All right. Uh, good evening. My name is Bob Connors. It is 6:01 p.m. I'd like to call the October 7th meeting of the Newbury Conservation Commission uh to order. Mason, can you read the preamble and remote open meeting law and take a roll call? And you don't have to
call the meeting to order because I just did. As a preliminary matter, this is Mason Farret, conservation agent of the Newbury Conservation Commission, and I call the October 7th meeting to order and permit me to confirm that all members are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Mary Rimmer,
TJ Ki, Mick Brown, here. Harry Trout here, Woody Knight, yes, Frank Wetenamp here. And Bob Connors, yes. Good evening. In this open meeting of the Newbury Conservation Commission is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of
March 12th, 2020. In order to mitigate the transmission of the CO 19 virus, we have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings. And as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of open meeting law to have all public meetings in an accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies
are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless unless participation is required by such law. This meeting will feature public comment. For this meeting, the Newbury Conservation Commission is convening by Zoom call as posted on the agenda of the
Conservation Commission section of the town's website identifying how the public may join. Please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. Applicants or the representatives may be called upon on the fly to speak and or
share information to the screen. We are now turning to the first item on the agenda, but before we do so, permit me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct. The chair will introduce each speaker on the agenda. After they conclude their remarks, the chair will go down each line of members, inviting each by name to provide any comment, questions, or motions. Please
hold until your name is called. Further, please remember to mute your microphone. Please use earbuds, and please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any responses, please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and state your name before speaking. Board and committee members should be called upon in firstn name alphabetical order to
ease the process. After board and committee members have spoken, the chair will afford public comment as follows. The chair will first seek questions through the chat function. When participants are using this function, please list your name, address, and then your question. The chair will then seek questions from the public who wish to speak. They'll be asked to identify their names, addresses, question, and
once the chair has a list of all public commentators, they'll call on each by name and afford three minutes for any comments. Finally, each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. Okay. Thank you. Upcoming meeting dates October 21st and November 4th. All
right, team. Meeting minutes review. The 92 meeting minutes. Uh, as you recall, they're in the dropbox for the 9:16 meeting and they got in there late. So, that's where they are. So, if you want to take a minute to look at those, I looked them over. They looked okay.
But if there's any questions, comments, or concerns. No comments or concerns from me. B. Okay. I will entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes for September 2nd as written. So moved. Harry. And
okay, Nick. Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody? Yes. Nick? Hi. Harry, yes. Frank, yes. and Bob Connets's vote. Yes. Okay. Uh meeting minutes review for the 9:1625
meeting. When we take a moment, take a look at those if there's any comments, concerns, or corrections. Okay. Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes for se for September 16th as written.
So moved. Second. Okay. Ary and Mick. Okay, roll call. All in favor? Woody? Yes. Mick, I. Harry, yes. Frank, yes.
And Bob Connets votes, yes. All right. Okay. First order, a certificate of compliance, D file number 0501337, 84 Boston Road. Mason, what's the uh status of that? Is that continued or is
that Yep, that's going to be continued. They're still addressing um some things that they need to tie up with their site plan review with the planning board. Um so they'll be continuing until they wrap everything up there. Okay. So, are we just going to kick it to the November 4th meeting? Yep.
Okay. To 11:4. Okay. I will entertain a motion uh to continue. Well, actually, it's attributed to compliance. We're just going to kick this to our 11:4 meeting. It's It's not a public hearing, so we don't need a formal motion to do that. Okay.
All right. Continue to 11:45. Okay. Next matter. Certificate of compliance. D file number 050 1420 34 Southern Boulevard. The applicant is submitting a request for a COC. project
was never completed at 31 Southern Boulevard. And as it's about two doors down from me, I can attest to that fact. Any any anything else, Mason? And no, that's all. The uh the permit was issued just about a year ago, so October
22nd, 2024. Um and the homeowners, they were going to uh be closing in the deck and doing an addition. Um they didn't start any of the work and they plan on selling the house, so hence closing out the order. Okay. Does anyone have any questions? No questions.
Okay. I will entertain a motion to uh issue a certificate of compliance. And Mason, you know where to check the work. So moved. No. No work done. Okay. Harry, you made the motion. Yep. Okay. And Mick. Mick.
Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody? Yes. Mick. Hi. Harry. Yes. Frank. Yes. and Bob Connor's vote is okay issued. Excuse me, Bob. I didn't see that on the
agenda. What? 31 Southern Boulevard. Yeah, both both of the So, 31 Southern and 82 Northern had come in late with COC requests. Both of those don't they don't require any advertisement or any abut notification or anything like that.
So most of the time if it's a simple one with you know where work isn't done we usually slide them onto the agenda. Got it. Yeah. So it went on as a it's on the revised agenda which you would have gotten off of the uh you would have had to get off the website because the one
in the dropbox was when did you put those on Mason? That was the end of the week. Yeah. And I I can be sure to share those going forward too as I update them. I can just send out the uh subscriber notification. Why don't you do that when when we have a revised agenda after you've published that way there?
Yeah. We don't have any issues. Okay. If I if I may, Bob Harry, um the I'm looking at it now. I I pulled it up on my phone, so I have it in front of me. The revised agenda. It's on the It's right on the town website. Okay.
Yep. Thank you. Yep. You're welcome. No, but it's a good question, Harry. And it No, you know what it is? We we we treat these requests like it's a public hearing because we'll ask if there's anyone from the public, but actually it's it's a hearing in the public. It's
not a public hearing. So, it um the the no publications required and advertising and all that jazz. So, it could actually a request could come in at 4:00 today and if Mason's had a chance to to go look on the property and
it's, you know, unless one of us wants to go out and look, typically we just address it if they come up and and this is one of those uh the certificate of compliance, but D file number 050 25182
Northern Boulevard. Uh the applicant is submitting a COC request for the project. gets an old file number. Mason, do you have We don't have any plans. No, I So, I I just shared the um you know, the recorded order conditions that has a couple of uh you know, special
conditions, but it looked like all the work was was completed back in the day by there. There's there's nothing disturbed, right? Yeah. No active work going on, right? So, questions, guys. Does anyone want to take a see a site visit on this at
We should frame that 1987 order of conditions. That's probably a collector's item right now. Yeah, it it may be one of the first. I mean, it's it's file number 251. And to put that into perspective for everyone, we're at file number like,400 now. So,
quite a couple submissions in between the two. So, guys, any questions on this? Do we have uh any interest in addressing this tonight or it did come in late? I mean, I'm fine with it. It drove I don't mean to be a stickler, Bob, but it just uh it'd be good to have a little
history if you have some. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a We had trouble. We don't have any record. Yeah. So, the only thing that was in the um recorded was the order, which I can share here. Yeah. the all files before 2015 get
tossed out because they get contaminated with mold and mildew. So, so we don't have any of the plans or so. All we have is what's been recorded at the registry which Okay. Okay. back then is pretty pretty vanilla plain Jane.
Yeah. So Mason, you've been to the property or Yeah, I was able to drive by today. Yeah, I have been as well. It's And everything looks Jake pretty much. Yeah, no active construction going on at all. It It doesn't look like there's
been anything there been anything done there at least in years. Well, it's only been 30 years, so trying to pull this up. Yeah, just converting the PDFs. Okay, that's Yeah, there wasn't a there wasn't a plan
MI showing anything in there seem to be minor in nature though. Okay, here is the uh the original order here. I'm impressed that we just have a record of it. So, well, that came off the registry of deeds. So, yeah. Yeah.
And Mason, you didn't see any issues with ordering with approving a the OC. So, yeah. Um, no, I and I don't see uh you know that I looked at the special conditions and two too and a lot of them are just pretty much general conditions
that we would include now. Um, okay. For normal permitting and things like that, access to the site. Um, no additional disturbance. Okay. All right. Okay. Any any other questions, team? No. All right. I What do you have a question?
No. None. Oh, okay. Question. I will entertain a motion issue a negative. Not a negative. A certificate of compliance for 82 Northern Boulevard. So move. So move. Second. Okay. So Harry, I'm gonna put Woody in there. Woody, you
second with it. It was a draw there. Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody? Yes. Mick, hi. Barry, yes. Frank, yes. And Bob Connor.
Okay. Next matter is a it's a request for determination of applicability. 23 Downfall Road. The applicant is submitting an RDA for approval to conduct vegetation tree clearing within a 100 foot buffer zone. Mason, can you provide an overview on this and a
recommendation if you have one? Yeah. Um, so for this, uh, the applicant is looking to do some tree clearing, um, within the buffer zone. It sounds like it's going to be outside of the 50 foot buffer zone, but within the 100, so between the 50 and 100 foot buffer zone. Um, the broad uh, the project site has
been delineated. So, I was able to meet uh, the property owner on site uh, walk the wetland delineation. Everything there seemed fine. Um, and especially with a project like this where um, a lot of the work isn't really happening close to the resource area. Um, I I think that, you know, this is fine. Um, I
think the only thing that the board may want to inquire about is how tree cutting is going down. So whether that's going to be stump removal or things like that. Um, and if that's the case, we may want some seasonal seed put down just so we don't have um, you know, bare soil on the site. Uh, we want something
vegetated and stable. Um, outside of that, um, do you have a plan you can share? Did they submit a plan? Yep, I can bring that up. And then I had talked with the applicant on site about erosion controls too, and that's something that he is open to
adding. Um, so I'll pull it up here. This is the site here. And I can draw a rough line. Um, you know, if we're splitting this 100 foot buffer in half, like this, this upland area is the part
that he's looking to be uh to be cutting. Um, what was the purpose of removing the trees? Um, I can have the applicant kind of share with that, but I believe he's going to end up developing the land um and building a house for his daughter.
Uh, so Mark, if you're here, if you want to add to any of that. Um, can you hear me? Yeah, give us your name and address and make your presentation. Welcome. Sure. Uh, my name is Mark B and um, I
live uh, the next street over at one Lenway and, um, I've owned that land over there in 23 Downfall for over 20 years. And um you know we were going to build back then but life gets in the way and I was a scholarship committee for my kids in
college. So now we've reached that age where we want to build a retirement home um small maybe 2,000 square ft and uh we want to put um see if we can get another lot for my daughter um so that we could
have like a caretaker's home and or a separate lot for her. Um we've got 3.8 88 acres and I'm looking to subdivide it and hopefully get two lots so that she can have a lot and we could have a lot and um
so that our house we need we need to be um so far from the setbacks what have you. So, um, instead of building my house, uh, I like to make it parallel to the road instead of, um, you know,
triangle to the to the road. Um, the back corner, I have some land there that I could give to the conservation commission. It's it's upland. Um, but I can't get to it because I'd have to build a covered bridge of some kind to get to it. So, um, that's pretty much
what I'd like to do. Okay, Mason, go back. Will you point out the 50 foot buffer line? Is that the right hand line looking at the plan? Uh, so the left hand line is the 100 foot buffer. So 50 is going to be intersecting this here. Okay. And the other line is the flagging.
Yep. So this one on the right hand side is the wetland. I've had it I've cleared it 20 years ago and cut all the trees, had Steve's trees do it. Um and now that vegetation that's
there is all um you know 15 20 year old trees that that are there. Um so I don't know I don't think it'll be too difficult to to stump it and and um it's all small growth. I think you know typically Mark when when you
propose something and you and you are within you're going to be outside you're trying to stay outside the 50ft buffer normally you would have where the foundation was going to go uh the 50-ft buffer would be identified and there'd be notations on
what you could do for work uh you know within the uh no work within the 50oot buffer unless you identify it and then what you plan to between the 50 and the 100 foot buffer. Yeah, I think what you want to do
if if you can stay outside the 50 foot buffer, I mean that's good, but what we have right now just from my opinion, we need a little more detail. You really need to show that 50oot buffer and then the proposed
location uh of the uh the house and how that's going to fit within your property line. Would I be able to clear it at least in the 50ft buffer zone so that I can actually see
because it's kind of thick with brush and it's hard to get get in there and actually get a feel for um what I'd like to do. It It's hard to let you do anything Matt Mark without it. You got to have the plan and work backwards.
If you're using uh who's your using Hancock? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And I used D. Roer, but he was pretty busy. And I I got permission 20 years ago from the time. Yeah. Everything has changed. Yeah.
Permission's good for three years. And right like and and that's for an RDA and an order of condition, right? So you're just kind of stuck in what the new regs are, Mark. And it listen, we want to work with you, but yeah, that's great. But Hancock should be able to give you
the buffer. I mean, they actually they need to they they know what they need to present for us. So, what I'm going to suggest is you go back to them and work with uh Mason and get the detail that we need Mason on on the plan. Yep. And I mean that that's been kind of what
we've been requiring right along for an RDA. you know, otherwise this could get kicked to an NOI if you don't give us a little more detail and and Okay, that and that's a lot more work and time and cost for you.
Yeah. So, I can I can get together with Mason. He can give me a list of what I need to tell um either D. Roer or Hoffman what what what you're looking for. Yeah, I I think with this plan Hancock should be able to, you know,
complete this, you know, proposed plan for you and Okay. And whether just to be clear, Bob, you guys would like to see the 50 foot buffer and then a rough proposal of the sketched house in relation. Yeah. And in some reference to what's going to be cleared and, you know, in
the limitations that, you know, no clearing is going to take place within the 50-oot buffer, right? And and you're almost going to have to mark out the 50- foot buffer, too, to to make sure that, you know, you know what I mean? We need
the basic controls, Mason, without, you know, kicking this up to another another level of approval. So, and just one more question, Mark, when when were you thinking of building the house timeline wise? Um, hopefully, um, you know, as soon as
I can. I don't, you know, this is all new to me. I'm only doing it once, but you know, I'd like to break ground in the spring if that's all at all possible. Yeah. So, it it may it may be better to kick this up to a notice of intent. So, if you want to talk with Hancock and and get a full, you know, building drawn, we
can have the buffer zone put on and include everything together. Um, because you're gonna have a you're going to have a septic system design and that's going to be determined by where it parks and it, right? So I can go in there and clear the 100
foot buffer zone, no problem. Right. So I can just outside of the 100 foot buffer. So anything right anything here is going to be nonjurisdictional unless you're disturbing over an acre of land. But I for for this I I don't think you will
be. No. Um, but even if it was just over an acre of land, as long as I was outside the 100 foot buffer zone, is would that be a problem? Yeah. Storm storm water may kick in on your market. You know what Mark, we if
you get the right plan before us, um, because I mean like you do have a quite quite a bit of land between the 50 and then beyond the 100. Um it's just you got a lot of steps here with your whole septic design and that's got to be approved by the board of
health and then you've got to find a spot where you haven't done any perk test or anything like that on the property. Well, I have in the past and I I know where to to I know where it perks. Yeah. Um I don't think that changed over the years.
Well, I just think if you get yourself a complete plan, you're going to need it for the border of health anyway. Okay. and and it's going to be the same level of detail we're requiring. Depending on what you where you place things will be determining, you know, what we can do for you, whether it's an
RDA or just a notice of intent as a Mason typically on you're doing a house, you're you're best spending, you already got a lot of the hard work done, the delineation and and it's u and it's accurate. So, but
Yep. and and with an NOI mark, this will give you more time as well. So, you'll have the three-year period, but you'll also be able to amend or extend the order. So, if you ever wanted to change the layout of the house, um yeah, construction ended up, you know, taking longer than you thought, um the notice of intent is something you'd be able to
extend and RDA doesn't have that leeway. So, it, you know, notice of intent may be the the better route for this anyways. Okay. And All right, that sounds good. Y why don't you two guys get together and work with Hancock and and come up with a game plan and then just get back to the
the commission. Yep. Totally. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for your time. Okay. Thank you, Mark. New public hearing. D file number 05014 5431 Downfield Road. The applicant is
submitting a notice of intent construction of single family house barn garage dimensional septic system project proposes disturbance and development within the 100 foot buffer zone. Mason, can you give us an overview on this and uh if you have a recommendation?
Yep. So, this is a new submitt um for the construction of a new house. Um we had gotten some um feedback from Mass D with some technical comments. So, I think that um Larry started the land owner. His plan
for tonight is to give a you know a preliminary um kind of presentation on on what the project's going to be um and then he's going to be requesting a continuence to our next meeting to address some of the D comments and any preliminary comments that the board has tonight as well. Okay, great. So, Larry, if you just give
us your name and your position on this project and make your presentation be great. I am uh my name is Lawrence Sturdivan and I live at 33 Downfall Road. I'm the owner of the property and uh building a house for my son
and um it literally comes down to it's a 40x30 footprint single family home twotory colonial style with a 24x4 garage attached. It's got a four bedroomedroom septic. Um, there's a
future barn shown on the plans. Mason, if you can pull up the Yep. Um, and it calls out a future barn right here. That um that barn would not be constructed at
this time. It's just a future building we probably would would do later on. Uh, this Could you point out the barn area? I It's hard to read this plan from Yeah. Um Yeah. Right. Oh, that's the barn. Okay.
Is the future barn we're not going to do. So, um this is the house with the like I said, it's a 2400 colonial with a uh 24x 24 garage attached. Septic system and leechfield are in front. The house does
encroach on the 100 100 foot buffer. It does not encroach on the 50, although I will note to you it is close on this corner right here. Um, essentially the common driveway was put in some time ago. So, we will just
essentially be taking the driveway off of the uh of the existing common driveway. And then um essentially that's that's basically the uh project. in in general.
Um there are there's a existing structure here that once this house is done, we will be taking down and obviously there's a utility easement to deal with to run through the project. Okay, Larry, why don't you hold there?
Uh questions from the members. Woody, any questions uh for Larry on this? Is it Larry or Lawrence? I I want to be Most people call me Jay, but you can call me whatever you want. All right. All right. Well, Jay, we're going to call you Jay. All right.
Any questions for Jay Woody on on what he's proposing? No, I don't I don't have any. Um, where is the existing structure now? The existing structure that's got to come down is this guy right here.
It's a, believe it or not, it's the old bus bound barn for the town of Newbury. Okay. They used to park the two buses they owned back in the day. Two bus town. Yeah,
they're right here. That comes down once the house construction is done. Okay. Um, I don't have any other questions right now, Bob. Okay, Woody, I'll circle back. Uh, well, Woody, you know what?
Because this is our first look, we'll probably be looking at a site visit here to Yes. Yes, definitely. Take this. Okay, Woody. Nick, questions for Jay at this time. Uh, Jay, you you remember uh you mentioned a
utility? Yeah, there's a utility easement that we're showing and essentially Enrid actually came in in a different direction. They actually came up through um the the adjacent property with poles.
Yeah. And then there's a water line that gets that for this property that that goes down towards the road. And is that water line associated with the existing structure that's there?
No, there's no utilities into this existing structure. It's it's genuinely a a a garage bar without any utilities. Okay. So what is it exactly that you will need
to change or the few questions they had um DP wanted a little bit more narrative asked for some some sediment some sedimentation controls. I can pull I can pull up those comments if you'd like.
Yeah. Okay. That'd be great. Good. Thanks, Mason. Yep. And so we want to incorporate those into the drawing. So, you know, we we take care of their concerns. Yeah. The yellow right here.
So, I don't know if you guys can read that, but um but it's basically has to do with uh and then they talk about vegetation down by that utility uh area also uh planting
something there based on um 10.5.31. I'm not sure what that is, but um Okay. I don't know. Mason, can you bring the plan back up just to show like maybe highlight the the buffer zone? Yeah.
Is there an open order of conditions on this? Just looking at that notation from D. Yeah, I didn't see one. Um, I didn't know if they were just leaving that comment as a housekeeping thing or if they had noticed something, but I didn't I didn't see anything on file.
All right. So, is that Oh, that dotted the So, the single dot line is the 100 foot. This guy right here. Yeah, the single dot right here is That's the 50. That's the 100. So, here I'll mark 50 is the dot.
So, the 100 is in pink right here. Yep. And then the 50s interior to that the double dot and dash. Yep. Okay. Right here. And then the proposed erosion controls
right here. Okay. All right. Yeah. I think Bob just as you said like a sidewalk would be uh I think the next step here. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I you know what it it puts everything in perspective when we
can. Yep. Yep. Definitely. Yep. Okay. Mick, any anything else before I move on? No. No. Thank you. And thank you, Jay. Okay. Thank you, Mick. Harry, questions for Jay on this. Um, not at this time. I think a site visit will answer a lot more visuals.
Yeah, I you know, it it gives you the contours and it gives you, you know, your vegetation and all that. So, okay. Anything else, Harry? No. Nope. Okay. Thank you, Frank. Any any questions? You in agreement on a site visit for this?
Did we lose Frank? No, I'm here. Um, no, I don't have any questions at this time. I think the site visit will give us a better idea of, you know, what controls need to be put in place.
Yeah. Know, I think why don't we do this? I I agree. Uh, thank you, Frank. So, suggestion Jay, when are you going to be able to update your plan to to satisfy D's? Uh, I'm I'll talk to Hayes Engineering, but I'd like to have that done. And I'd like
to come back for the is it the next meeting, the 21st? Yep. Yeah. And if u and I'll let Mason know if for some reason we're running too tight on that date, and then then we'd come back for the F. What what would be great what would be great Jay would be
have the plan updated so we can have that with us for the sitewalk. Then it puts everything together. It just makes it a lot easier at the meeting. Yep. So why don't we do this? Let Why don't you request a continuence to our October
21st meeting? Okay. Talk to Hayes. Let us know when you they can make the notations on that plan. And once we get th you get those to Mason, Mason, you can circulate a couple of we
typically Jay try to do it 8:00 in the morning on a Tuesday or Wednesday or depending on everyone's schedule. So I think that way there that'll be the best utilization of time and get you closer to the finish line. Sure.
Not a lot of extra steps. So Yep. Okay. Uh all right. So we're going to do a site visit. That'll be determined. Uh, I will entertain a motion to continue the public hearing on this matter to the
October 21st, 2025 meeting at the applicant's request. So moved. Okay. Second. Second. So Harry and Woody. Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody.
Yes. Mick. Mick, you're on mute. Sorry. Yes. Hi. Okay. Frank. Yes. And Bob Connor is our chair. KJ, let Mason know and we'll we'll put this on the 21st and we'll try to get a site
visit in before then if your plans all set. Terrific. Great. Thanks for your time, everyone. All right. Have a good night. Okay. Next matter. Continued public hearing. D file number 0501451. 25 Hidway. Applicant is submitting a notice of intent for the construction of
additions and renovations to an existing single family dwelling. Improvements include expanded deck, new stair systems. Mason, where are we where are we out on this? I know there was a question. Is it has it cleared ZBA? Uh, it has not. They haven't gone to ZBA
yet. So, they'll be on uh the ZBA agenda for Thursday, October 16th. Okay. Have they requested a continuence? Yes, I have. Okay. All right. I will entertain a motion to continue the public hearing on this matter at the applicant's request
to our October 21st meeting. So moved. Second. All right. Harry and Mick. Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody. Yes. Mick. I. Harry. Yes.
Frank. Yes. and Bob Connor's vote. Okay. October meeting. Okay. Next matter. Continue public hearing. D file number 0501453 Central Street. Applicant is submitting
a notice of intent for the construction of an MBTA residential housing development at 34 Central Street. Uh Heidi is Mason has recused himself because he's in a butter or he's you know he's in the neighborhood. Heidi
informed us that the applicant has requested a continuence to our November 4th meeting. Okay. So I will entertain a motion to continue the public hearing at the applicant's request to our 114 25 meeting.
So moved. Harry second. Okay. Okay. Roll call. All in favor? Woody? Yes. Mick, I. Harry, yes. Frank, yes. And Bob Connor's vote. Yes.
All right. Uh, now Mason, I think that's us. Outside. That's the last. Okay. All right. We have no enforcement orders. General project discussion. Mason, uh, what's happening at Seven Marsh Avenue?
Yeah, so we that's been kind of getting kicked around um right now. They DP issued a statement saying that um they would withdraw their appeal if they made changes um to their order of conditions or excuse me to their notice of intent
that was submitted for the installation of the dock. um they requested they submit the changes so that the mean high water line on the new proposal match the mean high water line from the original O-rad um that was issued on the property. Um so right now the homeowner
is checking in with chapter 91 because with this updated mean high water line um the permanent structure part of the dock that they're proposing is below mean high water. Um so that trigger is chapter 91 review. Um, so right now the applicant um is talking with chapter 91
to see if this project is even feasible. Um, so if it does get through and kind of gets a green light from chapter 91, we'll be seeing that come back to us. Um, otherwise I I don't see that that project will be going forward. Okay. All right. Uh, lock and dam
removal. How how's that going? Yeah. So last Friday, uh, the dam team actually breached the dam. So that was uh pretty neat. I have some photos and stuff I can share with everyone. Um, so now they're going to be working on some of the upstream site where
they're adding the scour protection to the 95 bridge. Um, and doing some work on the USGS we system as well. Yeah. When I was over at town hall today, I I saw where they were using the back of Kent way to Yep.
access that. Yep. Yeah. So, this was kind of the end of the road layout here. You can see the dam still fully intact. Uh, they use this big kind of hammer attachment. I'll save all of your ears and keep it on mute. But, um, yeah,
slowly slowly chipped away at the dam as the water kept coming down. they would take breaks and let the empoundment drain slowly. Um just so that we didn't have a lot of sediment coming down river all at once
but as you can see even before they you know broke the dam it wasn't over topping at all. It wasn't you know there was no water coming downstream. Well I guess we're fortunate I mean this was taking place in almost the drought conditions right? Right. Yeah. So that you know the
project team they did all kinds of planning and things like that and it's you know it perfectly lines up outside of uh fish migration and things like that. So we don't have any fish coming upstream. Um we have you know people with DMF and Division of Marine Fisheries checking in to make sure that you know even though it's out of season
we don't have fish moving up and downstream so that it's not dangerous for them. Um but yeah, I mean really just an awesome project. Um nice some light to it. Um, I know that, you know, there's some varying varying opinions across town and stuff, but I mean, it's
a state funded project and it's, you know, restoring native fish runs. So, I, you know, I just think it's great. Um, so this is as they got further with the construction. Essentially, you're returning everything to natural conditions, right? Right. Exactly. So the, you know, the
only thing that's happening is in the two empoundment areas, these ponded areas that were forced by these man-made dams to power this mill are now shrinking just to be in the original river bed. Now, and then with the removal of this dam, um the adjacent fish ladder to the left
that's been out of service for years and years will be able to serve as as transport for fish as well. Cool. So this is towards the end as everything was broke. You can see it's dried up. We've had we haven't had a tsunami on
Central Street during any of this demolition. No. So they they actually had a downstream coffer dam too. So it was kind of collecting all the water with a slow release. So the you know a lot of attention to detail on this project. Um but I was I was very impressed with the uh the contractors out there as well.
The amount of adult supervision on this project is amazing. Oh yeah. Where exactly where where exactly is it located? I'm I'm not familiar with this area. Yeah. Yeah. It's right off of 9 It's like right next to 95.
Yeah. So, there's there's actually two different locations. Um I'll share my screen. So, the first location is behind the town hall. So, right down here, they're using this
access way here. This empoundment is going to be lowered. So, we're not going to see a big kind of ponded area here. It'll just be more of that natural um you know, river shape. Um and then here is where they're adding the stone scour protection to the 95 bridge so that we're not seeing any erosion from uh
that infrastructure. Um for the Larkin site, that's normally accessed through here. So, you come down Larkin Road. Um if anyone wants to look at it at some point, I'd be happy to show anyone the site. Um there is some parking right here. Um there's a parking at I believe
this is a Biffield water district lot, but there's some parking here that they use. Um the access road goes down here and then as you can see this is the big empoundment area. So as the dam was breached, you know, we saw this whole area here being lowered and so now we
just have kind of this natural stream shape. Is there any plans for uh like vegetative restoration on the areas that were underwater and now are going to be exposed? Yep. So, I think there'll be some natural vegetation just, you know, with that area drying out, we'll see a lot,
you know, a lot more of the buffer zone plants showing up rather than the aquatic vegetation, but they do have a restoration plan after for um, you know, replanting and things like that. Um, there is a ret a pretty large retaining wall um that kind of runs on this side
right here. Um, and that's going to end up being broken up. Um, and they're going to be using some of the dredge material from the river, uh, to kind of create an area so that, you know, in times of high flow or flooding or things like that, we don't see this whole area over topping,
right? Cool. Cool project. Yeah, totally. So, I'll I'll be able to share some more updates as they move forward. Um, right now, like I said, they're back on the Kent way site starting with access. uh they're going to do the scour protection and then once they finish there they're going to go back to uh the dam site. So I think end
of construction they're aiming for about December or January. Great. Thank you. That's uh that would be all the updates of the Larkin Dam. Like I said if anyone's interested in going to see the site at all, let me know and I'm I'm happy to take a walk out there with you.
Okay. Uh any other staff updates? That is it. uh just the meeting dates for the 2025 holiday season. So November and December meeting dates. So team just looking at the calendar and the travel that we us typically we have
and quorum issues we usually enter we incur during November for Thanksgiving and you know Christmas. Uh in the past we have proposed having one meeting per month. So that would be if we decide to go that we can always call a special
meeting if we if we had to to accommodate somebody. But I mean here we are at quarter of 7. We've had a 45m minute meeting and we're pretty much done. So our next meeting would be November 4th. That would be the only
meeting for November and then December 2nd is the is what I have for the first Tuesday in December. Is that correct Mason? Y. So those would be Yes. We're gonna have an October 21 meeting, right? Yeah. We're just talking about November
and December. Okay. Right. Yeah. So we'll still have our October meeting. It just Yep. But November December, Mick, just with travel, just first Tuesday of each month. Yep. Okay, great. We we've done that in the past. It actually worked out pretty good during
July and August, too. Didn't really back us up. So, believe it or not, the uh applicants and consultants end up respecting the deadlines a little bit more, too. So, uh it works out for everyone. Yeah. So, they know they got one meeting to get to, right? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. All right. So, questions. Frank, any any
qu You're on You're on mute, Frank, if you Yeah, I I won't be available on the 21st of October. I'm traveling that day. Okay. Frank, are you in agreement on meeting
once on November and December just with, you know, holiday travel? Yes. All right. Absolutely. Mick, how about yourself? Yeah, I should be available those days. Okay. What? Thank you, Mick. What do you Like I said, I just let my number two go, so I'm not going anywhere. I got to
do two jobs now. Yeah. You know, you know what they say, you never let your number two go unless you're willing to man the watch. I'm maning the lot. Okay, M Woody, are you okay with having one meeting a month?
It sounds good for November and December. They're out of the way of the holiday. And um if like you said, if we need a special meeting, you we'll call it. Yep. Okay, Harry, how about you? Yeah, I'm okay with them both. Okay, good. All right, Bob. Yes, sir.
I won't be available on November 4th. I have uh shoulder replacement surgery scheduled that day. Geez. You know, Frank, you're making I'm feeling better. Frank and I are the same age. Doesn't take all. I know. And you have all ops. I know it. He's got like he's on a auto
he's on a pot replacement schedule here. I know. Pretty soon I'll be fully bionic. Yeah. Well, you know, surgery is not going to go to six at night. Come on, Frank. You can rally. I'll probably be on some heavy uh
medication. Really want me there. you just get through it. And you know what? And and guys, thank you. This is, you know, the commitment of time we all spend here meeting twice a month is is yman's work. So I appreciate
I know the town does and and all the citizens that we we're here to serve. So all right. So why don't I do this? I'll entertain a motion to amend our meeting schedule for the month of November and December to in November. One meeting
November 4th, December. Uh, one meeting December 2nd. So moved. Second. Okay, we have a second. Second. Okay, so that's Harry and Mick. Okay, roll call. All in favor? Woody?
Yes. Frank, yes. Mick, hi. Harry, yes. And Bob Connor is vote. Yes. You know, we could become addicted to this one meeting a month. I'll be honest with you. It's uh
it was kind of nice in the summer, Bob. Well, you know what? It obviously be in the chair. I have a little more prep sometimes than Yeah. putting stuff together, but uh No, it's a nice break. Okay, I will. It is now 6:49
p.m. and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So, move second. All right. Roll call. All in favor? Woody, Frank, Mick, Harry, right? I I Okay, Jents, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you guys.
I will get to town hall this week. I promise. Okay. And Frank, if you need if you need anything while you're late up, just let me know, buddy. All right. Thanks, buddy. Okay. See you later. You guys.