All right. So, this is the Wednesday um May 14th meeting of the Lunberg Open Space Committee. Um we're doing this via Zoom. Zoom number is 86775465879.
[Music] And uh we're this is also being uh broadcast on Facebook live and will be on the YouTube channel for the town of Lunenburgg um after we finish. And so we're doing this remotely
still. The the the governor went ahead and signed into law an extension of the remote meeting acts. So we are good for at least another year, I think, which is great. Um we got together last month um over at
the Ritter building. It was um Glenn and Chris St. Germaine and I. So we didn't have a corner, but we got to sit there and see each other face to face instead of just faces on a screen, which was nice. Um we're going to try to do that again. And I know Eric, it was tough for
you um to get there at We did it at 7:00 and and if we pushed it to 7:30, would that help at all? That would definitely be easier for me for in person. Okay. And Anna, I know, has trouble um making an early meeting. So, we might try June.
We'll we'll talk about this a little later. We might try June again in person. It was very nice to be able to sit down with these two gentlemen and get to know each other a little bit and go through a few things uh informally. Um Chris is our new member from the
conservation commission because Mary has stepped aside and I think she's I'm not sure if she's still on the commission, but I know she's not chairing the conservation commission anymore. Uh and she may be stepping off the conservation commission. Work just got a little too crazy for her. So, she's taken a bit of
a timeout. Um, Brandon, you had threatened that and I don't know whether that threat is still active. Now, I can't hear you because you're muted. You're muted. Tough to unmute on the phone sometimes. Yeah, there's got to be a little button
there somewhere. There we go. Is that better? Well, yeah. Now I can hear you, but I can't see you. Now I can see you. Okay. Okay. This is entirely not intuitive. Uh so um I've given it a lot of thought
and I do think unfortunately obviously I've been MIA and um that's not a uh this committee deserves more than that and and uh certainly I've given a lot to this uh this committee over the years
and uh it I do not um it hurts me to to be as absent as I've been um and uh so it doesn't feel like it's a fair it gives the committee a fair shake. So unfortunately I I am going to resign
my spot on on the committee. Um and u my intention is to send a I wanted to tell you guys that in person. Okay. Um, I'm I'm going to uh uh send a letter to the planning board since they're technically
our oversight board tomorrow that indicates the same. Um, so if you'll do me a favor, copy me and copy and copy Logan. Okay. Absolutely. He's the one that kind of keeps track helps keep track of us all. Yep. Absolutely. Um and
and but but what I do want to say is that you know especially I know I know there's an open space plan you know kind of rewrite in the not too distant future um I played a very active role in the last two or three of them um including
doing all the mapping and all that other stuff um so when the time comes I'm happy to serve as a resource to the committee and um you know and I and And maybe at that time, maybe it makes sense for me to join again or or do something
at that time. Um, and always as always, if if you have any questions or anything comes up and you want to, you know, bounce something off me, feel free to feel free to do that. But I'm happy to serve as a resource. I just don't I feel like I'm taking a seat that somebody
else could be sitting in and and actually contributing to the the operation. So, are you are you doing that effective after this meeting tonight? Yes. Okay. Um, I also, just so you know, I also heard from Tim Lawless, who's the uh representative from the
parks commission, took over Anna's spot when Anna stepped off the parks commission. Tim is also going to step aside. Okay. So, we're going to have several openings. We have Chris is a new member. Um, Glenn, you're relatively new. Um, so Er Eric, you and I are going
to be the old hands, which doesn't say a lot, but uh, no, it does not because I'm not sure what Anna's, uh, plans are either. I'm trying to reach out to her as well. So, it's okay. Like, you know, boards change, membership, life goes on,
and we will certainly reach out for your help. I'll talk about this a little more under agenda item number five for tonight, the open space plan. But I want really want to thank you for all the the hard work you did. I know you and Paula, especially Bob um did an awful lot of
work. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I mean, I moved into town in 2004, I want to say. I started on the committee in ' 06 or ' 08 or something like that.
Um and have been serving ever since. Um, so it's a certainly a passion of mine and and um and like I said, I I wish I could give it more than I I've been able to in the last couple of
years, frankly. And uh um it is what it is. Life gets in the way sometimes. And uh that's what we'll do. But I appreciate your leadership, Mike, and I and uh and thank you for taking the reigns um when you did and and uh I'm
happy to serve as a resource, like I said. Thank you. So, um you're the clerk. Will you take the minutes tonight? I sure will. And in fact, I am. Thank you. Okay, great. Because Eric and and Glenn have have stepped in and done
that for me at several meetings. So, I appreciate it all from all of you. Okay. Um, so Glenn and I got to meet Chris um, at the last meeting. Um, he actually lives up the street from me and Glenn lives down the street from me and we can't see each other yet, Glenn,
because they still haven't fixed that bridge. Although, they put up a new sign saying the bridge is out. So, no kidding. Yeah, I see they put out a new a bid for a new contractor. So, hopefully there'll be some developments there. Oh gosh, I hope so. You know, it's just even just just
getting into town, it's it's roundabout. Going east isn't too bad because I can just go down through Shirley, but going west, it's added a little bit, you know, of a of a workaround to get over around town. I don't know whether you guys know that, but that bridge on Flatill Road is
out. The one that's down by the 90° curve down by my house down by Stone Fence. So, we're at the very end of the northern reach of Flatill and you're down at the southern end, right? And so we neither of us can get in each other's
direction. Um so the first real piece of business is the approval of the minutes from the February meeting which Glenn took for us. I distributed those. U Glenn I I had one typo that I fixed. That's it. Um everything else to my mind
was was accurate. So, unless someone else um has something else to add to those minutes, I'd entertain a motion to approve the February minutes. So, moved as amended. Thank you. Um second anybody Glenn, you
can second. Okay, awesome. Okay, great. So, uh moved and seconded. Um, since we are on Zoom, I'll do the the typical roll call thing. So, Eric, how do you vote? I. Thank you.
Glenn, I. Brandon, I. And I also vote I. The chair votes I. So, those are approved. I will forward those to the town clerk's office. Thank you very much. Um, reports from other boards. So, right
now, I think Glenn, you're the only one representing a board at tonight's meeting. I don't know whether you have anything from the planning board that you need to bring to our attention. Uh, not specifically. It did the uh chair did bring up um open space again and that we in the future can meet up and
have like a either a dual meeting or he'd be happy to attend a meeting too. And I think it was probably based on those the concerns about the the properties coming out of chapter. Yes. But but nothing nothing specific. Okay, great. Yeah, and we're we're all
for that. Are you meeting in person or still remotely with the planning board? In person. Okay, so maybe um let me know when your June meeting is if if it's okay with the chair and you can run this by the chair.
Um, we could we could come to your June meeting and have that be our June open space meeting as long as it works out for for quorum. And if even if it doesn't, we'll have a few people there. Okay. So, any any ideas when that might
be in June? Uh, June 9th. June 9th. Okay. I think that's fairly close to what we were going to have for our meeting. I'll check my calendar. Yeah, I had the 11th for our meeting. So, the 9th is that Monday. So, maybe we'll just move our meeting to that
Monday if if we can get enough folks to come. I can come and we'll see who else can come. Where do you guys meet? Do you meet in in the uh Ritter building? Uh town hall town hall. Yep. Okay. And it's also it's also um on Zoom. Oh, so it's
hybrid. Hybrid. Yeah. Okay. So maybe that'll help some of the open space committee members as well. Great. Okay. Um get back to the agenda. Open space plan update discussion. Brandon, this is um where we
we will ask for your help, but it it appears we're going to be able to ask for your help three more years down the road. The open space plan was originally due to be updated in 2026. I think that's the end of our seven-year period. The state has now changed that to be a
10-year period. And they're offering anyone that has a current seven-year open space plan to update um the table of action items, which I I found in the pages 7176 or something like that of our open space plan to update that to be a
10-year table instead of a seven-year table action items. And given that once we send that into the into the state, uh technically they'll approve that and our open space plan will get three more years before it has to be updated. So
2029 instead of 2026. So I'll I'll start that. I'll take that on. We'll talk about that in subsequent meetings because folks may have ideas on what to change. But if you get a chance, take a look at the open space plan in general, but take a look
at that table specifically. It's called down the table of contents and I it's in the 70s 7175 somewhere in there. Um take a look at what the action items are. Um I I've looked at it. I think it'll be fairly easy to do an update to that.
Move dates around, move things. A lot of it was TBD based on funding, which is still going to be the case. Um, so unless members here object, I I would move that we go ahead and apply for the
extra three years on the open space plan um from the state. Mike, do you remember in the um in the update from the the state or the the letter from the state, did they say that we had to do a new
survey or get further public input in order to define sort of that those that re that renewed table? I'll go back and look, but the only thing I recall is they wanted the table
updated, but I'll take a look. you you forwarded that to me. I did download their new um handbook. Yeah. You know, the workbook. Yeah. Um so, let's let's see if I can find what they said, Brandon. Let's see. Melissa said,
Um, if you would like the plan to receive an additional three years of eligibility, you may extend your action plan by three years and send it to me for review and approval. That's what that was in Melissa's letter. Oh, that's easy. Once approved, then she said, "Once approved, your community will receive a new open
space um recreation plan approval letter with an updated expiration date." And this whole thing is due at the end of September. So there's time yet to to work on that table. So the other members, I'd like you to take a look at that table. And I mean certainly it
would be easy enough for the Open Space Committee to to just sort of take a whack at it and and you know offer it up um offer up some suggestions. Would it make sense? I'm stepping off the committee,
so I don't want to create work for anybody, but um would it make sense to uh uh at least circulate to the main land use boards um that were undertaking this? And um here's the old action item. Are there
any additional action items that you think should be added for the next three years in terms of of objectives just to get a little bit more input? I mean, obviously this committee has representation from the other land use boards, but um to actually have the boards weigh in on that. Yeah, I agree.
And I I was definitely going to send it to planning because we're we're an ad hoc committee of planning. And so u they should definitely see it, but I think I think um parks should see it. Um maybe even the agricultural commission should see it. Right. And conservation. And
conservation. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I what I was intending to do is to is to take the PDF and and see if I can't reconvert it unless you can send me the word document and do a strikeout. Yep. You know, and and substitute bold or something so they can see what the
changes what the original language was and what the changes are. I'm pretty sure I've got a soft copy of it somewhere kicking around and I will find that and forward it to you. Yeah. If not, I can do it in Adobe because it's I've got the PDF. So, yeah. Um, might be
might be nice to have the whole plan as a soft copy anyway. So, if I can if I can locate it, I'll get it to you. Okay. Yeah. No, I think that's a great idea. I think we should circulate it to those boards um for for their information, if not review and approval, you know, before we send it on to the state.
Probably should send it to the select board as well, right? Town manager and select board. I Yeah, I would think that would be uh good etiquette. Yeah. Yeah. Okay,
great. Um, so that's that. Unless other people have questions about the open space plan because we we luckily do not have to go through the complete update right away, which was going to be quite a task. Um,
nothing like pushing things off to the future when Brandon's available again. He's not muted. And it's it's important to um remind people when you are having those conversations that the plan the biggest the most important thing with the plan
by far is the fact that it makes you eligible for grant funding. state grant funding that is unlike any other funding you have access to as a municipality uh for you know
open space needs. So it's a you know it it takes little effort and and to get this extension gives you three more years of access to that grant funding whether you know you need it now or you don't know it's good to have access to it and it's very it's a very light lift.
So, you know, to me, it's important to underscore that to people when you're saying, you know, gez, it would be really nice to have your input here. Um, so that they understand the value to the community. It's not, you know, otherwise they're going to say, well, open space, blah, blah, blah. Maybe it's not the most important thing right now. And
then, you know, you said, "Wait a minute. It might not be the most important thing right now, but three two years from now, it might be. There might be something coming down the pike that this offers and uh, you know, grant funding that we don't have. We can't have access to it without it. So, yeah.
Yeah. And I think one one of the things that we've talked about in several of the past meetings, Brandon, is uh doing an update now on the six criteria. Um because I think I think we need some
more clarity on those criteria. We this this discussion keeps coming up as we go through the right of first refusal questions and you know some of some of the criteria I think need to be tightened up a little bit so that it
makes it easier for the for the board to say whether or not um a particular um right of first refusal meets you know enough of the criteria to warrant us recommending it to planning to the select
Y so we started that discussion good and um I will just you know I will urge you as I'm walking out the door to make sure that that criteria criteria remain um sufficiently difficult to meet that
it's not an automatic yes every time something comes across the desk um because I I will I strongly believe it's it's it's an import as important to say no um as It is to say yes. Yes. Uh because um you know there it is very
easy to get fatigue uh taxpayer fatigue with this stuff and if you you push too much of it, too much acquisition, too much this that or the other thing, then people start saying the old we have enough open space thing. And um and so
it you it needs to be selective. you need to be getting the right the right projects for the town that make the most sense that are consistent with the plan. And if you make the criteria too low of a bar now, you lose credibility, I think. Um, so I think the only one that
I would advocate softening up a little bit is the acreage criteria. Sure. Um because the reality is how many how many 50 or more acre parcels, you know, come out of chapter um that the the town stands a chance of
exercising a right of first refusal on. Yeah. Because once a 60 acre parcel comes out and goes into development, the town can't afford to exercise the right of first refusal, right, on something that large. And but also remember that the the economy of scale that's
associated with size the size of property, right? So there is there is some of that that goes along with it too. So you know you might pay just a fraction more for twice as much acreage, you know, if it's for conservation. Um
then you know so so it's it's just important to keep all that all that in mind. I I I I think it's smart. It's been those criteria have been in place for a very long time. They've, you know, they've um they've served the town well with the Lane acquisition and the Celipa
acquisitions in particular. Um uh because we could say things like we're only acquiring the most important parts of these properties for conservation or open space purposes and and um and and had very clear uh
uh could clearly point to the criteria and say this is a home. Um and so um and I think that was a large po reason why those those projects were successes. So yeah and in in a couple of the recent um
cases that we've had in front of us right at first refusal um you know we were meeting maybe three of the six and you know it it it like the last one definitely didn't meet size but it met agricultural importance. It didn't meet
adjacency and so we we made a decision. it it really didn't meet enough of the of the bigger criteria to warrant us making a recommendation. Yep. Yep. But good. No, I think it's good to have a refresh on that and get some new eyes
on it and some new voices input in uh into it. So, I think that's smart. Okay. All right. Um I think that's it for the open space plan stuff. The next is citizen comments. We don't have anybody on. Um sometimes we have Dave
Pacios on but but we don't this evening. So I think um unless one of the other members wants to chime in on something here because you are several of us are community members. I haven't heard anything specifically coming from the
community about open space recently. Um and then the seventh item is the meeting schedule. We just talked about maybe moving our June meeting to that Monday instead of Wednesday. Um July, I think we should go back to our
meeting date, which is um the second week of July, second Wednesday of July. I don't have the date right in front of me, but I can put that in the calendar. Um and does I guess does any of the members have anything else that they'd like to bring up at this
time? No. Glenn, you're good. Eric, you're good. Yeah. Yeah, I'm all set. Brandon, we're all set. And we really appreciate your time and effort and we're going to sorely miss you. Well, uh, keep in
touch, as they say, and and I'm happy to I'm happy like if you have something you want me to come on just as a member of the public to to chime in on something, reach out and I'm happy to happy to do that. So, okay. I've I mean obviously I've got your town email. Um do me a
favor. You've done I'll include that in the letter. I'll include my send that send me your cell number. I know you've done that in the past, but just so I have actually Eric and Glenn if you guys can do that. I'll send you mine. I'll send you a reminder with my cell phone in just in case we need to, you know,
text each other at the last minute and say, "Hey, are you going to make the meeting or whatever?" Yeah. Right. Yep. Right. Makes sense. Yeah. It's a good idea. Um, I think we're good for this evening. That was pretty quick. Um, I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. So
moved. Seconded. Moved and seconded. So Eric I, Glenn, I, Brandon, I. And the chair also votes I. And I I thank you all very
much for joining us this evening. Pleasure. We'll see you in July. In June. June. in June. Excuse me. But we won't see we won't see you in either. Nope. Thank you all very much. Take care.
Thanks, folks. Bye-bye.