##VIDEO ID:nO_qoHMx84E## okay let's see it's 7:30 I'm um I'm gonna call us to order I don't know if Kyle's gonna be able to join us or not it sounded like he had some schedule challenges so Sarah's not going to be here tonight uh Amy's also not joining us so you've got uh Tim and I running the show here um so I'll call the meeting the January 21st 2025 meeting of the Littleton Conservation Commission to order um we've got a fairly brief agenda tonight we've got some administrative items Tim it looks like you have an enforcement order for 15 powers and you have 13 winged Cove on the agenda do you anticipate though either of them will be in neither of them um or actually sorry no John mcgean will be in uh Kyle man I he will be continuing okay sounds good um so what I'd like to do is I think we have a few interesting administrative items Tim is there anything I I know you and I corresponded about adding My Boy Scout application to the administrative agenda are there any other additions to the administrative agenda that we need to discuss I don't have any other additions other than that anyone else any other additions nope not for me okay um then I think we'll move first into the minutes of January 7th 2025 are there any comments additions Corrections or deletions to those minutes it looks great no not for me okay let me maybe we get a motion to approve those I'll move that we uh approve the minutes of January 7th 2025 as written second all right roll call vote uh we've got Ed PA Chase Chase G guy Carl guy Michael Michael liai hey Kyle um we're actually in the middle of the vote to approve the meeting minutes from the [Music] I I was here sorry oh perfect was it an i with I oh perfect and myself I it's unanimous very good thank you sir um I think with that I don't know Tim if you're going to pick up the discussion of the community preservation act application or Andrew but let let's take that one first Andrew want to take it away I I'm ready to roll so I don't know if you guys have had a chance to review the updated application um for the invasive plant control at frog pond so essentially I give you guys a rundown if you'd like um so I haven't received all the quotes back for the walkway as of yet uh that'll be a separate filing with the CPC uh so what I sent to Tim and Amy uh over the weekend was um basically a revised version of the invasive plant application that I sent last time so essentially the application last time said we're going to do a management plan uh do a first phase of work and kind of apply for more funding in the future this new application basically says we're going to do an assessment a management plan and then get all of it done over a threeyear period with followup you know in 2026 2027 um so all things considered uh the project will be about $30,000 um from start to finish um and that's the ini cutting application management plan and then follow up for two years so it's um it'll be pretty thorough projects um the quotes that I got or the quote that I got was in the high 20s mid the high 20s so I added a little bit of contingency funding to it um but it seems very reasonable and I think it'll put us on the right track did you say this does or does not include a walkway so so the walkway will be a separate application once I get some more quotes for that work I'll have the finalized version of that application for you guys to review but if this looks good to you guys tonight what I'll do is I'll package it up and send it off to um groups like Long Lake neighborhood association and a few others to get endorsements and then I'll send it off to CPC and we can get it done at the February meeting uh we're lucky in that the warrant actually doesn't close until March 24th this uh this year so what I can do is um we've actually got quite a bit of time um before the March CPC meeting or or even the February one to uh to review you know the application for the board uh the walkway but uh if the invasive one looks good to you guys tonight we can push that one out and get rolling with it sounds good to me yeah all sounds reasonable to me do you Andrew would you like a vote of support for that or just general consent to move forward a vote would be great um and then like I said I'll package it up send it off to LNA and uh probably clean lakes and maybe the trust and send it off to CPC yeah then a move uh for the Conservation Commission to support the application for invasive species management at the Frog Pond to the community preservation committee second second perfect uh roll call vote Ed Ed F Kyle Maxi hi Michael Michael Livingston hi Carl M Chase Chas K hi and myself I it's unanimous thank you everybody Andrew thank you very much for leaning the charge on this stuff it really makes a big difference oh thank you things like this don't happen without people shaking the tree and and actually putting the money to it so gotta shake the trees okay uh next up Tim you want to take us through any anything we have the shade tree committee draft bylaw on the agenda anything from you there you looking for me to update folks on this I I just wanted to see if if anybody wanted to review it or if any if you guys thought it would be beneficial to have a joint meeting um with them to go over it my two senses it would probably be good um I got to pick ours back up and move it forward a little bit the other piece of this is theirs I think is still waiting for Town Council to take a closer look at theirs is that right Tim is that still still happening but hasn't happened maybe I believe so okay um but I believe they're also looking to get it on the warrant for this yes town meeting okay um what do you all think of doing a joint meeting with them like two meetings out so not the next time we meet which I think Tim will be February 4th um or rather do it February 18th which allows us to well allows us allows me to get our ducks in a row a little yeah I'd like some some time to to review this before we meet with them I don't want to meet I don't have the time to to look at this before we meet with them for next meeting at all so if you could push it two meetings that would be great I mean I I think the timeline would actually allow us to push it to March 4th and still have plenty of time if if that's better yeah so our choices are either February 18th or March 4th I'd say go with the 18th I don't want to review this and then have them come in on March 4th and be like hey we had a lot of questions and concerns and not have them give them enough time to do anything with that sure so Tim can you coordinate with them to get them on the agenda for the 18th and can you also circulate I I looked through my email and I've got five different versions of it and it's not totally obvious to me what the latest and greatest is do you think you could work with Matt and circulate the the latest and greatest version yeah definitely okay cool so what was the date that you said Chase uh our February 18th meeting February 18 okay and I I suppose that presumes it's it works for them Tim if they come back and say they prefer to do it another time we can figure that out but yeah okay let's impose our schedule on them and see what happens yeah all right the Littleton Charter committee um just to let you guys know that this thing is is forming AR and we aren't required to have somebody on there but if you are so inclined um and you uh you w't apply to be appointed um but again we're not required to have anybody what is it no idea I mean in so many words Michael it's it at the highest level it'll actually I expect to contemplate whether or not we go from a um Town it'll re-evaluate our particular form of government and uh I believe the charter committee may even contemplate whether or not we should go from a town uh manager no what Adat yeah a Town Administrator to a Town manager form of government essentially shifting more administrative responsibility on professional staff and away from the select board it sounds fascinating I'm not sure I'm the right guy to uh offer input for that I I would challenge you on that assumption I I having seen other towns go through it I I do think the charter Committee in general doesn't have to be you Michael would benefit from people who bring other experiences to the to the discussion does sound interesting though if you agree fit Michael um the documentation that Amy circulated has the has the timing on it and I was just looking I don't see the when they're looking for oh yeah application deadline is the end of the month January 29th so Michael you got eight days to put this together you have plenty of time all right I'll uh dedicate an evening um okay sounds like we're moving on from that one what what do we got next uh we have the annual operating budget meeting on Saturday February 1 at 9:00 am so uh I mean Chase if you want to wake up early on a Saturday and attend with me and Amy you're more than welcome to or anybody else for that matter Tim you're giving yourself away here 9:00 am is not early my I was just gonna say I love for Saturday that's early for me um yeah I I believe I will be in attendance in part because it's we're the first thing on the agenda uh my understanding is there isn't a lot that's controversial in our budget so that's correct it'll largely be a box checking exercise I think you never know that so my plan is to be there just in case somebody decides to get squirly gotcha and I'll be there um for Cemetery like two departments after so I can be there a little earlier too perfect that'd be great you're all welcome I don't think I mean I think if you all decide you intend to be there send him a note because we can um we may need to post it as a meeting if we're all going to be there hey hey Chase do we have to we don't have to be careful of losing our two positions do we it doesn't appear anybody is all that uncomfortable with what we've put forward I think what we've put forward is a very reasonable allocation of resources given the expectations for the conservation department that said that's part of the reason I want to be there Carl just in case questions come up about the importance of having two position okay thanks this is the budget that Amy and uh I was there on and I forget who all else was there that we reviewed and then brought to the committee after that that's the budget we're talking about yes sir okay then I'm fine with what's there I I do expect there may be questions about how the budgeted resources may actually be spent right because sometimes the the nature of this is the budget was put together months ago when the timing of Amy's retirement and all that wasn't entirely solidified so um there may be questions about and furthermore stumbling over my words there may also be questions about whether or not we will have someone in the position in time to begin to utilize the resources for the assistants role and so on I think those are very reasonable questions well concerned yeah I I think so but it at the same time if we're not utilizing those resources there is some money in the budget currently for Amy to work or someone it doesn't have to be Amy to work on a contract basis what is it $5,000 or something a little a little over 5,000 yeah yeah but if we don't have someone in the assistant position drawing a salary that frees up a little bit of money to to be able to use for contract support so it the expectation is it will net out but it may require a you know midyear finance committee authorization to shift it from this line to that line should should be fairly minimal okay moving right along um all right so the uh neog Hill um Road parcel lot 107 that's on the it's going to be on the agenda for the the January 27th select board meeting um Chase can you send me the uh slide so we can include that in the the packet to send to town administrator's office you ask me to do that two weeks ago and I forgot I'm sorry yes I will do that before we wrap up tonight before I close your computer are they planning on voting yay and nay at that meeting no in my discussions with Mark rambacher I don't think so my expectation is that we're we're simply going to restart the discussion from first principles there's a portion of the property its highest and best use is conservation it makes the most sense for the conservation department to have and the Conservation Commission to have care custody and control of this land here is the process that we would need to go through and then let the select board weigh in on what they see as potential options for it okay as Andrew said to the um the the warrant doesn't close until mid-march so we we have a little bit of time that said if the no not a lot if if the select board diers on this it it will be problematic so I think our big ask of them on Monday is going to be to move this at PACE especially if they want to hold public meeting kind of things yeah how many meetings do they have between now and the closing of the war not that many uh probably five five scheduled but then you figure they'll probably tack two in before the warrant closes so call it seven all right that's we just want to get down to what we did last town meeting you know it was you know we we we aren't sure we we don't want to do it and this that and the other and you know next thing you know we're pulling the warrant again yeah I uh I very much agree I I get a little nervous when they're also working on the uh the lease at the same time cross lot of issues there it makes me a little nervous when they get these yeah and I think that's part of what Monday is intended to understand is where where are they at with those processes and how does that fit together here um Tim can you can you please post Monday night's meeting for us I I don't know if we will have a quorum or not but to the I don't think we need a quorum but to the extent that we have a quorum I would like to be able to act as a body yeah sure I won't be there I won't be back in town yet do we want to do a uh just kind of quick see who can attend or oh yeah we could do that I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it I'll try I will be I'm gonna have to look at the schedule as a whole okay yeah I can post it anyways just out of uh you know in the event that we we do have a forum yeah I think that would be safest uh looks like Rob br has his hand up Rob I'm going to try and let you speak here should be able to speak Rob if you've got a comment yes thank you can you hear me yes we can okay thank you um I've been I attend a good number of meetings um the select board in some of the discussion about lot 7A uh that you're talking about on the 27th has mentioned at least two times times in the last two months the water Department's interest in some aspect that that is associated with lot 7A I mention it solely that should you care to you can uh if you're not aware be aware of that so that it doesn't come to you as a surprise on Monday night um I don't want to present like I have more that I think think I know but I'm far from an expert on it and I leave it to you to determine whether you have interest in U pursuing it prior to the meeting yeah I appreciate that Rob I I'd heard Rumblings that are along those lines and I think part of what Monday will hopefully sort help hopefully help us sort out is what what does that mean because I I will tell you and and I I think the way that we will convey it to the select board is lot 7A would be a particularly poor choice to use for any water department infrastructure um it's wet that's the reason we think it makes sense to have uh the Conservation Commission take care of custody and control of it I just I'm good I just want to make sure you're aware of it and I'm glad to hear that you have that awareness thank you is is the water department looking for access to can do we have does the town of any Authority to pull any water from that we do have the authority to pull some water from neok right so I wonder if they're looking for some shop there yeah there's there's two things going on that the water department is looking for at least as I understand it one is potential treatment for water at the cob Wells and the other is for potential access to drinking water out of neok and both of those would require infrastructure however I also think the town would be very challenged with legal issues by putting the treatment plant right on the shores of of neog pond uh town of conquered is unlikely to be a fan of that and they they they yeah right I bigger pitch of stuff is that part of majority of that Orchard probably drains down to neog Pond I would think unless it goes a different direction but yeah thing things to understand on Monday though is what what they're thinking what what questions need to be answered in my I I I we're I see a much bigger picture Chase with this whole neog Orchard thing there's a much bigger picture that I don't think we really have a good sense of I guess that's my two cents on it so I mean this seems like a little bit of a curveball yep being thrown and you know just one more speed bum that's right um I will tell you though as you look at that property 7 a in particular the the argument for carving that off for care custody and control of the Conservation Commission is that it is very difficult to build anything functional on that's why it makes good conservation link so we'll uh we'll have that discussion with them okay next up uh you want take this one I would love to take this one too um Tim had an interesting week last week I think right uh did Tim Tim interviewed for our conservation agent position um Sarah asked me to report Sarah sat in on that interview uh although she couldn't be here tonight she wanted to make it very clear that she recommends that we hire Tim in the conservation agent role uh the senior conservation agent Ro I suppose um the process for this Tim I don't I know we were going back and forth with Amy I I don't know if it got resolved who the actual appointing authority for this job is I I still don't think it's resolved Al to be safe um I think Amy was Amy mentioned it would be best to vote on the hiring not the recommendation of the hiring okay yeah and and so what we're what we're talking about tonight is whether regardless of whether or not it's the Conservation Commission that ultimately hires for this role or the select board that hires for this role um it is a recommendation of the hiring committee that that role be offered to Tim and so I think we have two things to do here one is to discuss as a group if that's the recommendation we want to make and I think we should take that up first and then if that is the recommendation that we want to make administratively how it gets done and that's a little muddy but less complicated so let's take the first question first which is any thoughts on hiring Tim as our conservation agent perfect Tim I think you would be an amazing full-time conservation agent for us I've seen how much you've grown over the last you know couple of years you've been with us and familiar with the town the Departments the people and I mean you're going to jump right into the role you're going to do a great job and I fully support that I appreciate that Andrew yeah yeah very well said Andrew I totally totally agree it's been yeah here here not only does Amy I'm sure have appreciated your help um I think hopefully she's been kind of grooming you for this and she's much more comfortable going into her retirement with the assumption that you would be stepping in so I fully endorse us um I I like the idea that Tim's young and you know may anytime soon maybe he'll stay for a while which would be really nice yeah but car thinks 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays early body feel old um given given that um has how have other towns been doing hiring assistance is there demand out there or are the applicants do we have any idea it's going to be a challenging role to I imagine we got pretty lucky that we got Tim when we did as assistant right so um from what I had heard would be interesting met about the budget that day it we discussed that very briefly and how some of the other towns have had to take completely unqualified people and train them into the job because it's difficult to find people I expect it to be pretty challenging are you up to the task of being by yourself yeah it it might require you know couple extra hours here in there but yeah now I think I'm I'm at maybe 9 you chose an interesting time to make that comment I I will say Tim I'm very excited to um to have you in that role I think one of my expectations of you is that you communicate to us what you need in terms of your career growth and development right like it's it's one thing for us to get very comfortable working with Amy with 20 some odd 30 some odd years of experience um we're going to need you to tell us what you need in terms of training and development and resources and support so that you can do your job well I don't think anyone is expecting you to when your job title changes to um overnight accumulate 30 years of experience and that's I think that I think that's going to be one of the initial issu Chase is that we could just like hey Amy checked that delineation for us and we're all good um no offense Tim um but it does take a lot of years of experience to get to that level um I'm I'm I'm kind of assuming that uh we either maybe hiring more Consultants to check lines or as Tim grows and gets better and better at it it's just you know it's yeah and I think that was part of the uh the $5,100 that was was put in the budget was anticipating um the possibility of that happening okay just training though you need to make sure you tell us if it starts to get overwhelming oh yeah I mean luckily we have a lot of good resources um for trainings and there seems like there's no shortage of trainings going on because they have there's mCP there's mac um D has their training like there's always something going on yeah yeah you're going to want to cultivate the contacts with the other towns as well oh yeah yeah and that's part of Ms smcp um not sure how familiar are with that but essentially it's a a message an email kind of Message Board where if a conservation agent runs into an issue they can send out a message it goes to all the these other conservation professionals and if they've had experience with these issues they they kind of just provide answers and so it's a whole network it's it's super nice to to have at our fingertips but Chase so we looking for a vote in favor of hiring to yeah so the the vote would be exactly that Ed in uh that the Conservation Commission supports hiring Tim Pearson as the senior conservation agent it's a little ambiguous because it's unclear whether it would be us that hires it or a recommendation of the select board but that wording would allow us to do whichever needs to be done okay you w to say that again I'll sure um so I'll move that the Conservation Commission um recommend the hiring of Tim Pearson as the senior conservation agent second all right so we move to Second roll call vote Ed edide I Michael Michael Livingston I Kyle Kyle Maxfield I chase chase Kirby myself I it's unanimous congratulations Tim congratulations working with you guys we'll uh we'll work through the the administrative process here over the next couple weeks Tim but uh W welcome aboard in the scene thank you um so the uh land use permit oh yeah last last thing so I'm gonna step back as the chair here and present this I had mentioned it uh two weeks ago filed an application on behalf of Boy Scout Troop One to utilize um New Town Hill for a camping trip for the for Boy Scout Troop One they will be doing it next weekend fire department has signed off police department has signed off um I think typically Tim we don't always require the full Conservation Commission to necessarily vote in support of land use permits but we have sometimes done that so I'm not sure what the right trajectory is um but I want to make it clear I'm just here as the applicant um to present it so I'm thinking just because we didn't have it on the agenda for tonight perhaps we could just take a consensus and authorize Tim to sign off on it for a Chase and did did do we authorize them to have a a a fire fire pit yes well the the application says that there will be a fire pit I've been in communication with the fire department doesn't appear that they're going to require a formal permit but the fire would be contained it would be monitored at all times it would be small enough it would only be big enough to achieve you know keeping the boys warm and cooking a hot dog and fire or fuel sources will be kept away from the fire okay sounds great so I move that we what um approve it's a consensus vote so s not an approval but so I was thinking just because we don't have it listed we probably shouldn't vote on it um but we could do is just do a straw poll and if anybody objected does that sound like a plan to you guys works for me perfect so Ed um how do you I'm yes whatever yeah okay and Carl yes Michael yeah sounds good Kyle yes Chase how do you feel about your Perman just tell them to take good care of my riding territory I uh I plan on using this as an opportunity to make sure that they know that there's a close symbiotic relationship between the scouts and uh conservation across town so perfect so Tim um using your executive authorities you can go ahead and uh issue the permits uh and they'll be good to go sounds good thank you on behalf of Scouts I was actually going to make the scouts come in tonight but they have their meeting from 7 to 8:30 so so you got me instead all right okay um that takes us through Tim did you have anything else in the administrative I did not nope okay and it looks like we don't have John here for we don't so 15 Powers oh is that a surprise he was he was supposed to be here tonight he he emailed me today and saying he would be here so not sure how you guys want to go about this it's kind of up to you you guys if you want to uh you feel the need to to vote to start issuing tickets again um he has been in communication with us um although he isn't here tonight I see there are some new documents up as of you know what early January yeah um some photos and a plan set although I'm having a hard time interpreting it yeah it's I don't think it's terribly different than the one that was um presented at the the prior meeting that he was at I think the old Wetland line was just added to it and that is not the new Wetland line that Matt Maro delineated there is a we don't have that line yet um it's not shown on a plan yet no I I've gotta say I'm inclined to give him another meeting but my patience personally is running very thin I think we should give another meeting I he's hired Matt Matt's been working on it give another meeting see what happens there was another uh consultant or whatever he was supposed to hire as well though right someone yeah the one they said he couldn't find anyone to willing to do the work and we extended it way out so that he could fit into their schedules I think it's probably sounds like Carl and Ed are in favor of letting it go for two weeks is anybody opposed to that idea I think that's fair we can reach out to him tomorrow and see what may have happened and take it up next time impress upon him if you speak with him that you know he's been given a lot of latitude yeah to not make meetings even though he says he's going to be here is it's not good yeah I'll stress the uh the gravity of the situation yeah and at this point he's not very far from bringing this thing well I don't know about that he's got a lot of crap on his property yeah I know but he seems to have the ability to move stuff when he wants to well that doesn't mean that will though sounds like he's going to get his two week reprieve um I my two sons here and Tim I don't think you need to necessarily Express this as a will of the board but if we don't make progress in two weeks I I don't relish the idea of writing more tickets but I think we're going to have to that that's where I will be to we from now yeah depending what he shows up with I guess sure he shows up we're making progress yeah but if it's another handdrawn picture and you know really no effectively no progress then you know it's just string us along so I was that going to hold up with the disposition of the last set of tickets if I remember right it mean it ended up being like $15 in an afternoon of aggravation but it it did the um the magistrate clerk um reduced the price because the tickets were issued in Alum suum and not on a a daily basis okay I see which I believe we were instructed to do like I believe we were allowed to issue them on a lumpsum basis not on a daily basis but the clerk didn't um appreciate that so he reduced the price I mean we think though that if we did start writing tickets again and I'm not saying that I'm excited about that the second the ne whatever hearing they have this would be the second instance of with the commission showing that there's been no progress even though he said at the last time that he would make progress and you know the after a while you got history jumping in on this and uh you know so his um it's unusual for Matt Maru not to have put these things on these points on some kind of map I'm I'm not sure there's been too much communication Coral um I know semi- recently um somebody close to Matt passed away I can't remember who um so he wasn't in communication with John for a while he was away right he also traveled over the holiday he did travel like right in around the same time although I think uh the month of January who's who supposed to be getting back to his normal schedule but with the holidays and with bats issues and so forth that's why I'm inclined to give the two weeks yeah but at that point you're well over a month past the holidays and everything should be back to stabilize you know I'm sure I'm sure he doesn't want to hire Matt to show up at these meetings because that would be additional money he's got to pay he doesn't have to have Matt come if he can just give us the right documents that we're asking and show us progress you know and there are things that he can do and hasn't yeah at this point we haven't had any um any any proof of any uh contact actually made with Matt since the the last meeting that or the last meeting that yeah the last meeting that we we saw John at which wasn't was the December 10th one I believe I am more than willing to give folks latitude even if they're just doing incremental improvements to get to the plan and I recognize that the you know the money issues and all that but there is nothing you know we had a walk through I forget even when it was now it was before Christmas um re reestablishing or or you know looking at the line again yeah and um that was it [Music] so that's where I'm at okay well I sounds like Tim you've gotten pretty consistent direction from the commission here as far as uh the property owner is concerned so yeah very good um I think that wraps us up for it tonight yeah we just need a meeting to adjourn I move that we join the meeting okay all right roll call vote Ed head Michael Michael tonight Carl Cary Kyle Kyle Max gu Chase Chase G guy and myself I it's unanimous good night everybody