Committees - Regular Meeting

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes? Motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Approved our financial report. In the Chase account, we have $288,537, interest payment of $295. payment out of $10,000 and payment out of $877,000. $10,000, I think, is expenses. $877,000 is payroll for a total of $277,954. In the class account, we have $8,880,828. An interest payment of $25,884. and a poultry uh contribution from the transfer tax of 98 192 for total of 9 million 004 905 and a grand total of nine million two eighty two eight fifty nine

Any reports on stewardship and maintenance? No, I didn't. I mean, they have, they had, I didn't count a list of properties, but I haven't.

We did, I did actually, Elise, who's on the phone call, alerted me, apparently somebody busted those nice red Adirondack chairs that were on Artist Lane, where you would go in off of Simpson, they were sitting on the peninsula out there.

Yeah.

So I asked, Ken picked them up and I asked him, did they rot or do you think they were damaged? And he said, he definitely thinks, he said they're flimsy-ish, but you know, they definitely were damaged.

Police department report, did you call the police? good actually those came with the property i know

Well, I don't know. You tell me. It doesn't look like it rotted.

Well, the post was, yeah, totally busted. Yeah.

There was a guy sitting next to it in a construction vehicle for a while.

Yeah, I saw that, too, actually.

So I don't know if he was calling his boss because he hit this thing or... It's gone now. Ken must have taken it out.

Oh.

I don't know if he plans to repair it. Is it wood, besides?

Yes.

Yeah.

I think the newer ones are plastic, PVC. The other thing is that, and you talked about this before, I don't know if anybody has an idea how we should handle it, but the signs are dirty and like the Ned Lane what do we call that, West Monantic Reserve posts are really peeling, the paint is peeling off badly. Unless you stop and look at it, you wouldn't notice it, but.

I'm saying what the, wait, oh yeah, we're talking about the same one. It's laying, yeah.

But I don't know, if it's there, it must be elsewhere, you know?

I was going to do my properties, but can we hire somebody? I have enough to do.

Exactly. You want to talk to Ken about it? Just go around and figure out, clean the signs, and then... I mean, maybe that's not the most practical way to do it.

I don't know. I haven't checked to see if he did anything, any cleanup on any of the lists I gave him, but

I mean, can we hire a kid for like a summer job to do this?

I mean.

Anybody have any ideas? Queen signs? Yeah. I mean, just.

I mean, it could be a call for like community service hours. Yeah.

Right.

Well, they're out of school. Why not? June, September. Well, I don't want to wait till September, right?

I mean, there's, you know, they tally all the hours for graduation, basically. So if there's anyone who wants to get, any senior who wants to get any last minute hours in.

How do we do that? I forget who it is. I actually, when I was doing the trails thing, I had some high school kids come do community service for the trail clearing. So yeah, you definitely can do it.

I reached out to Megan Lang. I can do that.

All right. And if that doesn't work, then let me know. I mean, it's got to be probably some lesson.

Should I direct contact, like coordinating that? Like I can.

You can have a call me or something.

OK. OK. Anything else on maintenance?

Oh, can't screw mode. Looks good. Looks good. It's mode.

It's mode.

We'll talk in the next session about the other part.

OK. One suggestion that was that we get a blanket on the name from

michelle mc to come and talk about this burning process oh cody cody corey but i didn't i did i did email her about actually i'm seeing her today um she's going to show me some of the areas where they burned um we're having a field trip um but actually i talked i contacted her about that before and she said we need to work on the fire department

A year ago, she gave a big lecture at Mishama Ghana. A year ago, I think it was her or somebody else who specializes in it. And Mishama gave a, you know, now a presentation about why it was necessary, what they do. Well,

I didn't go to that. Well, I don't remember. There you go. So maybe we can get her to make a presentation here.

Utilizing that technique on other properties for possibility. And it is really important ecologically, not just for the invasive species management, but it helps replenish the soil. Right.

There are multiple reasons for doing it. but uh yeah she gave me a tour a year ago i think was it last year she did the first prescribed burn so she showed me the areas that were about to be burned and then today we're going to look at the areas okay so yes good and maintenance for uh old nursery uh we have three posts spoke with dan i think right yeah yeah so do we want to set up a budget for this year and see

we can get done and then uh or do we just want to hire a couple weeks and then a couple more weeks next year well i think then we'll do a week a week okay all right that sounds good and that at least will open up the trail that's being blocked by all right bamboos so okay all right and then you can put board for next year yeah that sounds good yeah okay all right all right so i'll contact him at least did you have any questions or comments

No, thanks, Dewey. I'll be on the island next week, and so I'll walk through Otis Lane and just go over more details. I think it's really disturbing that it sounds like those chairs were vandalized. But anyway, I'll get a handle on it. And I also want to talk to our association about getting the word out to possibly talk about donating chairs or benches, probably benches, along that waterway, along the new trail that's been blazed in there. And then we have those donations put in there. Hopefully really sturdy, sturdy chairs. Those chairs, those broken up chairs were around for at least 10, 12 years. But I'll let you know when I get on the island if there's anything else. I appreciate it.

Okay. Speaking of donated benches, the Joe Banta Memorial Bench was placed. Chuck got that there last week.

Where is it? Yeah. Where did it go? I put it like on top. There was already a bench down here where it's not that great of shape. But I put it kind of on the crest of a hill.

At Joseph's head? Which, which.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, okay. I thought you're talking about. So, I mean, I don't know if we talked about it yet, but Chuck and I went to Art of Slaying Preserve and we thought there was a good spot right overlooking the water for a bench for Mike Glaspia. That'd be a nice idea.

Yeah. Elise, have you walked along the part that Dan had cleared a trail around the shoreline?

No. I'm so bummed about that. We didn't have time the last time we were up, but I certainly will do it next week.

Because there's a really nice spot kind of looking south. Yeah, we look at south down the creek. It's clearing.

Yeah, I am. I'm donating a bench chairs, Adirondack chairs to the end of our Simpson Road, Monantic Town Landing. um but um i'd also like to put that um one in artist lane and i'll uh i'll talk about that and maybe get you guys do we have to approve what kind of bench we would put in there just make sure it's like you said sturdy and i would recommend teak yeah um or what's that other stuff that they now call like forever oh hollywood Yeah, I don't know. But we'll look into it and we'll check with you guys before. So, yeah, that's that's something I would definitely like to do so yeah if you could point that out that area but once we get rolling I think there'll be other people that want to donate and I think it would be a great, a nice addition to the whole area so. I appreciate you guys going forward with that. Now, like I said, we'll get people to donate plenty of money out there. I'm sure we can get a lot of people to do it.

I actually saw really nice, like Hollywood benches and chairs at Costco last week.

Julie, wondering if we might be able to get a photograph with the Banta family with the bench at Josephson. Be a little positive publicity, may help others to get inspired to donate some picnic tables or benches.

I don't know if Julie's there.

It's not.

All right.

All right. The other thing is, speaking of which, on Simpson, I went in there the other day and it's getting very, the berry canes are really cropping up. So hopefully when Ken goes in there, I mentioned to him. Is that where you drive in? Yeah. Well, he usually mows that, doesn't he? Yeah, I know. It's ready to be mowed, so. That's Simpson, Simpson, Simpson. Bernard Simpson. get to the end of Monantick. Yes. It's in the entrance. And then you make a right to go down to the boat ramp, if you will, the landing. Right. And it's on the right-hand side there.

About halfway down the street. By the way, the only way to get to the property is parking at Simpson. Because it's not a fence from Lot 7, right? Yeah. It's not a fence that goes all the way down. Can't go around that fence.

Well, next to Ray Reynolds' house, you can enter. You can still go in from there. Yeah.

And that's pretty clear.

But it's no parking. Otherwise, it's actually fenced off. Oh, I got you. Yeah, OK. Oh, man. Wow.

It's the buried, the prickly trunks. Yeah.

There's a dog down there, and he's a little disappointed he couldn't go any further. Turn around, walk back.

Well, at least it'll keep people from going on to the neighbor's property. And actually, I was there the other day, and all that Russian olive got plucked out, except for a few right along where the fence is. So it looks a lot better, more open. But the sign is missing there. I know that Denise put up a sign at Simpson. And on Manantick on lot seven and it's not there Simpson signs that is not still there, but not the other one, no so. Okay. Anything else I.

Yeah, actually, I wanted to, while we're on the topic of vandalism in the woods and, you know, while Julie's listening, I just wanted to say that I was walking in St. James Woods and there's a lot of ATV traffic going on in there. They're really damaging the woods. And they're not respectful. ATV. All-terrain vehicles. And they're not, yeah. And the people doing it are not being respectful of people, of pedestrians. They don't get out of the woods when they see somebody. They stay in there and do laps around you. I almost got hit by somebody going like full speed on a quad. He came around the corner. He didn't see me slam on his brakes. He came like this close to hitting me. And so I'm just, my hand was forced to call the police. I'm not gonna have my life in danger when I go for a walk, so. They don't belong in there anyway. They don't belong in there. They know they don't belong in there, but at least if they're respectful enough to get out of the woods when they see somebody walking, I'm not going to call the police. But the police warned them that they're going to have their vehicles impounded if they get a call. I just wanted to make it public. I wanted people to know this. Just be respectful when you're in the woods because it's for walkers. You can ride your bike too. Nobody's going to give you a hard time. we put a sign no no well they know yeah what are those rules well there's just no there's no motorized vehicles allowed so there's an urgency in there correct exactly yeah yeah she put a few logs i mean i don't i'm just saying uh i'll look the other way if they're respectful enough but you know i i can i can work if they're not supposed to be in there they should not be in there I don't know if I'm the only one calling the police. They're loud. They smell. If you're almost hit, they shouldn't be in there. They shouldn't be in there. At all. At all.

You know, it's curvy, so you don't see somebody necessarily.

Yeah, exactly. No, you don't. You don't. Me and a friend, we're almost hit.

There's homeowners around there. Maybe they could call. Some of them were.

Well, that's a good point. I'm glad you brought it up. All right.

So. So, I mean, that's the town property, right?

Yeah. And the last thing I want to say, I just wanted to acknowledge the passing of Esther Hunt and her contributions to the island. Yes. Yeah. So, you know, where we are now, thank you. Yes. Rest in peace. 103. 103? Yeah.

Anything else? Wait, so what do we do about the ATVs?

Well, we report it to the police. If you see it, you know, they can call.

Is there any signage or anything?

There's no signs that say it anywhere. Yeah.

So maybe there should be some signs.

You know, you say they know it, but maybe they don't know it. I mean, I don't know. Not that I have an ATV.

They definitely know.

How do you know they know?

Well, I mean, the police talked to them after I called, and their vehicles will be impounded if they get caught.

Well, that's enough of a scare, I guess. Maybe word will get out to stay out.

I think so. I didn't want to keep these on you all night. No, when I was there, there were two quads and two motorcycles.

Do you have to register an ATV?

No. Really?

Actually, for a while, there was some in Mildred Heard East, when we first put the trails in.

Is that right?

Wow. It might have been dirt bikes as opposed to ATVs. I'm not 100% sure.

Want to put a small ad in the paper? Parents and children warned. Well, that's from my thought, but he doesn't like the sign.

I don't care. No, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, sure. Let's do something. Let's put something in the paper.

like the notice that your ATV can be confiscated. That scares some people.

If you file a police report, then we'll get you out of the paper. Oh, that's true.

They're minors. I didn't read the police blotter. I'm assuming it was in the police blotter. Last week. It would have been early enough to have been in last week's paper.

But they're minors, right?

So their names don't matter. Not so minor. Minor-ish. Yeah, some are in high school, some are out.

Okay, well, anyway, there'll still be a report of it. So, I mean, is there any place where people can take their ATVs? I mean, that's on private property, right?

It's private. Yes, I see them writing, uh, you know, the, the road, uh. Just passed military heard, uh, on the, on the right where it down where the. not sure if it's still married where the mayor used to live um at the end it's like right right behind the golf course but um i i seen them like on the side there uh which is privately owned so you know that's acceptable as far as i know you think there's any law against that i mean if it's your property you want to write at these yeah it's fine right can you use them on the beach i They probably don't know.

They might get stuck.

No, no, I don't think they get stuck. They shouldn't get stuck. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, you're probably not because they're not registered.

Well, you're allowed to drive a truck on the beach. I don't think it has anything to do with whether a vehicle is registered.

I don't know.

I think as long as you're respectful.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Anything else? See if we can put something in the paper. To start. Start, yeah. I mean, I don't want to have to go put signs up everywhere.

Yeah, agreed.

I agree, but I think if somebody gets almost run over by an ATV. Well, maybe we would put up like a temporary sign there, no motorized vehicles allowed.

Including ATVs, in case they don't get it.

See what the police report says on the paper. Maybe talk to actually talk to the chief or somebody and see what they say about what they recommend. I mean, they wouldn't know better what how to deter this than we would.

I thought about it years ago. He wasn't that concerned.

Right?

It's our property. So.

Okay, we have a request from Taylor's Island Foundation to allow them to use Josephson Head on, I think it's August 15th for their annual fundraiser. I didn't hear any opposition from anybody about that. I think it's a great use of our property. It's a sister organization, if you will, for conservation and preservation. So do I have, is there any objection?

I think they do need to get a parent amber and I was talking about it, well, they must get a permit every year right yeah so I just I just wanted to just clear that.

yeah yeah yeah definitely yeah um okay i'll let him know.

Um, acquisition plan update sent out an email with the semi final version. I asked you 3 questions. 1 refer to the on page 2 on the introduction. It has to do with using 10% of the fund. for maintenance and stewardship. I quoted the statute, which is pretty vague. It says not more than 10% of the funds shall be used for the management and stewardship program. So my question to you is, do you wanna put the word annual in our plan?

Can we talk about this? Cause it's based on whatever it is.

what do you mean the only reason not to put it in is if there was ever a something that really had to be done that was bigger than that i mean we could you could make an exception you could do it over a two-year budget but we have not heretofore spent our 10 allowance um although we're we have to get numbers but original kill us The bridge will be expensive, and that would be the whole year's budget.

Yeah, okay.

So I think it's okay. I mean, we're not spending more than probably 5% or 6%, and some years we barely spend any.

So your vote is to keep it vague?

Yeah.

Okay. Anybody, objection to vagueness? Okay. Page 12 under conservation opportunities planning. I didn't even know if we do that. Do you want me to omit it?

I don't think we do it.

Okay, we can omit it. And the last question was on page 13, if you recall the evaluation of for the purchases I took from PLT and 1 of the factors says. Let's go to page 13. I think it's page 15. Yeah, I put it in red. Number five says, if applicable, factors to consider for marginal projects. Five, no ethical or public image problems are involved. I don't know what that means. That's what I'm asking. If we, I don't know what it means, and you don't, I suggest we leave it out.

Well, right. I mean, theoretically, if you're buying it from. Let's say Liz wanted to sell a piece of her 50 acre property to us. Yeah, I assume we would.

Would that be like, are they kind of say like. Oh, yeah, you say maybe it refers to a conflict of interest. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. That's the only thing I could. Yeah. But that's like a weird way to say it.

Um, maybe just clean up the language.

Why don't I just say no conflict of interest arises. Okay. That's what I'll put in there. And the next 1 is the board will not be hindered from disposing of the project. If long term goals are not met.

I don't think we're allowed to sell property.

No, you can't. So, what will not be hindered from this? Oh, PLT can, I guess.

Right.

So we'll leave that number 6.

What does that mean? You can, you can get rid of the property. They can. Yeah.

Yeah, because they did it for us private.

Oh, the nature conservatives.

Okay. So those are the only things I had to clarify with you. Okay. So, oh, and the fact that the last thing has to do with the appendix. I think you got Gail. Nemo, I asked her what our obligations were. I read this five times. Me too. A real lawyer answer.

And it's very complicated.

So I did ask, I emailed her and summarized what I thought this said for a clarification, and she didn't get back. So what I think, I think I sent this out.

yes okay so um i still like the idea of doing the entire uh tax roll over three acres because every the system here is very dynamic we don't have a really targeted Long term acquisition, it's more opportunistic is something arises and we're able to do it or there's an interest to do it.

Um, and I think the purpose of the statute is. Contrary to that, the statute wants you to focus on priorities.

Well, we have some priorities right here. Okay. Um. I don't know.

All right. It's open to discussion. What do you guys think? You don't care.

I mean, you could take a look what Thuy was saying, all the properties, you said three acres or larger, and then you could take that list and then prioritize that list based on, like, proximity to wetlands or, you know, that kind of thing. So then you could then... Right.

Well, that's some job because... Well, it is. See, that's the point. It goes on for pages and pages.

So this is written by... This is written by... A group of people have professional staff who sit around and do this all day long. You know, we're literally running to our next volunteer job. You know, so it's it.

Right. So is that something that Joe.

I mean, there's a couple of properties that at the last executive session, we were talking about 10 acre oblong piece of property. And then there's some others related to that same ownership that hadn't come up in discussion before.

Well, it doesn't preclude you.

Correct.

Wow. We have bj's list. I probably could be updated. I don't know if I still have it.

Well, there's also the county list. Well, we have, for example, total Rob. And artists lane were on that list. Um, I think the Norton property was on that list as well. He's on it. On the on the county list. Yep.

So, so you want me to ask the assessor's office to give me a list of all 3 acres?

I don't know. Why don't we pull it and look at it? Or why don't we just look at the 1 we have from.

I have, I probably have it some big fat binder.

You're so organized. I love it. See my office. Years of training.

I'd rather have an updated list if we're going to do it at all.

Yes, of course.

I'll ask the assessor. She's probably busy right now. I'm going to see her myself this afternoon. I'll ask them for all vacant properties over three acres. I'll send that list to you and then we can put this to bed.

Yep.

So that's that's all she wrote. Jess, I'll send you the changes and what you have printed right now is the one that you sent over Yeah, mine is dated April 18th. Okay. So I keep forgetting to send Jesse what I do. Sorry. So I'll fix this later today. I'll send it to you. You can send that out. And as far as the appendix goes, we'll wait on the assessor.

Okay.

So that's that off my desk.

I would like to finish. this big bullet bolt and when it's due in five years i will quit me too uh peconic bay regional advisory committee update there's not a whole lot to update um theoretically the group is going to start functioning we're predicting in maybe at the june meeting maybe in july there's an organizational another yet another but i think the final organizational meeting coming up uh next week

Do they have the force of law or is this just like, they're just like us, advisory? Okay.

And in fact, they're going through the new revised 64E and recommending changes even within that.

Yeah, I sent .

And then there's that rules and regulations, which I sent around, which is being revised, although not that many revisions. It's just some, I would say some clarifications. So we'll see what happens. Any old business.

Do they meet monthly or quarterly?

They've been meeting sort of every month to get it going. OK.

It's slow moving, so I'm just curious to see.

Well, it's actually relatively efficient. People are focused. They know what they have to do. They know what they want to get out of it. And it is moving along. But it's like getting five different towns to all agree on stuff. So it's been fairly, I would say, fairly... Given the fact that it's only meeting periodically, it's moving right along, I would say. It took a while. I mean, this only started... I think they've been at it for like six months. So that's six meetings. So it's pretty... given what they're trying to accomplish and get memorandum of understanding among five towns is pretty big accomplishment. So old business, new business.

I have two things for new business. Um, I think someone mentioned that we should should put some planting at Dickerson Creek. And I thought Kate said grasses, but maybe no. Okay.

Which Creek?

Dickerson Creek overlook. So I thought this was the time of year to do. Why are you looking at me like that? Oh, I'm sorry. We had said something about putting plantings at Dickerson Creek overlook. Yes. So, why don't we just hire somebody and put something there? I don't know what that would be. This is the time to do it.

Yeah, let's talk about that next because we have other plantings too.

Okay. The other thing I wanted to address is we're acquiring a fair number of properties. And we have this community preservation fund volunteer stewardship program. Yes. And this is the time of year when all of these organizations, the neighborhood associations start to meet. And I thought we should. Maybe go around to those meetings now, I don't know where. Which neighborhood has which properties I would need help with that, but I thought if each the 7 of us, if we can go out to 7 of their annual meetings or opening meetings, whatever they have. And push for a stewardship from the neighbors, I guess how we and. Elise can volunteer for. Artists lane, man, I certainly can cover West neck. I go by there and and and crap creep but.

But some part of the point is to try to get other folks involved exactly to increase it.

And there's a form for them to fill out. We could distribute. Um, maybe ask them to report twice a year. We can keep that in a binder and report to town hall. I also think it would help when you do your budget. So, if people recognize that we have to do something. And we could talk to the person we want these trails cleared if they're not let us know. So, what do you think of that idea?

He wants to do this.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, like not all of the properties are kind of covered within right so that's i need help with people that know the properties better than i do um and the neighborhoods to say okay that like ram said i don't know the only one that's there is um well the causeway i guess liberty right um but essentially there isn't that's like a we almost don't want people to go there yeah you know i mean but somebody has to go walk and make sure there's not

Chance of soda or most prom.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Um. So I would need help getting a list and then maybe we could. You know, just I think a personal appeal is more effective than just emailing these people.

So, if you have to wait, because they have their meetings at different times during the spring through summer, if there's sort of a way to. Like the Heights and I think Cape Beach have a way of emailing all of their- Well, that's what I'm saying. I could email these people, but I think- No, I'm thinking that maybe whoever heads each of these associations could send out a message to the members and then we would have somebody lined up and then talk to them.

They could, but I think it's more effective if- Is there a liability issue with having people going out and doing this- No, no more so than anybody walking on the property.

You know, well, yeah, they're being called on to do it. Right. Is that kind of.

I think it's different if we have some chainsaws. We're not asking them. No, no, no.

It's observation. There's a whole policy here that explains.

Ability to chainsaws.

So, yeah, it's just like, for my work, anytime we have any volunteers, we have to sign something.

See what they say. Well, the town has insurance. Your activities will be. Release you acknowledge the performing stewardship activities. The towns could result in physical or emotional injury paralysis, disability and death to yourself with 3rd parties. Some of the risks arise from blah, blah, blah. but it's a good thing to bring up i think so um i need help and then i'll assign people identifying the properties that are within certain neighborhood associations we can email them tim but again i say i don't know i agree but for instance i just did a talk for the hay beach association so i could contact uh hey beach has done that you see oregon

Lucy Morgan.

Is she the president? Do you have these documents? Do you have these documents? Do you have these documents?

The stewardship program. No, no. The Loggia Stewardship Program. Yes, you do.

Do you think they're on the website? I'm in trouble this morning.

All right. Is there anything else on the agenda?

Are we doing this? Sure.

OK. We're going to get the voluntold a new member whenever they may be assigned. Maybe help you out.

We can give them bagels and coffee at the end of the year or something.

Amber was going to get it with Canada, places where they could take fireworks.

OK.

But we can't. I never heard back on that.

can we get split it up that's what i'm saying i can do silver beach certainly we all have we all we're all assigned to a specific right so what you're just getting started trying to say so i guess i have the list of all the properties um and kim sent me a list of all the association but um can't find it i wonder if amber has it

I think when we do get our new member, we'll go over that whole list of students. Yes. And make new assignments. We'll put that on the agenda for next year.

I don't want to keep the two I have because you can use it every day.

Whoever Kathleen had, we have to divide that up.

I think she was with, well, I think she was with me. I have the list.

Thank you.

These are the stewardship and policy. that she's printing and hopefully she can find a digital copy that you can send. All right, that's my business copy.

All right, anything else for the public meeting? Okay. So can I get a motion to close the meeting?

I just wanted to say I did overhear the request for a photo. We'll take care of that. As for some of the things that all of you talked about this morning in terms of things that were either damaged or for some reason rotted out, but probably damaged. We want to do something with that because people need to be warned that, you know, that this kind of thing is going on in some places and it's being observed and that proper efforts will be made. We'll be reaching out to Chief Reed as well for his comment about helping to deal with these problems.

Can you mention the ATV incident? Absolutely. And that way you will forfeit your ATV. Thanks, Julie. Thanks, Julie.

Julie, I'll get you the contact information for the family.

Terrific. Thank you.

Yep. All right. Anything else? I have a motion to close the meeting.

We do.

All those in favor? Aye. Thanks.