if Evan were here he could speak there's Critters that probably love to hang out in there and and you know then so the question is you know do we want to have from the ones that are dead but still standing taken down and left there um you know they're a conversation yeah I that's why I was hopeful that Evan would be here and unfortunately uh Fred is not here they're I kind of look at them as our two Arbor so to speak and and so the questions I have is is the trees that have fallen down if they're not a danger if they're just leaning down do we just leave them uh and the trees that are still standing if they're brittle we take them down and then just leave them I know Evan is a big big proponent of there as much life in a dead tree as there's in a life tree to we it be well it's going to be a lot of lum though ultimately if we were to take additional trees besides ones that we've already girdled um you know I mean it's it's the predominant Tree on the property yeah and you know when you open it up the canopy it's you're getting yes it's good for what we planted but it's also lots of sunshine for mustard you know garlic

mustard and and uh all the kind of things you really don't want can your question and when when uh deep took down some Atlantis trees what did they do did they shred them and take them completely off they must have uh there's there's nothing on site you know not even like five so that the proposal for your plan seems to be a key factor terms of do you take the stance where you leave leave the dying trees in the wood remove it could an argument both both sides and more conservationists would be need it yeah I think ultimately you know it's not a big piece of property and if we've got like I don't know 40 dead trees lying around on the ground it might become a little bit of a problem but you know I would I would certainly be in favor of leaving as many as is practical cuz we do have to be able to get around if we're going to you know continue to monitor the property and um you know even if we're just maintaining What U what we've done since question on the Craig M too so it's it's done well what's the the timeline for reemergence what's the risk for reemergence it's a great question it I don't think it's something that's a standard you know it it some will come back every year and if you can get like the good guys in there to sort of establish it's you know just sort of the same Principle as what we're doing on the dry land yeah you know if you can sort of crowd them out with good guys then they will be less aggressive but they do they will come back so again that's a good maybe a good point to apply on the grand proposal had success

how do you make sure this success is maintained that that was that was a excuse me that was a point that when we visited with the gut folks from the research station they said you're going to you have a gap in in the ecology here that's going to be placed by something you know Cattails whatever would be appropriate but we've had like some volunteers some native volunteers showing up which has been awesome really exciting and so that's another thing we can say look you know we've done this and this is what's coming back what's in the seed bank as they say both on land and you know in in the marsh in the area I have two comments one I believe clcc without jumping ahead but um offers board development workshops where they could come to our board meeting and present on a certain topic and one of them is Forest management like what it's about and what it would involve and then I think have a site visit and have somebody on site to help in evaluating what that is to facilitate a grant or something um so that may be something that we could uh look into I actually think they have one of those coming up I think we remember seeing on Forest manager in particular it's a pretty intense Workshop it's pretty long I looked at [Applause] that so you just yeah yeah pretty intense and then um there is a um company called AZ Tree in Timber

um who um he it's a young man who um has his license and um like a like a 20 19 20 year old man young man um who lives locally and um might be a a good contact for the to discuss the tree work I don't know I um uh if he doesn't have the licensing for like um I know he uses chainsaws and other equipment um but just as another resource since we've been and I think he would be it it may be something that he could address and tackle and give some counsel on sure and um is that zeelot Andy Ze yeah you brought him up I almost called him a few months ago I remember yeah so there's there's a lot of options I think we need to look into the best way to deal with the trees so one thought I had was Lady and BR hamon's really experienced tree guy uh if we could maybe see if he would do a little work on a couple weekends for us maybe who Wayne oh Wayne abrahamson yeah okay uh he doesn't want to be a regular steart but he might do an odd job if he's not traveling um the other option another option would be uh I can I can hear he the initial uh complaint but I talk to Ed Dante if his guys had some time they could go in there and take down say I think it's it's definitely a more than a one person yeah situation and then we could see if any of the companies might might give us a break you mentioned middle sex tree I had Derek babo do some work for me he's

great he really is good so well you can call around and get some BS get people to come out and look at it one one question I I had what is the chemical that uh Pond Lake was using on myall M okay um I I noticed in the last several weeks um primarily through U communication from a l any kind of fractur neoo I'm hoping that's not anything that we're using no okay no not that I'm I mean it's permitted by the state so you know I'm not sure um I haven't heard any anything about it yeah I think I just read some were an eagle a lot owls well they're also susceptible to the Aven yeah bir of pray more to and and water foul that's those are the biggest mhm herters would um another sea fed Grant be because you've done one like phase um possibility yeah I have a feeling it was due in January um but you know get it in the hopper and there may be other you know it could be reviewed throughout the year well Greg sent me something about a Yukon grant that sounded very promising so um yeah so there's definitely opportunities out there um but you know all I all I can say is Go beavers do you need um cuz Mike aelia was working with you now do you need

to put a team together to divide and conquer sure Maria that's kind of your neck of the woods right I'm happy to do whatever yeah absolutely yes great yeah happy to do whatever I'm excited good okay well moving on uh Russell do you want to talk a little bit about math I I have to apologize I did see your memo you cut out about the website so we we started the mapping effort took me a little while to get up with Steve SP but he very uh very interested very willing to do it uh talked about trying to parse this out so what could we actually do to keep the cost down was very open um and I'm sorry could what's the could you reframe this as to what we're so so one of the things that that that we need work on uh is our Maps uh we don't oh right right right for start we don't have a we don't have a real good map for the noise property ring that from ases and and some of the other WS are a bit of out ofate um and I think you and and and I talk very briefly with Steve um SP is it on the phone yeah yeah yeah since uh Lisa Nikolai is no longer got so I asked Russell volunteer to talk to Mr fa oh thank you okay so I went through the stuff you sent me on Jones thumb drive to make sure that we do have information for all of the maps that were there uh he will actually generate go PDFs and even if we don't like using avenza we can actually morph that all so that everything he would produce and he could help us produce from our existing Maps it could all go in Connecticut Trails so that solves that

issue how we use how we can actually Bu from forward from him um he can actually come and walk Trails his geospatial equipment is accurate to within one meter so if you have and if not very much cover it can be up to one foot or as close as one foot wow walks uh he he he commented I I sent them our you say go to this website go to this go to this to check it out or uh we talked and he recommended actually thinking about mapping more accurately some of our properties that have Trails right along the edge right the boundary line and we have a number of those Champlain have a number they're very close because he was working with another Land Trust um and they were being getting a lot of problems with people complaining of trespassing and people were thought that the trail was actually on their property so that was one things that we can think about that once he gives us some information that we can actually he's put together he can do larger maps to put on our kiosks can do a variety of different things with the maps themselves we can put in contour lines uh he has a process where he can actually give us a we can walk a trail and say that's hard or easy or difficult that doesn't mean anything because it depends you have to have some kind of criteria to judge against he has the to do that so actually go through and say this is a a raw Trails this is medium based upon some standards can he told me the standard I know what it was I thought that was actually very useful because that's something we talked about yeah i' done some of the trails we have some steep spots but they're probably not difficult Trails we have very little

elevation change in reality and we have very little um to kind of hard to handle seep spots there are some you know if you're older probably can't El not to take that and I think some of our descriptors and our maps on the web pages do that pretty nicely and I think we can go through and look at those and be be a little more consistent I think Mulla I don't know who did it but as the color of the trail and says a little bit of a description about the difficulty on the trail and I think we could do that once we kind of get into this project more so with our work as well as Peter and Isaac to help to kind of Define that and do a little more descriptive write ups on the on the web pages apologize for my voice this happens to me every year used to be only once or close a year now it's five or six times a in um talking about the develop um the difficulty on the trail markers in New Zealand they don't tell you they tell you the um the roundabout the um rather than the distance because miles kilometers it doesn't always register they'll give you in it in time 30 minutes 45 minutes 603 you know I thought that was totally brilliant I mean and it's based on assuming you're walking at the same Pace no well an average it's an average pace so like if you go out for one of the hiker happy hours I mean we minus the fact that you got 25 people in a row but you know you a mile is about 15 minutes more or less let's say um hm well not in the woods okay but whatever it it's a pretty accurate anyhow I'm not sure how it was paced off whether it's you know someone of your height versus mine right our faces but I'm a fast Walker you may have longer legs but I can keep up

you but um but anyway I just thought that was an interesting if that's a possible addition I spent time with the Messiah in Africa and they walk easily 15 20 M A Day their walk is a trot for me yeah there's a reason why the kenyons are great Marathon they walk used distances and they walk at at altitude because a lot of the places they were walking were seven p000 feet and they just ter walk tall and lanky very athletic yeah so I do think you we're not going to have difficult Trails we're going to have trails that are a little difficult depending on who's actually walking them but you know what one point I make Russell is I have no idea how our Trail mileages were ever compiled I talk that too I'm not sure I I I trust them 100% frankly so he can actually once he knows the boundaries he can actually use uh satellite imagery and lighter output so he can actually find the trails connectica Trails people said the same thing you know the trails are used enough they're there and you can see them especially when the tree covers down not knock down or cutom um he did he had the same comments as Connecticut Trails folks about all Trails because it's open source and anybody can go in and kind of redo a m redo a trail piece and that may be outside your boundaries so that was an issue so he said we could actually use all trails to again walk the trails and we update the link and he could adjust them make sure that they were correct wow so he's he's he's very knowledgeable yeah so the other thing I promised to do

was to go through the website and the view of hiking and trails and I sent you to you know the comments but I think I think our website's in pretty good shape it's kind of repetitious between the open space Old Line open space l [Music] hiking and old old space and Old Line three three three sites within the our landing page is the uh open space commission from the town's website landing page means that's the first thing you end up on the click right some of the clicks some of the lists of links on the left hand side which is kind of your menu are different they're not consistent there's a number of uh we actually have Lord's wood Lord's Meadow some some have connections some have nice uh links even to lant items and don't some don't so I think there's some work there that will fall into place that we decide how we're how you want us to do that or want me other folks to do that um but I think there's a substantial amount to just kind of clean up our websites um I think there's some very nice nice discussion um you there is repetition and I think from Easy of use it's if you go into the website once and you come back and want to look for something else you may not find use unless you're really the architecture I I take no credit and no blame for the architecture of the fight because uh that was unfortunately done when the town revised the whole town website overall website and a lot of unal decisions are made by the small working group that did that never really went back and and kind of reorganized we can do that we get stuff

from stuff from Steve by the way our QR codes on any of the website do not work you get a yeah that um the first so that's that's in just I'm going to be gone for almost 3 weeks but he's going to put together this package of examples of what he's done we talked about some of the things that you showed me on his Facebook page you can see some examples of what he's done he's very busy at the moment he had two two main projects He said but there's no problem picking things in so I I think he was very very interested uh very knowledgeable kind of anticipated the questions I was going to I was asking from our discussion based on what he saw what he thought we want really wanted so you have us go ahead how did you was there any discussion around like how to sort of get a a like a menu essentially from him that he could price out that's what he's working on okay's doing like question different kind it may not be exactly what we need just yet but it'll be a first pass I think once we get that just to give us an idea and we have an idea how how to reply back and say okay what about this and this so he's doing that and I said I'm going until the 10th of March he said I'll send it to you right after that so so just as as an FYI to everybody we we have um two pots of money so to speak one is our regular stewardship account which uh we're going through it at at really a pace that will carry us through this fiscal year but mostly exhaust what's in there so it's really kind of nicely uh targeted for our needs and then we have roughly $55,000 left and our carryover stewardship farms and the pro projects

um the kind of the extra curcular project so to speak maybe having an rbur at fa commum and Mr scary fixing up would we have that money available for that that's something I I I do not want to ask to carry over that that money again I I want to use that money for legitimate purposes this fiscal year so we had basically to the end of June I didn't give any dollar I didn't give any dollar amounts if you do that sometimes absolutely so you're you're you're going to be traveling soon right yeah leave the 20 when you come back 20th of February and come back March 10th okay and are you going to you're going around the world sou East Asia yeah wow you know back 50 years ago Vietnam was last place you ever wanted to go but now it's it's a Vietnam Los Cambodia and Thailand wow that's NE trip amazing but I think I think's question too I think they'll come back with this proposal it's going to be a menu of different things you can refine it and maybe that'll give us an idea about cost and what we might be able to down some of go very for Tre having just gotten an estimate there Tre on my property so I would encourage you go like that I encourage you to kind of look at look at the open space in Old Line page the open space land hiking web pages just to get a sense of what was the second one there's three of them they're they have a lot of overlap in them yeah I think they the open space website yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I'll share Russel memo with everybody okay it's kind of a even though it's later on in the agenda it's kind of an opportunity time to discuss this so an and I said we would go work together and

work on the website I have a lot of ideas on how to to fix it and reorganize it um so but I if anybody has the time to look at it and wants to go through it and says I was I actually feel like I might have replicated a lot of what you did because I know the last meeting I said that I would I would do say and I found pretty much back I'd be happy i' be happy to I can't construct a website that kind of stuff but yeah to be able to go through and some editing and do that who else want to work the mapping that you're talking about is your individual Trails not the townwide map that includes both of our Trails on that map we want to revise Karen we want to put um horse Neck Creek on there uh and some type of of notation it doesn't have to be in in great detail showing that there are in what was once one property there now two contiguous properties noise and ANS yeah I sent a I sent a note and then I and I responded to you and then I had sent her an email this morning saying okay I'm going to the meeting what am I doing you know she hasn't responded back yet to me and she wasn't sure I mean I think she sent a one one of the masap of the a that kind of has some split out on it but I you know she was questioning what what what all you were doing and what I I I kind of missed it who is she K so to the brochure combine that need to put horse creek horse M Creek in there um to find the noise space um WS wood isn't on any map I know it's just a little tiny thing but it should be just a point to where it is I think on the map things like that it's it's not a lot but it's just it is it's not a very functional website in terms of ease of use and what about when new property

is acquired can that be easily um yeah you can use the gis to overlap and then correct as necessary you said if you unless you want a high level of detail you have to come so at this point we haven't done any we haven't had any Acquisitions since the last time this was done we' we've got one coming up hope yeah what what when are you guys going to are you close on ech no so you're waiting for the Grant W for we we've been approved for the rant but now we've got to do the work after before they actually give you the money so we're into like the um the surveys and all that stuff is is so property will you eventually add to that betrayal from that know yeah I asked him about that specifically they said this is only for open space not land trust unless we actually communicate he said yeah he can just make changes in the adjustments that we're talking about on this without changing anything just as an FYI Ken I have Ed Z's files for that publication that that U that he used uh when we did that last okay I think they're in design files I don't if Ed can use that to tell you know I don't know at this point I'm not sure what what the land trust is you know we're not you had asked about e well we can go forward with what is now and need be updated it'll be updated yeah but like I said I think it's going to be a while until you're ready to move well at the at the least what we can do is make sure whatever we have on our website is up to date if the printed copies don't happy to to continue on website revisions if anybody else wants to yeah I would like to help because I already I like I said

I did a lot of vog I can send you what I then we can figure out so I actually spoke with King Baka about how you would go about correcting and updating and editing and um so we should all collaborate andc yeah [Applause] after you can peruse the website all you want for the next few weeks so on that note kind of sending things to Katie like updating Bartholomew it has to come from you that request yes I mean I'm sure sure you know it but we really shouldn't have her do little face should be yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and I think it's good manager practice that everything kind of gets FL so you don't have duplication or whatever yes yes everyone has their own flare and yeah and you know KY does the best she can given all the advance she has she used to be able to try to do what stuff whenever you gave it to her now she for a while though she had her website Wednesday and so she can't even do that so but she she's I I find her great to work with I'm sure yeah no I I'm not I'm just mentioning it because of the but I think update Logan and any capacity that you want to give him you know make that shout out yeah I I I I mention that because we're going to have to come up with some kind of special arranger because we we might have to sit down for an afternoon with her one of the things I very much want to do is uh is Bump out the volunteer stuff and highlight all the stuff the kids have been doing with pictures and stuff out a volunteers page they they deserve the recognition for all the help they've given such good work okay so

clcc um it's interesting we've been talking about um Forest management and board Improvement and stuff like that we were a member of clcc however I'm not quite sure when this happened but there has apparently been a reorganization within that structure uh so I wrote to Christina Hayden because in my other hat I I um managed to get gateway to give them $1,000 to help sponsor their their conference uh and I asked her about discount she says as you may know clcc has restructured its membership program the significant change is that organizational memberships are now limited only to land trusts as a result discounted conference registrations are will be a benefit only reserved for land trusts with active memberships unfortunately clcc is not able to extend any discount to municipalities well municipalities are no longer eligible for organizational membership we continue to be grateful for any contributions Town's made wish to provide to support our work did that happen at the end of last year beginning if you want give us M that was either late 2024 or early 2025 okay so I do you know Christina yes so she apparently has moved out of state and it's working remotely and I'm not sure how long that's going to continue um and they have hired Brett Thompson as their operations manager now I know Brett from many years ago he he has been with a number of Arts organizations he was the deputy director of the connec me Council he was the deputy director of the Harford Arts counc under Kathy mobile

life he been involved in a lot of Arts organizations it's a little bit of a change for him to go into conservation but I know BR uh and so I'm going to kind of contact him and find out what the deal is about but I would suspect on unfortunately that we're not going to have the opportunity to use a lot of their services something like for whatever reason whatever philosophical my question is if if we're not eligible for organizational membership what each one of us would have to join as an individual M like that doesn't make any sense no I think I think what they're doing they're really I think they're saying they're going to be a l trust organization period wow which is interesting trust members get discounts any can we be join the land trust the open space what what makes one a land trust member I know I I think I'm a member I mean I contribute to you guys here like say you know you're a member of you s up your so if if we want to attend the conference should we should we contact you I'm used to be I got her so the other thing I wanted to mention is is I had talked to Fred to just kind of get a sense of him about uh and maybe you could oine on this Mor would would would of Finance be upset if we picked up your registrations for a number of people that wanted to attend Fred didn't see have a problem where it was like he can vied as education however I was kind of also taken back that I don't recall what the past registration was do you do you recall 75 I think I volunteer so I didn't pay 100 this year 110 this year I think I think it's close to doubl Joe I think they close to doubled it I think it I know it wasn't horrific last I think it was in

the $65 range5 yeah so that's a lot of money but you get breakfast and lunch yeah so I know you're inol and I'm not I I I I'm I think I'm away for it this year I don't think I'm around for it you what would you how do you think Finance would you are spending 5600s I think it's fine I think it's for again for continuing education and it's um appropriate for what we're doing so I think it's fine so I I will ask all of you uh if you're interested in going let me know so I can kind of have a count and if you are going are you going to volunteer again I haven't responded but I would probably take that that route okay basically I escort people between the buildings and take notes into class or run say oh I got to get a tech person and I got a registration from Gateway as a sponsor so two of us are covered anyway okay so I will that I just to that point like just what you said right there I think is a is a completely um agreeable and yeah I think it's fine yeah I the I mean the conference is still I'm still trying to pull other Workshop that we've been organizing on again on Bas of plant growth but I think it's it's one of the better opportunities to learn about what's happening in conservation and to meet a lot of people doing exactly the kind of work we're doing so so interesting because you know as as uh we with the old line Land Trust I mean I would imagine that there's many places in Connecticut and and you know where there's the town and the uh lest are working together lme for sure you know they like monitor each other's private

they're intertwined where where the town actually uses the land trust to to Ste its own property so that seems very strange to me that they're kind of like and they have different cutting law I mean PL citizen could go on their the town property I've worked with Amy a lot I'm going to give I saw your she was happy to he for you I'm going to give her a call and say what what's up yeah I definitely I think tickets are 110 yeah yeah looking at this if you can find something out Karen um let me know because I had three people ask me okay 110 is the early bir yes and how long long how far in advance is the early bir open um if you're a member of trust do you get the discount like last year um any well she's looking if anybody would like to attend send me an email and I'll the 26th right up dat the 23rd is itch March 22 2 March 22nd at Wesleyan again yeah yeah the problem is I teach I can't even get up there until afternoon it's like so you don't have to go to you don't go to everything you just certain I've done in the past you can't go to everything there's there's various tracks and they usually have like yeah I anywhere from four to six concurrent panels just like the flower and there's a keynote speaker go through February 22 okay Couple come 10 days until February 20 [Music] 22nd and in okay in so if you write to me about your interested in going to

clcc uh if you would also write to me if you are able and are willing to attend the foia workshop which is going to be on on Wednesday February 26 Andrew you already indicated to me that you would attend I did too I I said I was yeah okay the date of the be traveling yes it is it is that's that's crazy what is this same the road the same time is that yeah are you kiding the same no no road is the 27th Oh I thought yes so Wednesday you're right Halls Road is Halls Road is Thursday the 27th and the foi is Wednesday she chose a night that was going to be good for all the clerks and no meetings and everything so I think it should be open okay yeah no I thought it was the Wednesday last time yeah Wednesday the 26 is f do you let Katie know separately suan I did name I know the or no I already told her she knows I'm coming I I think it's really helpful and and the other thing about it is beyond beyond basically talking about the foi guidelines someone from the state addresses that they usually have a little segment where they talk about what's happening in the town how they're going to talk about accessing a town hall and all that stuff got new keys and just a note for maybe we'll get keys that work to the doors that would be great and tomorrow it's not on the agenda that should be for the road in public safety what about that the foi okay it's not on the agenda it should be mentioned okay is that that committee the road in public safety yeah because it's everyone's a newbie a lot of newbies on that yeah good

point okay um the only other thing I want to to talk about briefly very briefly before we go into executive session is that uh I wrote to Pete Weiss at rockfall Foundation we had a little bit of money left over of our Horseneck Creek Grant I said hey Peter what's up he says the grants committee has not looked at that yet so we don't have a decision but I will see see if I they can get back to as soon as possible so I'm hopeful we'll we'll get an approval to spend that additional little bit of money I I wrote to Pete again I said you know Pete we were really careful with our budget we we did everything we could most economical way and I hope you'll consider that and let us do more on behalf of both you and us so so at this point i' like to uh ask if some would make a motion to go into executive session second so if you could no say goodbye to the phone you have time 626