Hello everyone. This is Chuck Terron, rating sponsoration administrator. This meeting is being conducted in person and in remote format consistent with chapter 2 of the acts of 2025 which further extend the exertain COVID 19 measures regarding remote participation in public meeting until June
2027. Please note that not all items listed may be in fact discussed and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. The agenda includes those matters which can be reasonably anticipated to be discussed at tonight's
meeting. Please note this meeting is being recorded. I'll get to that. All materials from this meeting are available with the following link which I'll provide in the chat after I'm finished with this. And Brian B, the conservation commission chair will
facilitate this meeting. Please note that there will be a public comment period at the end of each hearing. Each vote will be taken uh during this meeting will be conducted by roll call. We will begin with a roll call attendance. Brian, can you review the agenda and take roll call attendance?
Okay. Um the agenda tonight starts with a review of an eagle project in the town forest. Then we'll have a continuation of an NOI hearing for DPW Birch Metal Park in modular classroom followed by
opening a public hearing on an NOI for 119 Winter A. Then opening a public hearing on an NOI for 288 Grove Street. Um then opening a public hearing
on a an RDA uh for a 15B street. um continue a public hearing on NOI for 885 Main Street. The last hearing tonight is a continuation of public hearing on an abbreviated notice of
resource area delineation for 695 Pearl Street. And we'll move on to some old new business. Um discussion of violation notices um something for the Reading Open Land
Trust. Um and and a review of the DPW storage container. So, at this point, uh, call the role and this will be the order that we'll vote in. Tim, can we start with you?
Yes. To Michelle, present. Walter Walter Talbet, commissioner, present. Martha Moore, vice chair, present. Brian B, chair, present. Call to order at 7:04 on the big clock. Can I just add something? Uh, I just want to let
everyone know that uh 885 Main Street and 695 Pearl Street have been continued at the applicants request until May 7th. Just in case if anyone's here or listening here for that.
What that means is that we're not going to be having any discussion of the hearing tonight. uh the applicant has asked that uh it not be considered until May 7th at which point we'll open it continue it whatever is appropriate and
it is possible it'll be continued again at that point has to be the applicant's request though so if you have comments for 695 Pearl Street then feel free to come back in the next meeting um having said that Let's start with um
the Eagle Project. Evan, um can you please come to the podium and for the record give us your name and address, please? So, my name is Ev. Good evening everyone. Um this is my
project for the Pineidge Trail, uh the steps in the town forest. Uh, currently the stairs are pretty damaged. Uh, they've been weathered over the years and they're now like a hazard for people to walk on. Uh, so my proposal is to tear out the old steps, put eight new
ones in. Uh, and there were eight old ones, so it'll line up pretty well. Uh, the dimensions of these steps are going to be 50 feet wide, 20 ft deep, and five inches high, which are relatively the same. They're about an inch slimmer or narrower than the old steps were. And
that's to allow more room for bikers inside uh because mountain bikers use that path. Um each step uh module will be filled with about will be filled with uh 3/4 inch gravel and there will be
landscape fabric lining each step to prevent uh plants from coming in. All right. So, the date for something like this would be early June. Uh, and it would be a two-day project. Uh, one of those days
would be a build day sometime during the week just at uh my house putting the modules together and it would be eight three-piece modules for each step. Uh, and then there would be uh a day on a weekend in early June uh where we would go into the town force and then tear out
the old steps and install the new ones. Uh now for fundraising for this project, it'll be done mainly through GoFundMe. Uh a links will be sent out to friends and family as well as posted on the town forest uh Facebook page and donations will be uh asked from scout friendly
organizations on top of that. And that is my proposal. Okay. All right. Any questions from the commission? Uh Tim, we'll start with you since you're remote. Do you have anything? No. Okay. Walter,
my only comment would be that congratulations on attempting to achieve eagle. I'm sure you'll make it. Um, I earned mine 61 years ago next month. Puts it in perspective. And I'll be the only old person to ever say this to you
ever in your life. It was easier for me to get eagle than it's going to be for you. It's actually easier. Okay. For me. Congratulations. Thank you. What's that? Um I have two questions. One is how much
of your um project is inside the 100 ft from the wetland boundary area? I think the entire thing is okay. And um my second question was um are you concerned about erosion by
having a place for the bikers to go down the steep hill? Is that going to cause a gully next to your um steps? So, currently there is a small space to the right side where bikers go down and it hasn't caused too much of a problem. Uh what we could do is uh always put uh
some gravel down there to uh help prevent erosion, but there's always a worry that that the gravel could roll down the hill there. So, uh there there's not I don't I'm not worried too much about the erosion because it doesn't seem like there's a problem currently. Uh, so even if we widen it, I
don't think it'll be too much of an issue. But I had a question on erosion as well. I agree that's not bad right now, but it's also compacted right now. So my thought is more once you do the work and
therefore the soil is loosened. I think it's more likely you would get some erosion at least in the beginning. So, I don't know if it's gravel, but some thought into doing some stabilization. I think that makes sense. Okay. Um, that's really the only
question I had of any importance. So, um, I think we can vote on this to give you approval to move on with your career. Um, so can I have a motion to approve this Eagle
Scout project? I move we accept this Eagle Scout project. I'll second that. Okay, Tim. Tim Michelle in favor. W Talbert in favor. Arthur Moore in favor. Ryan Bow in
favor. Thank you. Thank you. Simple, wasn't it? But really look at the erosion. Okay. Our next is a continuation on the public hearing for notice of intent uh DPW birch metal park in Mar classroom. I'll
read the blurb. Let anybody anybody out there. Yeah, I got a few. Okay. Followed by Ryan Peral town engineer pursuant to Massachusetts general law chapter 131 section 40. You just let me know who's on your team too. the wetlands
protection act and water reading wetland protection bylaw section 7.1 for construction of two basketball courts a playground formalized handicap parking two sorry new storm water controls modassroom grading ADA accessible
walkway and amenities portions of the work are within the 100 foot buffer zone to bordering vegetated weapon the application and plans can be viewed during regular business hours at the town hall conservation office 16 lower
street reading maps and on the conservation division page under the project by year assessor's map various lot various D file number 270-079 okay
um I'm Holly Ger with Activas um the designers and engineers on the park side of the project. Um online and also in the sorry in the room we have Jim Sullivan from recreation. Um Ryan's on vacation which is why he's not here right now. Um on the call we also have
Steve Chryoli from Activas. So Chuck if you can make him a co-host as well that would be great. And then also um Joe Fznola and Eva Marie Allesandre from the the modular side and they can they can speak to that when we get to that
portion. Yes, Steve is all set. Um, so we have a presentation that we can pull up, but um, you're here with the continuation. We received the comments that were given to us at the first hearing, um, and prepared a
response to those questions. And I think the intent of tonight is just to walk through our responses on those um, and then open it up to the board for for discussion. Um so I'm just going to step through each of the different comments and um so first two comments that we had
received was just clarifying um what would be removed versus proposed in terms of the pickle ball versus basketball court. So we revised both the project narrative in the NOI and the stormwater report to confirm that it is
um pickle ball and one basketball court will be removed and the two basketball courts will be going in place of those two areas. Another comment we received was just um revising the limit of erosion control along the connection to Longfellow Road.
Um which in the provided site preparation plan um the revised one we revised that to and to allow the the drainage from the street to continue to move into that drainage way and then eventually make its way into the wetland. Um, another request was just to make
sure that we called out for the protection and careful relocation if required of that memorial bench that is along Longfellow Road. So, we revise the site preparation plan to to call that out to make the contractors aware that that is there and it should be preserved. Couple more things on the
site preparation plan. So, just showing a um construction entrance which we added and then material stockpile areas. The material stockpile area is the anticipated location of where that stockpile of material will be. But just with the um two different kind of
construction projects with the modular side and the site side, that stockpile may need to move. And Steve, can we go to the plan 11? There we go. Um so you'll see the stockpile location is just two page north of the um existing playground area. um that may need to
move within the site just um in the event that um we need more space on site um for other construction activities. We have located it outside of the 100 foot foot buffer and we'll make every effort to have any stockpile areas outside of
that um 100 foot buffer. So they received some comments just about um we're going to stay on site prep. Sorry, we've got um just to clarify what trees would be removed versus transplanted. We provided
um a plan a color plan just for conservation's um better v visualization of which trees will be to and Steve can you maybe zoom in just a touch so we can see the notes just a little bit better there. It's just a little bit of a
small small text size on our screens to read that from here too. Um so yellow will be transplanted and that will be transplanted by the town. Um red is to be removed and then um green will receive the the tree production and those trees will be to to
remain. So as you can see on this plan only one tree will be fully removed within the 100 foot buffer. two trees will be um transplanted within the 100 foot buffer and then the two trees that are within the 100 foot buffer to remain are the closest ones to that to that
wetland line. So you said yellow is for transplant trans and I can't see the yellow there. Which one is the yellow? I'll come over here so you can better. So in the modular area these two trees would be transplanted and Steve start
for us too. This is transplanted and this will be trans. All right. So on site visit Monday we saw that those already been removed. Do you know where they're going to be transplanted to? Pink on the right. two on the right by the modular classroom. Those have
already been removed. They're gone. There's a round spot, not really big enough to take a root ball out. So, where are they going? Um, Steve, can you speak to where those I believe uh they were relocated to the cemetery. I'm not
sure if Jim Sullivan's there, but I just spoke with him earlier. Um, I can jump up real quick. Jim Sullivan, recreation administrative town writing. Um, I believe there was the two that you're talking about. I think Mike Hannerford had those removed and transplanted at
one of the cemeteries. I can confirm with you prior to that, but I believe it was I want to say last week they were out there looking at those trees potentially. I asked because I thought in the conversation last time we were talking about
transplanting them to another spot on site and we talked about being partially screening for example down by longfall to go back and uh listen to it again but I I was surprised that they
were gone and not visibly seen maybe I was not clear enough when I said, "Can they be moved?" I'm pretty sure that's what the It was my intent. I didn't. So, I think the an additional problem might be that depending on where
they're moved, I mean, I'm sure there's no connectivity between this location and whatever cemetery they're at. And we would like the trees and the buffer zone to remain in the buffer zone, right? um even if they were on this site and they were outside the 100 foot, it wouldn't
count. So, let me see if I can get an answer for you between now five minutes. I can make a phone call. I'm curious as well. Thank you. Thank you. So, staying staying on planting, we can show you what the proposed planting um
will be on the site. Um, so within the buffer, new trees that would be going in is four four new trees. And Steve, if we could circle those ones, that would be that would be awesome. Um, there will be three kind of along the playground area that you see
um to the right of the playground area. And then one additional um tree on the right hand side of the of the walkway. Can Steve also highlight the 100 foot buffer zone? Yep, that would be helpful. All right. So, so with Jim's doing doesn't really
matter anymore. Taking out one and you're planting four new ones and they're those are native trees. Yes. Yes. And we have in addition to responding to that comment about the request to revise the the planting list, we have removed all non-native plants
from from the the plant list. And the the tree that is being taken out in the buffer zone is diseased or dead. That was confirmed um just after uh that
first conservation hearing. Um, so we weren't in intentionally taking that out. We were going to work around it. Um, but those do need to come out. It's one It's shown as two, but it's it's one tree with two leaders.
Yeah, exactly. So, the other trees that are being removed are actually outside the buffer zone. Correct. I get it. And those are also being removed because of health. Sure. And just for the record, that was Cre Steve Chriselli from Activitas.
Thank you. Uh so we we got an answer. Uh you removed one, but as we were just shown, there are four new uh trees that are native being planted within the buffer zone. So you've made you've met the replacement criteria.
Uh tech technically five, but thanks for checking. Guess there is a fifth one just right on the edge of the 100 foot buffer where the okay within that that island on the as well
as some additional shrubs and planting in addition to the restoration mix area outside of that 10 foot. Okay. Thank you. Y so moving to utility plan. Um we revised
that perforated pipeline just to make that more clear perforated pipe within the playground area to make a better distinction between the solid pipe and the perforated pipe. Um so for lighting we revised just the the
um visual of the report to better clarify where the the cut off edge is. Um again the the mapping does not account for any vegetation on the edge there. Um in the slide previous to this
one Steve um the red box here the further one on the right is um similar to what is there now existing in terms of of glare. Um the new system will be able to control that glare and control that spill quite a bit. So it will be an improved condition on what is out there
right now. Um, and as far as the schedule for that lighting, um, the town is willing to work out a schedule that both respects um, the neighborhood and um, not at an acceptable time. That's something I believe that they're working
through working as well for that. So that's so last meeting that was nine o'clock, but that's no longer the case. You're going to have that. Select wood. Jim Sullivan, recreation administrator. Uh, currently right now the tennis courts are 10 o'clock. Um, I did make a recommendation potentially going to nine
o'clock. Um, at the CPDC meeting, I think someone had made a comment that nine could potentially be too early. So, be something that I'd bring to my reccomitt. Now, it could be too late. Too early potentially. They mentioned that a lot of kids are going out of town to play elsewhere. Um, some nights it
doesn't get dark till 9:00 in the early summer as well. So a CPTC member mentioned that they had concerned about the forts not being used between 9 and 10 at that potentially you know saying maybe you
could say until 10 o'clock I'm open to suggestions I think taking input from the neighbors is pretty important especially with basketball too. So, I'm open to have the conversation to come up with policy the reparations because right now it is 10:00 for all lights at our parks and playgrounds to go out at
as a maximum. And there was talk, I think I had mentioned about possibly getting a timer so that those lights aren't on when it's not being utilized as well, which I think would be not only cost savings, but would be pretty respectful to the neighbors as well as the area. Yeah, I remember that was uh concerned
about the lighting is not here tonight and I think he left town on vacation thinking that it was 9:00 was when No, there's nothing set in stone right now. Yeah, but at the last meeting it was nine and now I don't think so was
me potentially potentially would be a nine o'clock shut off. Yeah. So, this change uh I don't think he's heard about. So, I'm wondering what that would uh how that would affect his
uh thoughts. So, how would how and where would that get finalized? Uh it would be a policy through the recreation committee. They set policies for the recreation division. There' be a conversation that would be an agenda item and it would be voted on based off input whether it's from conservation
CBDC as well as the butters and when would that be? Uh the project I think is slated to start July 7th with completion mid to late November. When would the conversation be to set the uh time? I would say it probably be coming in the next two months. Our next meeting
is May 6. I can put it on as an agenda item. Makes sense. Thank you. And then the the next two comments were related to to the modular side. So I'm going to let um Joe speak to those. And it was just the request for providing
the storm water checklist for the um the drainage for the storm water for the modular side and then just providing um a bit more documentation for the for the storm water side of that. So let Joe speak to that. Go ahead, Joe. Joe
Pasnola from Hancock Associates. Uh, so what we did is we revised our drainage calculations to um align with the the call for the for
the park to revise their storm water to the Atlas 14 rainfall data. We looked at the the 210 and 100. Um we fully contain the two and 10 within the system and we attenuate u the the
100year um we've also we also provided recharge calculations and draw down and also the D stormwater checklist. So I think that was it. Joe did you see the comment from D?
I did not. I I think you covered it, but it says unable to determine the storm water standards are met. Checklist for storm water report must be submitted and inform subject uh information submitted um demonstrates how the project meets the storm water
standards. I was going to ask you about this um and I didn't know if um so they sent out three, two to the town, one to Activitas and they emailed me. I emailed
them your information so they have it uh which was updated for the last meeting or between these last couple of meetings. Um do you think your information meets the standards? Do you think this question's been been answered? Do you need Yeah, we I mean as
far as standard one there's no there's no um new discharge. Standard two is a attenuation and we attenuate the two and 10 the 210 and 100. Um so there's there's no question there. Standard
three is recharge and we provide calculations as to meeting that. Standard four is treatment. Um and we are roof drainage. So we don't we don't require treatment. Uh but we do get treatment through the infiltration. Um
just as a a matter of course um five and six and seven are not applicable uh the critical area and
redevelopment and um long-term operation is uh there's really nothing to to operate here and nothing to maintain and operate. It's just roof drain leaders that go into the stone underneath. And that stone doesn't need
uh I don't know to get the leaves out from underneath there occasionally or will be uh be I don't know will the will the uh storage it's not storage area will the classroom have kind of like a skirt
around it so nothing will get underneath. So yes, there'll be a skirt so nothing get under underneath. So that means that the stone doesn't require any even occasional maintenance because it should be nothing that could
go wrong under there. Correct. There was a question about asking for detail of what you're doing uh underneath and how that's put together. Did did the commission get that detail? Yes, the detail of the stone is um on
our planet. Is is that can that be pulled up on the screen so everyone can look at that? What size rocks did you uh decide to use? What stone? Three 3/4 inch.
So the the detail in the lower side with the bubble around it. So put a geoteexile fabric that just keeps the surrounding soils from infiltrate or from migrating into the
stone and and fouling it. Um so the um it's a 3/4 in stone. It's 12 in deep and there's a 12-in apron around the side. And you don't feel like this needs any uh maintenance at all. It should
should work fine for many years. Yes. That's all question. Okay. Thanks, Joe. And that was all the comments that we received at the at the last meeting. Okay. Thank you. Y and thanks for the answers. Um, any questions, comments from the
commission? Um, could you zoom in on the modular classroom plan? And I'm especially interested in the um, storm drain that's at the lower
right corner of that building. Yeah, that circle with a B, I think, is the the grill that's in the ground there. Um, it looks to me when we're out in the field that that's higher elevation than the ground around it. So,
it doesn't seem like it's really draining the um area next to the um classroom and you're um grading the ground around there. Will that
um storm drain actually drain that area after the grading is done? Yeah, I I don't know what the purpose of that is because topographically there's there's not a depression and it's just a a drain in in the grass. Um we're we're actually
going to decrease anything that could get to it by putting the module there with the retaining wall um and intercepting uh that that water. Uh we're not proposing any grade changes down on that side of the wall.
Um, so I don't I I don't see the purpose of it, but we're we're not going to change its whatever function it has. So I can I don't know if facilities has um
more input with regards to its existence and what what they have observed with regards to its function. Yeah. Um, it just looks to me like the water runoff ends up going into the
backyard of the neighbor next door from that area. And I'm wondering if there's a way to direct the runoff to the wetland rather than to the neighbor back. Well, that would certainly um again, we're we're
intercepting the water that comes from south of the the parking lot and goes to the neighbor. Um so so that'll be a decrease in in um at least the two and 10 year and no increase in the
100redyear. Um, we can take a look at, you know, trying to get some of the localized water that comes down from the access drive to the that um yard drain catch basin. Um, and maybe lower the the
grate or replace the grate with a dome grate or something that works a little bit better to to just catch a little bit even more which would direct it into the that drain system which I would assume then discharges to the well.
Happy to look into that. weird is the discharge because the way it's set up now, you're getting infiltration underneath the uh classroom area, much of the classroom and this may be taken all the way down field. So, it may actually take water away from
the wetland. Yeah. Does do you know where that storm drain goes to? Do you have any I believe it connects it to the system, but then it So, we'll go to Morton Field. There's two lines. There's a D line and an S line.
A sewer line and a drain line. Yes. Circle. That's sewer. And then the circle above that that you were asking about. Martha has D's. Yeah, I think it says B on it for some reason. So, the structure is B for catch basin. It's just the surveyor's
indication, but it is a drain line. That's why the the D indication on that line is for drain line. So it does drag. It's not sink. Okay. So is there any way to calculate
how much water is not going to the wetland and going out the Morton field directly just for the just for this modular side? Well, no, this is raised above the grade and it's not working right now. So, all the water is going to the
wetland just over the surface of the of the grass. Yeah. My thought was actually maybe built it round whatever. It's definitely not
anything else. Don't have any more questions. Okay. Uh Chuck, any questions? Uh I asked my my main concern was what D had had uh sent us and I think Joe uh
although he didn't get a copy uh with the fact that he submitted the storm water checklist I think and he answered my other question about maintenance. One second guys turn the recording on. Walter recording in progress.
Oops. That's what happens while I'm here. Okay. Um Okay, then. Any other comments from the uh commission? No. Any comments from the room? Any comments online, Chuck? Uh if
Yeah. So, uh, if you have a comment, you're you're online watching, raise your hand using the, uh, reaction button and you can make your comment. I don't see the regular cast of characters that were here at the last meeting,
which, you know, uh, one was our own, uh, associate member, so I don't see anyone raising their hand. this moment. So, it looks like uh it was time of operation um which will be
discussed with the May 6th uh recreation meeting and I would suggest that people were concerned about that. Uh it's really not a conservation item could attend that May 6 recreation meeting or reach out to Jim Sullivan uh for more
information. And then the catchbation that was marked B and what to do about it either leave it alone. I would almost I would I would argue that that wasn't part of this project. Is that correct?
And no, it's not part of the project project because of that that question. So I'm not sure they ever intended to do anything about that catch basin. Okay. Curious. And you made a good point that the waters go in the weapon. So yeah, it
might be more local. We just leave it alone. So um then I think we can go ahead and close. So one more question. Oh yeah, I just I have one more note. I didn't didn't read. Yeah, I didn't read it enough. Um are you satisfied? I just wanted to
get it on the record that you're satisfied or you're not satisfied with with the tree and they met the tree replacement policy. Yes. Okay, that's everyone. Okay, great. That was it. Yeah, it's like only one of those two trees was inside the 100
foot and they moved both of them and are putting in some extra trees to replace the one they took out. But none of those trees are in the area behind the classrooms or the neighbors from the tree project
classroom. That would be the you know what I had hoped when they were moving those trees what they would be that they would move them closer to Longwood Road and provide a little more screening between the modular classroom and the neighbors. But
um you've met the requirement and those trees are inside the 100 foot and not necessarily in the other location. So yeah m you don't have to accept where they've planted the trees. I mean I don't want it sounds like
you're that's what you're saying that you need to accept these locations. If you feel like that a tree should be closer because it's better for the habitat, then that's your prerogative as a conservation member. So these trees they did meet the
standards but he asked for two trees to be moved to the bottom of that diagram between we we can certainly look at final tree tree placement um during construction. I
think it would be better to look at it during construction once some of that edge is cleaned up, some of the dead wood, some of the garbage is cleaned up. Um, we did look at trying to sneak some
trees along those neighbors properties and as you can see with the sewer line, the drain line, it's very tight. And for the health and survival of the tree, it was too risky to just plop a
tree in there. So, we'd have to take a closer look. I don't want to just plant trees and then it's it becomes a burden on the town to have to take them down or it's a problem with the utilities. So I would just say that when you get to that
point rather than making a decision in a vacuum to involve Chuck. Yeah. You can be part of the thinking at that point because I understand what you're saying. We don't want that either, but let's be sure that our needs are met as well.
What is the area you're talking about cleaning up the debris and stuff like that? basically that that entire edge that that has not saying that we're going into the wetland, but there's there's logs and trash that's hanging. Yeah. Are you on
the other side where the module classroom is? I was thinking over on the modular classroom area. Yeah. I mean, that's not there. I don't want to speak to that. I I don't at the time. Yeah. Yes. Okay. That's
even tighter between the existing vegetated edge. The thought in the last meeting was by placing them there, we would do something to replace the trees uh screening that were taken down um over
the course of time because of the uh building on the school for for that neighborhood. Did this go to CPDC? Did anyone and that's typically where they talk about visual shading. Um did this come up? I was not at that meeting. So Steve will
have to speak to if that came up at the CPDC meeting. Um Jim, do you recall? I think maybe some screening or it was maybe some screening from this
neighbor. It was nothing from this one. I honestly don't remember it coming out myself. But but ultimately the elevation of this neighbor's house, it it doesn't matter what you plant. You're you're never going to
screen it completely. So, we're we're honestly doing the best we can and we are providing additional trees beyond the what the replacement policy
calls for. We're we're going to try and clean up that edge or restore it. And like I said, when when it comes to final tree location and planting location, we'll absolutely have Chuck out there and if anyone from the
commission wants to come out, we can determine those final locations. Okay. Thank you. We had also talked about the um paving the path from the end of Longfellow and whether that's going to
increase um traffic on Longfellow. Again, more of a planning board thing. It was brought up by that neighbor uh when we were there on a site visit. his well his mother-in-law's concern was
that once that path becomes better, more formal or what have you that they'd be seeing more traffic, drop off traffic uh and therefore turning around their driveway on a street because there's no culdeac. It's just a dead end. Um but I
don't think that's a conservation issue. It's a planning board issue. Is that still part of the plan to to pave that? And what are we paving that with? Asphalt impervious.
I don't Yeah. So, uh I think any gravel would kind of migrate off of that area. And so our choices are asphalt or pvious asphalt. Yeah. And um Yeah. So this is a small
area and you know sometimes it is an improvement even though it's asphalt. So okay it might limit erosion in general because people stay on the path. We hope
the reason why I'm not pushing pvious asphalt is to have one section in town that's pvious asphalt would be you know they don't even know what to do with they don't have any machinery that would even take care of that. So doesn't make any sense to put one piece in. It will
work for a while but it won't work after a while and it just be just like any old ass. Okay. Okay. All right. That's it. I still don't see any hands. You have a motion to close this hearing, please. I move to close the hearing on
the birch meadow and modular classroom NOI. Alter Talbert seconds. Commission in favor. Talbertson's in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Rambo in favor. Um can I have a motion
um to issue? Do we discuss conditions after the motion to issue? You can discuss them now. You are correct. conditions first. What conditions do we have for this? Everything we've just discussed, the trees. I was thinking about the
lighting. No. Um the timing of the lights, no trees, yes. Um not the path going out to Longwood. Um what conditions from last time that we brought up that weren't covered
something about access what the access materials delivery trucks storage is going to be they added that to the plan added the stock pile area so I only have one contact the
conservation administrator to locate the trees in the field before they're planted. You know, erosion control. We have a standard slate of uh boiler plate conditions. They're all going to be part of this order as to do with erosion
control and uh you know, certificates of compliance and things like that. So, that's the only extra one then is to make sure that would be a condition. And then I think uh just to mention that
the uh the lower area that uh Steve Pelli uh highlighted that was going to be restored uh be completed prior to the uh opening of this
project. I would typically say it's a certificate of compliance, but sometimes that's you know the opening is is much better and they should plan everything together anyways. Oh, you mean before first use? Well, when you're planting the other trees at, you know, at the same time. Just do it all at once. And I
would assume those other trees would go in before the whole area is opened up. I mean, maybe the maybe the classrooms are on a different schedule. This is over by uh you know, the basketball courts, the playground. Yeah. Basketball.
Okay. In that case, can I have a motion to issue? I move to issue an order of conditions for this project. Walter Talbert seconds. Tim Michelle in favor. Talbert's in favor. Marth more in favor.
In favor. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Yeah. I see. See you. See you. Joe. See you. Okay. Next is um
119 Winthr. Oh. I'll read the blurb. Let anybody in if you have to. Um, open the public hearing on notice of intent filed by James Gallagher pursuant to Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 131, Section 40, the Wetlands Protection
Act, and or the Reading Wetland Protection bylaw, section 7.1. The applicant proposes construction of a 22 foot by 24 foot garage edition with living space above. All the work is within the 100 foot buffer zone to a
bordering vegetated wetland. The application plans can be viewed during regular business hours at the town hall conservation office 16 lower street reading and on the conservation division page under the project by year assessor's map 27 lot
274 D file 270-0798. Okay. Anyone here for uh 119 winter? You see? Yeah, I think it's Jay and Megan. Is that
Yeah, Megan. Here we go. Now, let just let them in. Take them a minute. Okay. Are you guys in? Can you hear us? I can hear you. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, there we go. Thanks for joining tonight. Can you walk us
through your project? Yeah. So, we have an existing Cape. Hang on. Can you please introduce yourself and your address for the record? Yes. So, James Gallagher and 119 with Pav Reading Mass. Thank you. So, we have an existing Cape um and we're proposing to put an
addition off to the side. Um so, basically to put a garage at the end of the driveway, expanding the living room above that, and then putting a primary suite on the top level. Um we worked hard with the zoning board um to build away from the the wetlands in the
conservation area. Um we were able to get a zoning um variance to build off to the side um instead of having to build off to the back um both to stay out of the buffer zone and then also to try to keep the addition as far away from the wetlands as we were able to. Um so we're trying to be sensitive to the
environment and sensitive to the wetlands and kind of reduce the impact um and stay as far away from the sensitive areas as we can. Okay. Anything else you want to add? Um, you know, we working with our architect to make it all work. We're working with the engineer on a rainwater retention
plan. Um, we've had the wetlands u surveyed and flagged. I think you all saw that when you came out to visit. Um, so doesn't seem like anything too detrimental or or dramatic. And um, you know, kind of the existing house has been there since the 1950. um and just
trying to kind of maintain an upkeep and you know expand it for our growing family. We have a four-year-old and eight-year-old who are currently sharing a bedroom um you know a boy and a girl. So as time goes on it's going to get less and less tenable and it's you know kind of the house we bought to you know try to live in until they graduate from high school basically. Um so trying to
make that happen and try and make it you know you know comfortable living space for all of us going forward. Okay. Thank you. Um any questions from the commission? Um, are you planning to keep the shed in the location it currently is, which is
well within the 25 foot natural vegetation zone, right? So, the shed's been existing maybe even quite almost as long as the house. I mean, I've looked back on Google Earth and as long as I can find, which I think went back to 2001, um, it's been there since
then at least. I think significantly longer. Um, we hadn't planned on doing anything with the shed. We were, you know, we weren't gonna add to it. we weren't going to um you know make it bigger or anything like that. Um we hadn't necessarily you know thought about getting rid of it. Um but I do understand it's in it's in the buffer
zone for sure. Um, and also inside the 35 foot zone is a play structure. And um, we often ask people with a play structure in an area that's supposed to be a nose structure zone if they would
um, remove it when their children outrow the need for that play structure. So, Oh, yeah. That's that's certainly fine. Yeah. Once once they hit high school, I don't think we need a swing set in the backyard for sure. Um, and I'm thinking similarly with the
shed, if at some point the shed is no longer useful, it would be good to take it down and not rebuild it in the same place. Yeah. Yeah. No, it makes sense. The shed behind the garage or something like that or, you know, have storage in the garage
instead of in the shed. Yeah. No, that certainly makes sense. I was trying to say something. Uh, yeah. So that that's typically what we say and we want to be consistent here throughout town is that that shed's fine, take care of it because if it comes down and you have to
replace it, it will not be going back in the same spot. Okay, that's that shed is uh you know I'm not going to say grandfathered in because commission could ask for it to be removed but certainly if you got a new shed it would have to be moved up or okay need to come
back commission that's all I wanted to say. Okay. Um um there's a stone circle behind the deck. Um you have any idea what the history of that
is? I don't So you're talking about the stone circle on top of that mound? Yeah. Um so I don't that's been there long before we we we bought the property. Um it looks like my guess would be maybe like an old fire ring that somebody had built. I'm not not exactly sure what it
is. Um and and that's outside of the work, so we're not planning on touching that or modifying that area at all. Yeah, I'm concerned that what it looks like to me is the top of an old cesspool that hasn't been filled in properly. The
dirt inside has sunk and has some openings. So, um you know, you might talk to whoever is in charge of filling cesspools. I don't know which department that is, but it might require more stone inside it or
something to make it safe. Okay, that'd be the health department. Thank you, health department. There we go. Okay. Um, it looks from your plan like the driveway does not quite meet the addition. Are you planning to make the
addition closer to the street or extend the driveway closer to the addition? So extend the driveway close to the addition. So there's about a three- foot gap at the moment. Um that's one of the things we're working with the engineer and the architect on at the moment is to how to kind of grade the you know the
addition to the driveway and probably the part of the existing edge of the driveway to make everything line up um and and make it as gentle of a slope as possible. So tinkering with kind of the the slope level to to get it down to to the right spot to to match up with the
the garage. Um, and I guess my only other question, I notice you have what looks like blueberry bushes across the back fence area. Yes. Would you be willing to plant any more native plantings along that
back fence line? Um, we try to plant some stuff. We My wife's tried to plant a whole bunch of stuff before and between the deer and the rabbits, they don't last more than a month. Um, but I we could certainly look into trying to put something in there. Uh, I guess, you know, my my only worry would be, you know, just wasted time,
money, and effort to plant something that's just going to get eaten up instantly. But I'm done. Yeah. During the walk through, we noticed that there was a PVC pipe coming on your diagram. It looks like
from stairs straight out. I assume that was some kind of sump pump discharge. Yeah. So, we have um existing sump pump in in our basement um that yeah, it discharges out there. It doesn't come on too too often. Um but yeah, if you know there's a lot of ground water, it'll
pump a little bit out there. The only thing I noticed as well was since you're discharging on top of the mound, if I may use that word, if we go off diagonally at a 45 degree angle, as we go off the mound, there's a lot of
erosion. I'm wondering if we could put some kind of discharge area, crush stone, whatever, to absorb that discharge. Yeah, we can put some crush stone in there. That'll be fine.
And then you had um Yep, that was okay. Thank you. Do you have anything? Nope. All good here. Okay. Uh ask some questions. Um, there's a drainage man cover in the
back left of the property that's not noted on the plan. You need to add that. And can you tell us how the roof runoff for the u the new garage living area is going to be handled? Um, so you're saying, so it shows the easement
back there, but you're saying you'd like to also see the marking of the manhole. Yeah, there's a there's a manhole cover in the back left. Uh you have some green markings on the ground there for uh the the big save. Yeah, we're just going to add that to the plan
so we have that for future reference. Okay, I can ask our engineer to add that on there. Um and then for the roof run off, I said that the engineer is working on a rainwater retention plan at the moment. Um,
so what do you want us to consider then in the meantime? What should we be thinking about roof runoff and how it's going to be handled? So, it's going to be infiltrated in the groundwater uh into the into the into the ground rather. He's talking about um you know
some crushed stone um some sounds like retention chambers um possibly a pump depending on the whole elevation thing possibly a pump to to kind of pump the storm water um where it needs to go and in terms of like a discharge area um and and to kind of dissipate it into the
ground that way. Okay. Um yeah. So when do you think that plan would be drawn up and ready to be submitted to conservation office? Hopefully very soon. It's been taking a lot longer than I would have ever
thought it would have. Um but but my hope is within the next week. Okay. Uh we may have to come back to that. I'm not sure that we can go forward with that as an open item, but we'll just put that hold that in the
bayance for the moment. Um, additionally, there's a downspout coming off the existing roof which would end up being in front of the addition once the addition is added. Um, what are your thoughts on
handling that water? I think it's probably all be tied into the same system, I believe, because otherwise it would just discharge right in front. I mean, they are part of the plan is going to be to have a drain in front of the garage. So, dealer tie into that drain, and I think that's where the idea of the pump comes in. Um, yeah. So,
yeah. Otherwise, it'll just make a giant mess in the driveway. I would agree. It shouldn't just come down, but uh that should be part of the plan. Yes. Yeah. So, they're picking up the water across the back of the house and across the front. Um, I mean, I'm trying to write
it down. So, what Okay. Well, what do we just They're going to have to give us a plan. Um, they're going to have to handle the water off the addition. In addition to that, there's water that currently comes a down spout off the existing roof and where it comes down,
it will now be blocked going to the back because the addition is going to be there. Okay. So, we just wait for the plan, right? I think. Yes. Isn't there a down spout on the far right side of the house? You mean from the front of the
house? Coming down right now? That's what we're talking about. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah. Front and back of the existing house. So, okay. So, they're going to have to do something with both, right? And that's all going to be covered in the plan. It's going to have to Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Um, there's a granite bound just off your property in the neighborhood. Sorry, the neighboring property. Do you have any idea what that is? Granite mound. Sorry, you broke. Do you say a granite
mound? Uh, bound. A granite marker. Oh, in the back. Yeah, I don't know what that is. No, because it's not property where it is. I just don't know what it is, whether or not it's it's important to uh wetlands
or anything. I just can't tell without maybe going back there. But um there's no marking on I I did look at it the other week. There's no markings on it or anything, but it's it's on our rear neighbors properties when you're looking at the plot plane there, the uh
Spellelman's property. Um, but yeah, no, I don't know what it is. So, could you um while you're waiting for the uh plan to be finished, could you talk to them and see if they know what that bound is? The only reason I'm asking is because I don't know if it pertains to this or
not. H how would it pertain? I don't know. Did somebody delineate a weather out there? I know that. Um I don't know. There's a just a bound in the middle of nowhere, not too far from your property. I don't know what it
means. I don't I don't know. I I can ask them. My my guess would be it might be the edge of the town land because it backs up to Morton Field. Um so if I had to guess, I would guess it's probably the edge of the town property. Yeah. So if you could ask one, just let Chuck know what you're answering. That
would that would be great with your answers. That'd be great. Yeah. Also say if I could help Jay out. Sure. A little bit. So, typically in this town, I haven't found too many that don't mean that they're on the 25 foot line, but this was this was
um wetland line was delineated by was it Mary Rimmer? Was that who it was? The person that did the work for us was uh Bazains. Oh, uh yeah, Bazbane. Um
so, this is a new line and you'll be approving it. So that bound seems to be out of place if it's a 25 foot bound. Yeah. But it's behind it on the Spellelman's property behind the wetland line. So it's in the
wetland. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty much like right probably almost in the middle of the wetland. That's what I would think about it. I guess I don't know which is why I was asking if anybody else didn't know. Yeah. As opposed to just guessing speculating.
I don't like this. Okay. So, if you get an answer, that would be great. Okay. They can ask. I mean, they they they bought their land after us, so they may not necessarily know, but I can certainly ask them. Excuse me. Excuse me. If you want to speak, can you introduce yourself? Thank
you. I just suggest just get an answer to Chuck. Whatever the answer is, that's good. Yeah, thank you. Okay. All right. Um, notice there's a lot of yard waste thrown over the fence. looks mostly
brush. I didn't see leaves or any grass clippings or anything, but brush piles that should be removed. And they're very far from other property. So, um, so, so the only yard waste is there is a vine that was growing up from the wetland
into our property and over the fence and up into the trees. Um, so between myself and the Spellelmans, we just cut the vine back. That's what all that is is just remnants of the vine from the wetland. just didn't throw a pile of brush or vines or whatever uh into the
wetland area even though it come even though it came from the wetland. Yes. Because you put one place like that, it'll inhibit growth in that area. Plus, when it decomposes, it will fill and not supposed to fill. So, bottom
line, if you cut things, take it out, bring it to the compost area, whatever. Okay? or have a fire in that stone circle getting permission first. Yeah. Um I'm glad you mentioned the vines
because we did see a lot of trees with vine. So um we definitely encourage you to cut them. Okay. Um, can you have your uh engineer whatever add erosion control
uh to the plan? Sure. Okay. I'm not sure where it will go exactly. I mean, property is pretty flat, but it should be something there. Okay. And and like when you say erosion control, just like a little barrier.
Um, yeah. I mean your person would know but we typically ask for malt sock state sock um or something like that something just you know as they dig up uh to do the work so nothing migrates towards the
wetland. Okay. Okay. Um and I echo what Martha said about plantings along the back a little more strongly than she did. Uh what we do typically is
um we ask for some width of a buffer strip to be planted. Um and we recognize that there's not a ton of space out there. So I would ask that it be a three-foot um buffer strip along the wetland line
back there. Um and it should include some ground cover kind of material and uh other plants and basically not just one kind of planting. Okay. So when you say ground cover like
grass you mean or uh no not grass. Um uh I'll leave that to Martha because my head's blank at the moment. But uh um sometimes it's ferns and there's a native plant list on the website where
you can look and it divides things up by ground cover and shrubs and trees. I think we're not asking for trees back there, but some ground cover and some shrubs and maybe look into which ones are less likely to get eaten by the deer
so they might survive better. Again, technically we could ask for up to 25 feet in red. We recognize that would be a real problem with that. So, we're not going to do that. But three feet is what we've been typically asking for. Okay.
And just behind the addition or the whole property? Uh, it should be along the wetland flags. Should be three feet along the wetland flags. So that's pretty much
your whole property back there along the drainage ement. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Could we settle for the drainage ement because the the wetland line goes up across that mound and as you guys could tell when you were out there's not a single thing that's going to grow up there. Yeah,
that's fine. That's fair. And that that mound definitely looks artificial. Must be filled. Do you have any idea why that was put in when I'm assuming when the house was built? Yeah, it's just I I don't really know. I
assume it was there when the house was built. I don't know what kind of tank it was. I mean I the owner's son, the builder who built the house sent our neighbor kind of a history of the property, pictures when they built it and all. And the um most of the wood wasn't there. They had pictures of them clear cutting the whole street um from
from trees. It was kind of a house in the woods at the time. So, I don't know if it was like a water tank because there wasn't any water at the time. If it they used it as like a fresh water tank or what they might have used it for back then, but All right. And that's the only questions I have. I did have two
more. Go ahead, Martha. Construction entrance and materials stockpiling. Where will those be? Um, pretty much from the driveway is is my understanding of it all. Um, I think they're gonna, you know, you know, all the trucks and whatnot will come off off
the street. So, they would come down the driveway and then my like guess would be they would probably stockpile everything, you know, pretty much probably on the driveway, I'd imagine. Okay. And then what that means for where will your cars be while the construction is going on and your driveway is
unusable? Well, we won't be living there because they're taking the roof off as well because it's a cape style now and they're kind of straightening out the roof line. Um, so our builder has basically told us we need to kind of move out for three to four months. Um, so we won't really be there. So you won't need to park cars there.
Yeah. And to follow up on Martha's question, can you have your people add the stockpile to the plant? Sure. Location. Thank you. Any other questions? I'm good. Okay.
Um, so it sounds like we need to continue. Um, thank you very much. Um, so is there anybody in the room who has any questions or observations? No. Is there anybody online? If you do, use the reaction button on the lower
part of your screen and raise your hand. Seeing none. None. Chuck had everything he needs to say. I know you guys covered all the questions that I could come up with. So, good. All right. You've trained us well. Yes. Or not. Um, so
then can I have a um motion to continue to May 14th? First of all, you have to you have to agree. Are you okay with continuing to May 14th? Is that the next meeting? Yes. Okay. Um, yeah. That is three weeks or
two weeks? It's three weeks because of the month. We meet on the uh second and fourth Wednesday of every month. So, it's Oh, I see. Yeah, that that's fine. Okay. Thank you. Oh, yeah. It's all about those plans from your engineer with the U water
system, right? Would be helpful if they were here, but they're not. So, Oh, I know. It's been a very frustrating process. You imagine and I have a motion to continue May. I'll move to continue this hearing to
May 14th. Walter Talbert seconds that motion. Michelle in favor. Talbert's in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Ryan B in favor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See you on the 14th. Thank you. I think we might have told
some other people the seventh for those other hearings at the beginning of this meeting. We haven't actually had those hearings yet, but yes, we did mention them. Yeah. So, when they come up on the agenda and that order, we'll uh correct
that. Someone had spoken on order. But anyway, you know, what's your name of the baby? You really kind of like blew your mind. Exactly. Okay. So, our next one is 15B Street. Anyone here for that? Is that Is that
the next one? Yeah. Yes. Is anyone here for that? Yeah. Okay. That's you, right? So, I skip Yeah, I know. That's why I was saying Oh, yeah. Well, you're right. Sorry.
Next one is 288 Grove Street. Okay, I will read the blur. Open a public hearing on notice of intent filed by Ron Rice, general manager of Metaport Golf Club, pursuant to Massachusetts general law, chapter 131, section 40 of the wetland
protection act and know the wetland protection bylaw. Section 7.1, the applicant proposes to raise the existing storage building and construct a new 48 foot by 100 foot storage building. All the work within the 100 foot buffer zone
to a bordering vegetated wetland. The application of plans can be viewed during regular business hours at the town hall conservation office 16 low street reading and on the conservation division page under the projects by
year. CES map 37 lot 4 D file 270-0799. Sorry Jack. Okay. Do you want to run us through it? Sure. My name is Jack in attendance with me tonight. Um as the chairman stated in
the opening we were issued a T file number for this project. All of notications in China. Uh the wetland deliation on this project was performed by North Environmental Services. There's an existing
40x75T one-story storage building um and it's going to be demoed and replaced with a 48x 100 foot onetory building uh in a similar location. the existing 40 by 75 foot
building a portion of it falls within the 35 foot no structure zone to the wetlands. So the new building's being repositioned slightly so that the entire building is outside. Just so you know, the closest
point of building the existing building, there's no um drainage associated with this building. With the proposed building, uh we're proposing a subsurface infiltration system. It's going to be called tech
units. We did I actually performed two soil tests up there. Great soils, sands and gravels, somewhat of a high groundwater table. So with that in mind and to help us out
the grading on this project um we've raised the new building one foot higher than the existing building. Both buildings are on concrete slabs bringing the green up a foot. This allows us to reduce the heights
retaining wall of the ground surface area which I can get into, but it also allows me to maintain the two foot separation from the seasonal high groundwater table to the bottom of our drainage system. Um, and I sized the drainage system for the two and 10year
storm event. So, uh, so the commission knows a two-year storm is 3.2 inches of rain over 24 hours. is a 10year storm event is 4.9 inches of rain over a 24-h hour period. For storms larger than a
10-year storm, I do have a um a popup emitter um so that would it would release um larger storm events into a grass area and then it can go overland towards the wetland. It's well outside the 35 foot structure zone as well.
Um I should note I did do a table on the plan showing the existing imperous surfaces in this area and the proposed um the existing we have the existing buildings in this concrete aprons. We have
3,226 square feet of imperous area. The proposed the new buildings 48 by 100. So that's 4,800 square ft and we have 108 square ft of retaining wall. So, we have 4,98 square feet of imperous area. So, there's a net increase of
1,682 square ft of imperous surfaces, but I'm mitigating 4,800 square ft of the roof area. Um, so there's a net effective reduction of 3,118 square feet of imperous areas for this project.
Um, for the building itself, it's strictly going to be for storage. Um there's no interior plumbing. There's an existing water spet outside uh the current building that will remain. It's an outdoor spot. Um as I said, there's
no interior plumbing. There will be um overhead electric that's run to this building. There's overhead electric now to to the existing building off one of the utility poles. As part of this project, there'll be 10 trees that will be removed within the 100 foot buffer
zone. They noted on the plan there, the trees, the type, u caliper, and there's an extra wants to be removed. We're proposing to plant 10 uh new trees, 3-in caliper um from from the native uh tree
list that the town of uh the conservation commission has the 10 trees. Uh we'll provide those to Chuck. It will be based on availability when it comes to planting trees. So, we meet we meet the uh tree removal and tree replacement policy of the
town. For the new building, um there's an existing gravel surface that services the existing building. We're proposing uh for the surface to remain gravel. It'll be a new gravel area and it's being widened in some spots. I know you
did a site visit. There's some steep drop offs to the existing gravel with no retainage. is just a steep slope. Uh we're formalizing this. Um there'll be a there'll be 30 feet from the proposed building um to the edge of the gravel
surface. There'll be a landscape retaining wall. I'm showing a berscelock wall to be constructed. It it'll be um no higher than 4 feet in height. So it's not a structural wall. That's why it's a landscape wall. I should note I did have discussions
with Metobrook early on where this is a storage building. We we got into, you know, do we think we need like an oil water separator? Would there be floor drains inside the building? Um after some discussion on it, um this is
strictly for storage. They're not looking to service, repair, wash vehicles inside the building. So, we didn't show anything at this point. It is a commercial building, so we're not sure if when we apply for a building permit, if the health department or the
fire department may require it. If they do, I can put one in and and connect it out to that drainage and filtration field. Uh, but at this point in time, um, we we don't see the need a need for it, but that may come up at the building
permit phase. Um, I think that completes my presentation. Um, I'll turn it over to the commission for any questions they might have. Okay. Thanks. Any questions, comments from the commission?
Well, yeah, we did the site visit this past Monday. Uh my immediate concern was on your diagram where you show the trench drains. There's a steep slope down to where the building's going to be. And
there's no stone on that slope. It's all sand and grit and dust. Um I tried to look inside the trench drains themselves. Um looked there were there was sand and grit in them. I did not know where it was discharging. I can see
where it is now. So, I don't know what that looks like. My concern is that you're going to be draining all that sand and grit down into your uh retention area. Um, normally there was always some kind
of separator or manhole cover uh for that area. Is that under consideration? When you talk about the trench strains, are you to check is he is he talking about the ones further up the driveway? Uh
yeah, these guys up here. Yeah, those ones there. Looks like because of the slope, there's quite a bit of drainage down this direction into the retention system. Right. So that and that's all bare. It's just sand and grit. There's no stone there.
So they they'll be regraveling that area, grading it, compacting it. The drainage system is subsurface and it's just collecting the entire roof of the proposed building. So where it's a gravel surface, we're not
proposing any drainage. It's gravel now. Um where we're not creating an impervious surface, I I'm not showing any drainage for that gravel surface. It just it just be the building itself will have um the gutters will have u
roof drains that go underground to the subsurface infiltration field. And that's why I noted in what I I did the table on the imperous surfaces to show that by right now there's no drainage system for the gravel surface
in that area or the building. Now we're putting in a a a a system that will handle the entire roof area for a 10-year storm. So, it's a major improvement. Uh looking at Coltex literature, they seem to recommend some
kind of uh manhole or separator before going into the system if it's a loose gravel or sand type of environment. They do, but where this is it's just going to be the roof the the storm water from the roof being collected. That's considered
clean. Um, so you don't have to do any sort of pre-treatment. But you'd be right, Walter. If I had a catch basin or a trench drain in the parking lot and then collecting that water and moving it to a culttech unit, I would need some sort of pre-treatment like a deep sub
manhole. But in this case, that system is only for the roof and the roof runoff is considered clean for this project. What about the runoff coming down the slope? I'm not collecting that. I'm not doing anything. Where's it going?
It'll go as it goes down. It it it goes down that hill. It's gravel now, but it's not pavement. So, water won't be able to uh move through that material where it's not impervious. Um, that's not to say you don't have a point that those trench drains may need
some maintenance and Pat's here tonight. They if they need to be clean, if they're silted in, that's something they can look at. It's separate from this project, but it's on their site so they can take care of that. Again, I'm I'm going to be very conservative. My concern is that you get
crud and gravel inside PTE system and you're you're burying it. There's no manhole or access to clean it. Am I correct? For the subsurface infiltration, there will be cleanouts. There'll be a couple cleanouts to grade.
So when the cults go in, they're based, they're set on crush stone. You have the callex. Then there's three inches of crushed stone put on top and then filter fabric, then the gravel. So gravel will not be able to get into the u into the cultex.
The other concern I have is knowing how maintenance is being done currently. Um, golf courses do a great job of maintaining the grass and the greens. I'm a golfer. I know that for a fact. However, in that building, the
current building, we found gasoline cans. There's smudges of oil on the floor. Um, is there going to be some kind of discipline not to do things that you discuss in that building?
Want to feel that? Pat, did you hear that question? Yeah. Uh, Pat Hopkins, 83 King Street, and I'm also um a board member at uh at Metal Brook. Um, we're we're storing in the building. It's all
equipment storage. There is there there's no maintenance. um that we have a separate maintenance facility um as far as any gas cans. We can create protocols and and work on that um to make sure there's, you know, there's
there's nothing stored in the building. Put some signage up for no storage um to address that. And Jack already hinted at it, but my concern was you have all this equipment that's been
lubricated, whatever, that runs the potential of leaking on the floor, but that'll be handled by another organization. Yeah, thank you. I'm done.
My turn. Okay. Um, at our site visit, we noticed a lot of debris on the ground behind the current garage. Um, granite slabs that were from the golf course sometime in the past, some plastic pipes
and things like that. Um, I'd like to see all that debris moved away from the wetland when you do the construction so that behind the garage does not become a storage area for things you want to get
out of sight. Um, uh, so that's one thing. Um, we did check the locations of the nearest um, wetland flags and we thought they were um, reasonable location. So, I think
that 40 ft is accurate. So, I'm not worried about structure in the no structure zone. Um, I was a little concerned that there's one tree that seemed like it should have been on the plan and was missed. Missed it. Um,
yeah, it's somewhere between 77A and 76A. Okay. We saw a really big pine tree. That's probably your 38 inch pine. And then there's another one. But if you're not taking it down, it's not particularly relevant. Um I'm
guessing you didn't do all the trees going out further into the distance either. No, I did I did a number of them, but I I could have easily missed one. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. And speaking of
debris, when we first got there, we parked in the parking lot. um near the other metal frame building. Um and we parked where it says pull forward, pull forward all along that
edge. Um and we found flag 64A, but we also found a lot of leaves that had been blown probably off the parking lot into the woods there. Um and they are in the 35 foot zone, if not in
the 25 foot zone. And um we ask people not to um dump their yard waste in the wetland area, but take it someplace else, maybe down to the compost area or
something like that. Um okay. And my biggest concern was um you're proposing to put this Coltech chamber right where there is currently a gravel driveway. So people have been
driving over it with trucks a lot and I know at other sites Chuck has been very particular about not compressing the soil where the cult chamber is going to go. Um isn't that soil really badly
compacted where that cult chamber is going to go? Well, the good news is it's a it's a really coarse sand with stone. So it's it's hard to be too compacted like cern cern so soils I would say yes
if there's a lot of silt it can compress and compact in this it's so coarse um but you bring up a good point usually we try not to to drive over it until it till it's put in in this case to demo the building they're going to be driving
in there to demo but I don't I don't see with these types of soils that they'll get compacted And will it be strong enough to withstand driving on top of it after the fact? They're H20 rated. Right.
Yeah. Right. Um in fact, Caltech a number of years ago, all their their rechargers are now H20 because they you used to be able to get H10 or H20 and people were doing the H10s and they were crushing. So now
they're all H20 rated. Okay. Um, and the dashed line is your erosion control. Yes. Be a 12 inch mold sock. All right. Um, I was going to ask what trees you're planning to put in in your plan, and you
already answered that you're going to run those by Chuck when you are able to find out what you've got. Yeah. They'll be off your list, and based on availability, they'll get in okay by check, right? Um, yeah. Okay,
Tim, do you have anything? The only thing was the the storage container that's going to be removed after the building is done. Temporary container, the 20footer up in the drive up in the parking lot.
Yes. Yeah. I'm not um yeah, the plan the plan is to remove that. I didn't I didn't know that that would be an issue either way. Um it needs to be removed. The plan was
hopefully we don't need it anymore. Do you have anything else? Nope, that's it. Okay, I have a few. Um, so the first is I want to echo what Martha was saying about the debris and
what have you behind the building. Um, so my concern twofold. One, be sure that area is totally cleaned up because there's a lot there. more importantly going forward, how do you intend to prevent
the area around the new building from becoming uh storage dumping ground as well? So, um first of all, as I'm typing on my phone, I'm taking notes um while you're talking. I'm not ignoring you.
So, one of the things um if you look at that existing building, I don't know if you recall, but there are overhead doors on both sides of the building, and it's and it's too small. we're kind of, you know, squeezing to get stuff in. So, the the building is accessed from both sides. So, we go around behind the
building right now. I know the debris you're talking about, I've been a member there for 20 years. I think some of that stuff predates my time there. Um, one of the benefits of this building, one of the things we like about it is all the overhead doors. There's five overhead doors facing away from the wetlands. The
building effectively turns us back to the wetlands. So, we shouldn't be we shouldn't be back there. We're going to be tighter. there's less space. Um, as you look to the right, um, I guess the right or the bottom of the page, um, I was talking to Jack before the meeting. We're showing a retaining wall and then
an area, um, and then the building. I was actually talking to him about making that wall, the building, a retaining wall, so we can backfill right up to it, which will further just inhibit access back there. But the building, one of the
things we like, we we did this project. We worked with Weston and Samson to do a feasibility study and we looked at multiple options um on the building. We looked at maintaining the existing building. Um it just wasn't feasible. It it was turning into something that would
cost more and be less efficient. But it it really turns its back on that area. So there's going to be I can tell you we'll put in protocols um put in standard operating procedures um educate our staff on putting you know the leaves going in the wetlands and what have you.
We have places to put we're putting you know we have places to put leaves what have you and make sure they're not going there. But the natural turning of that building like I'm gone 20 years from now my current superintendent's gone 20 years from now. It's the way it's designed. You're just not going to be
back there. And what's going to happen is the vegetation is going to continue to encroach on the building and there's not going to be any space. So I get what you're saying. That's good. You started by saying you shouldn't go back there. Should is a pretty weak word. So I would
like to see verbiage in your procedure, what have you, saying don't do it because you know t things tend to propagate and what's back there you can see just over time has built up and there's a lot back there. Yeah, we can absolutely put up um a a a specific
policy standard operating procedures that the the um that the grounds crew will be part of their procedures that'll be affirmative. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. We can definitely do that. So, in your narrative, it says no yard waste will be disposed of in a
resource area. Can change that to in a resource area or within 50 ft of the resource area. So basically keep it away from it like Martha was saying before. Um and it also states that you know
contact DPW to see if there's a disposal area. Why wait for the future to do that? Contact DPW now and put in here what you're going to do with your yard w leave it to the future for somebody to reach out at that point.
Um, okay. So, so pesticides, uh, the current building has a sign on it saying pesticide storage. The gentleman who met us there said there's not going to be pesticide storage in the
new building. And yet in the narrative it says that there will be and it has commentary on u all the list about different types. So my first question is will there be pesticides stored in the building? I think I'd have to get back
to you affirmatively on that. But u it's my understanding that the intent is not to store pesticides in that building. It's all stored in the maintenance building. Okay. Because there's a whole section in your narrative talking about it and also saying
um environmentally friendly whatever are preferred. So my question would be if they preferred the state in there that they will be used something that's more that's less less of an issue with the wetland. So that would be some an answer
to get back to Chuck on about whether or not there'll be pesticides in there. So are there going to be any petroleum products stored in the new building? No. So that means that the current gas
cans that are in there are not going to be stored there when once the new building is done. Where are those going to be instead? Where they get most? They they would be in the top the maintenance building. So So what's the uh process then?
Somebody brings equipment back, they store it there. Do they gas up before they park it in storage? Do they gas up when they take it out for the next operation? They, you know, depending on depending on the use, they would they would gas
it, but it would be gassed up in the maintenance building. I suppose you'd have to do that when you're returning. Okay. So, the bottom line, there's no reason for any gas cans to be in the new building,
right? Uh, let's see. So, what procedures do you have for any leaks? Because presumably there'll be fuel in some all the equipment that's in the storage boat. How will you handle a leak? I machinery machinery leaks. How
you going to deal with that? We we would have to develop a a standard operating procedure for that. Put that together. So, we'd want to see that uh submitted to Chuck as well. I look at that, Brad. It would just be
like someone with a garage in you park your car, there could be a leak. Um a snowblower in your garage, there could be a leak. So, if it would be something that a resident would do, we can provide it. We We wouldn't see it happening a lot, but it could happen. I agree that
it shouldn't be seen in a lot, especially if you maintain the equipment. Yeah. built by man, it's going to leak, right? Just the way it is. So, I'd like to see some thing in there about how you handle that. Um, okay. What about snow storage areas?
I didn't see any on the plan. Maybe I missed them. Did you mark off any snow storage? I didn't I didn't mark any off. Everything in front of the building where the gravel will be here would be um there'll be doors to to get into the building. So we won't be sto storing any
snow in this area. They'd store it store it somewhere else on site. So again, you want to have whatever that reality is align with what's in the narrative. Yeah. The narrative talks about in the event of a big storm, it'll be taken off
site. Yeah. And it implies there is a snow storage area. to either change the narrative or add a snow storage area to plan just as long as they align. Y we can show an area where we store.
Uh it also says that materials like sand for winter and salt and what have you stored offsite. Do you know where that's going to be? Probably by the maintenance building. We could we could put the existing the existing maintenance
building. That that that should be clearer. Um and it sounds like you're not going to do any paving down there. None. It's just gravel. Just gravel. Whatever concrete slabs are on the outside now going to be taken up. Correct. There's
nothing to replace that. No. Which will make the plowing interesting too. Um, okay. So, that's the only questions I have. Um, we have conditions to get to at some point, but in the meantime,
Chuck, do you have anything? Yeah, I have a few. All right. So, one of the things I'm concerned about is the fact that the entire building is closer to the wetlands than the existing building. I'm also concerned about the
gravel driveway and the fact that, and I was trying to verify this, but I think it's true that this whole area is the aquifer protection district. If anything spills there, we're never going to be able to capture it. And gravel driveway is an
excellent thing to have out in front of a working garage. Now, this you're seeing this is for storage, but this is essentially a garage. And when I was there, I wasn't way out with the commission. I was there another time. This is a very active uh area of the um
the golf course where things are coming in and out. There's of activity. There's a lot of storage. I really don't understand why, you know, you made a comment about having some sort of proprietary system there. I was wondering where you going
to put it in in the in the gravel uh surface. Can't put it in the garage. I don't think that's allowed. Uh and and again access into the back was another concern. I I'm wondering what the other
departments are going to say about this project. um you know as it's being presented here tonight just I'm just really wondering I mean if you spill even a gallon of oil
or a gallon of gas that's going to seep into the aqua it it's definitely going to get there and there's no way to capture it or for anyone to understand if that happened or not who might be inspecting the place so I think that's a
big question about you know what's going on up here and how are those safeguards in place to prevent this in the future. Um, I did also want to ask about the popup area. I see a little circle on the
infiltration system. Y is that that's it? Yeah. So, it's just gonna go right there, right? is going to go and it's going to seep right into the ground because or is that gravel get compacted really tight and it really will just run off it. So
the pop-up emitter the pipe comes out straight and then there's a 90 degree elbow up to a popup. The popup sits right on the grass surface. Yeah. So water would come up. It triggers it comes up the 90 elbow triggers and then
just goes over the grass. So I show an elevation of the popup to be at 8 elevation 82 which is uh basic basically the ground surface right there. Is this where it is right here? Just if you can see that that little circle is what I'm talking about. Do you have a different
area? No. No. The popup's over here. Okay. This circle is back to Walter's question. Um that would be an inspection port. Okay. Over the calltech unit. So there'd be a cover to grade so that um someone could look into that calltech,
make sure water's draining um to do some sort of inspection. Well, that's that's a good spot for it. I don't mind that spot. And um I also see that spot is probably something that, you know, over the years may be
used more than what's alluded to now. I'm wondering if you know and O'Brien said just let Chuck know, just let Chuck know. I've said that many times. I think after twice you should be considering getting the information yourself,
reviewing it, continuing the the, you know, the review. But I also was wondering about um in the back of the building what you could come up with to
um just eliminate all possibilities anything ever happening there. So that just gets in a way restored to uh natural area. I know you can't put trees there and the elevations don't look correct for a retaining wall,
but and and there's no openings in the back of the building, which is good, but um you know, you could you probably have better ideas, but quite simply, you could just put a ball up there and then no one could get back there. And you could put a sign on the ball that says, you know, this is a
rest, a restored area, no access. Um, my biggest question is the gravel surface and the concern I have about this and you know what ends up happening. You
know, if I had a garage and I wanted to do some work on it and it was a nice day, I might do the work outside. So, I'm not sure the the function of this area. Know you're calling it storage, but are you maintaining and opening up? I don't know
like what whatever you have there you have gators you have uh uh you know forklifts whatever are they maintained in this area but my my biggest question is how are you protecting the atmosphere
and I I think that needs to be looked at well I think the answer to that now is look look what's there now and you saw gas cans you saw a bunch of things Pat represented to the commission tonight specifically to Brian questions that
those materials that they saw, gas cans, anything like that will be up in the maintenance building. So, further away from the wetland and all maintenance storage will be in in that building. This this building would just be for
storage. Now, there's a large area in town that's within the aquifer protection district. Someone could go out with a lawn mower, have a leak in their lawn, and it could, you know, there there's no protection. I think by the club moving everything to that
maintenance building where it presently exists today with no safeguards. I think this is a huge improvement. I and the club will put something together how how what their protocol is. I don't think you can solve all these issues with a protocol. I
think that these pictures these this is bigger and it says you have like uh but you're not going to have fertilizers. You're not going to have pesticides in this building. You're not going to have gas cans. You You will have some equipment. Could it leak? It
could leak. It It'll be inside. If it came out and and leaked in the gravel, that that could happen anywhere in town by a wetland. What is L What is LT
PP stand for? A long-term pollution prevention plan. Correct. Is this site uh like a gas station? Like a what is that called? Like a loopa or something like that? It's not. How come it doesn't qualify for that? That's for industrial
uses. And this isn't an industrial use. Why? How does it not meet that standard? This this property is that would say commercial. It's not it's not industrial. It's not a G. We don't have like
underground gas tanks or there's no industry going on. It's just a storage building. They're not doing any industrial work with the building. Part of the things that you talked about in your opening statement was uh the
fact that there won't be any washing or anything like that in this area. long-term pollution prevention plan talks about washing vehicle washing controls as part of this LT PPP. Um, like I said, I
I I think there's a concern here. It would be great to see some sort of surface there and some sort of proprietary system there. I'm hoping the uh building department requires one, but
I don't want to depend on them. I don't know who else has to review this. Is have you gone to CPDC yet? Well, if we look at this, if I just sh's 100 foot buffer. Yeah. Off of what and back of the building from from Yeah. See see this
heavy line? I do. Yeah. So that's the 100 foot buffer. So you know what? This is gravel. So, in your jurisdiction, this area here is a gravel area. It's not a large area. Yeah. Um, we did talk
with Andrew at the planning department and if we'd have to file with CPDC, he said, "No, we're not creating any additional parking. It's just for storage. We're replacing an existing building." Um, I think right now there's, like I
said, there's no storm water controls on this site. Now, there will be. Uh, Pat already represented. They'll put together some sort of plan showing what's going to be in this building, where things are going to go. Um, if if you I don't know in the budget
if there'd be money to to pave this area. The club has a budget. Um, we thought gravel was the best solution with gravel. Even typic we be above the groundwater table. The reason you want two feet of separation between
a storm water structure and the water table is so that treatment can take place. So I mean if there was a spill there's soils between us and the groundwater table. You don't want spills. I don't really see spills taking place here. I see many spills happening
there. That's in my mind it's like a mini that's now that's now with what's going on out there it's going to be different so I know you pointed out the buffer zone the 100 foot so in our regulations it has uh I don't know what page it is page five and we have
activities outside the buffer zone and it says in the uh the commission determines that such activities is more likely than unlikely to alter the area subject to protection the bylaw and shall impose conditions on this activity. So we have within our
regulations to go beyond uh the 100 foot in situations like this. I I would ask you to look at this area. Uh seriously and you know you don't want to spill out there either. You don't
want to have a problem. I'm not saying you're not doing everything you can at this moment to prevent that. But you're not going to be there in 20 years. I'm not going to be there in 20 years. and we don't know what happens dayto day because no one's down there all the time and everyone's on to the protocol and I
know you said you have training and whatnot and I was almost gonna ask say hey do you have any logs or anything like that to show that the training's been happening all along is everyone up uh and and certified at this moment on this training or is this some new
process that's happening but I'm thinking that this is a big enough deal to kind to say we want to we want to prepare for uh
you know the worst case scenario and just hope that it doesn't happen. I don't think we have a situation here that protects the aquifer. So that's kind of where I'd leave it. Uh and I would accept a liner. I think that that would be an
interesting uh you know you know the turnback track was talking about a liner for what what they use. seemed like the commission listened to that. I don't they didn't make an opinion on it, but uh you could have your gravel and have a liner or something like that. Or you could pave a certain area and put in,
you know, a oil grease separator or something like that. Something that would catch that uh unfortunate event. That's what I have to say. I I will say that I share Chuck's concern about procedures not covering everything.
Um, I find that with human human behavior, there's always somebody who a little more lax or it's a nice day. As Chuck said, I could see somebody going outside and thinking, I'll be careful. I won't cause a problem and, you know,
surprise. So, um, that's something I was going to have an issue with going forward because I just don't believe that that's u likely enough. I don't think it, you know, perfect is is tough, but I don't
think it's likely enough. Um, so a lot of questions were raised. Um, so maybe the the best next step is to have another site visit out there.
Uh, we can convene with somebody who maybe knows the situation better than um who we met last time. Uh maybe we'll have some of the answers to the questions that were raised and we can factor that in to the next site visit.
Maybe Chuck can make it with us. We were on we went Monday. It was a holiday. So expect to be there. But it just seems like there's an awful lot of questions big and small. So do do we take from this that
the commission would rather see this the surface paved? I think that was a compelling argument. paved over a line or Chuck is right with with the turnaround track that was brought up. We didn't give an opinion on it because it didn't go that far. They
withdrew it temporarily, but aligning underneath the uh train to catch any leakage or anything. It's interesting idea. It's kind of the same concept there. So, it's think through in the end we don't design
things. you folks do design just uh one of the questions that came up on that trench drain the trench drain any any gravel um from wash out is coming from like further away in my opinion just when things come
up if anyone talks about like paving that back lot my instinct is to tell them that we came to you wouldn't want us to do I don't think it was suggested paving that lot. I think the idea was paving
some area near the new storage building where people would potentially work on equipment or some place that would catch things. So, so effectively sort of like an apron in front of the building. Is that what you meant? Chuck like an
apron. I actually like the gray area, but I'm not designing. I think we just make that suggestion like Jack. Yeah, Jack, think about it. Just one comment on the um the processes and protocols. I I totally get it. You know, we're all not going to be
here. I do I do think that that you know, the the new building and how it's situated does is a it's a permanent, you know, we're hoping this building is there for 50 years. It's by by all stretches, it's a it's a better
situation for that area back there. Currently, you know, roof runoff just gets dumped onto the ground. Currently, to get in the building to to make the building workable, we have to get to it from the back, which puts us back there. I get it. There shouldn't be debris
creeping up on the wetlands. But just the the building and the new structure in and of itself does go a long way to changing. Um, that's that's a permanent as opposed to I train a superintendent. We put protocols in place, people move
on, things change. So, just bear that in mind. We are trying to create a permanent better situation. And the the the other building has a garage with a with a mechanic um mechanic doesn't go down. They had to fix equipment because
all his tools are in the other building. Um so, it's not a routine activity. Now, if a machine's broke and you can't get it out of there, someone's got to go down and deal with it. No doubt. But the routine maintenance of all the equipment does not happen in this building. The
intent of the building is pure equipment storage. We'll get you clarification on all each building may come from the notine. You know, the case where it's broken down in that building and you have to do something, tow it, fix it there, that could still cause a problem.
Yeah. Just and to clarify, I'm not looking I think I would be disappointed if it was just a small pave strip in front of the building. I would need to know or look at it and say I get how that's going to do this the protecting that I think it would be. I think at at
a minimum it would be at the edge of the infiltration area and the most I'm looking at is generally that area in front because the front area would be you're not going to put away a cart if
you're if you're going in to grab something. It's going to be burned outside and it's going to sit there and you know the accumulation of leaking and again we we we our education is from the turnback track and we looked at the depot and just that train sitting
there's leaking oil all over the stone. Not the same situation. You guys have done a great job. I'm not saying you you're not the greatest and and you put all the protocols in place. I've hardly had to be at your site. I'm just saying this might be something you want to look at because you don't want a problem
either and it it it it's it's worth it and we do have that aquifer protection district right in this area too. So, okay, having said that, do you agree to a second site visit
and do you agree to a continuation? Yes, I think that's pretty obvious. Um, do we want to try and pick a site visit now? Uh, well, we don't have all the Tony's not here and all that. I think it would be better if we just did it through
email Monday when our members get back. We have Tony and uh I think that Tim was saying he was I don't know Canada or something like that. Quebec which is like Canada. It's like Canada. Okay. So then can I have a motion to
want to be on the 7th or the 14th? Question move to continue this hearing to May 14th. Talbert seconds that motion. Tim Michelle in favor in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Ryan in favor. Thanks J. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks. for a second. Take a break for five minute break. Sorry. All right, we're back. Okay. Um, chair's prerogative. We're going to change the agenda a little bit.
Um, we're going to hold 15B in advance for a moment and we're going to move forward to um item nine, which is the Reading Open Land Trust. Um, they're going to present plans for vegetated seating area off Collins Avenue. Um,
having said that, do you want to introduce yourself? Please stay at the podium. Chuck is on. This is about Excuse me. You didn't actually introduce yourself. Even though we know who you are.
So we hire someone that's our appropriate on there somewhere. I have some liner. There's a site.
So Bob's hired a landscape architect who's been out there many times and presented a plan and they're going to um you know they're going to clean up the area for um what's on the ground and they're going to plant native plants and
their proposal is to put in bench so it's a quiet peaceful spot. This is open land trust land. Um, it's at the end of Collins A and right now there's really nothing there and it could get a little beat up by the snow plow and just the
fact that it's kind of like the vacant end of a culdeac. So, uh, this is a great plan, but the wetlands are kind of close. So, they're, you know, there's a a slab
right there or right here. This is a slab and the bench would go on top of that and that's for security purposes. The slab is already there. No. Okay. That would have to be part of the proposal. That's what I thought. But a bench by itself chained to a tree doesn't really
have that same warm and fuzzy feeling when you go there to just be, you know, have peaceful afternoon. But, uh, that's what this is supposed to be. Just a quiet spot for anybody to go there. Uh, it's probably open to the whole town, but Bob expects that it would only be
direct neighbors and people that within walking distance that would use this. So, I think um so how close to the wetland is is I would say you're you're 20 feet uh kind of on one side you're 20 feet on another side you might be 15 to
25 feet and the back is the furthest away and it might be 40 feet are in the no structure. Yeah. And it looks like it's a filled area. Uh so everything is very elevated by four feet. So uh and you can look at the trees. It's been
filled for many years. Those are probably 20- year old trees or so. So uh again, it's a it's a it's a restoration plan with a bench and concrete slab.
That one doesn't want to open up. Um, yeah. So, there's no sidewalk there. So that elevates the necessity for a gravel, you know, path to get out to the bench or even to get from culac to where
this area is, which is really just off the edge of the road. And you had said hopefully native plants. Why wouldn't that? That's fine. And you said hopefully and I figured it was just for your speech, but So it will be native
plants. That's what I love to hear. I was there with the architect, the uh landscape architect, and she absolutely agrees that it's all native. Okay. Yeah.
Any questions? Um, I'm wondering what the structure is for say the bench in the town forest that looks over the hill. Um, is that on a granite slab or is it just granite posts at the ends?
It's onast at least the nearest one. All right. So, that's really the only option for this bench is to put it on a slab. There's another one that works to it. We ended up and if you remember the ones that we put
in at the bare metal as you walk out to the viewing platform that's probably the oldest one that's been there for 10 or 15 on the right hand side. Yeah, there's two of them Judy. They're both on concrete slabs. It's it's kind of the preferred way.
Um, you know, this is a town, you know, you own the property, but this is for the people in the town, and you have to have a certain level of, you know, equipment out there and security. So, I think bolting it down to the slab would
be a good idea. And the slab would be big enough for people's feet not to dig holes and make a mud puddle right in front of the bench. You were thinking the same thing. That would be my
although I would say in at least one of the benches and the path going to bare meadow, the slab is longer than it needs to be. So just have it the width of the bench and maybe a little bit more.
There's no point in paving paradise. I'm all about that. Yeah. But a little bit to I mean a little bit the side make it warm and fuzzy as Chuck said, but uh just not a whole extra
mass. Any any comments, questions? Walter. So, this is a structure that's going to be inside the 35 foot zone where it's supposed to be no structure. So, are we making an exception to that rule? And is the
plantings the mitigation for that and the cleanup of the leaves? Is that what the mitigation is? It could be, but I think this this project qualifies for public benefit, which is one of the criteria in our variance request, right?
So, um I think that they're covered. You know, is there another spot for it? Is it as small as possible? And does it create a public benefit? And I think that Bob meets all those uh standards. Gator wants a vehicle. You want it leak.
Okay, I'm done. We got anything? Nope. So, do we need What is this? This is an administrative. So, so there will be a variance request. Well, I'm wondering my question
was Bob just wanted, you know, to get permission to to move forward. Is this an administrative request? Do you want them to just uh submit the variance request and then you you've approved it? I would like to there be a variance
request so we are consistent. Okay. Because we're in we're in the 35 foot zone. I'm fine with him doing administrative uh action through Chuck. You can disagree with that but I'm fine with that. I agree with public
good. So my mind so get that form from Chuck. fill it out. Yeah. All right. If you're really nice, he might fill it out for you. He's got nothing else to do. Yeah. I probably could.
So, okay. Thanks for your time. All right, Bob. Thank you. Thanks, Bob. Thank you. Okay. Does anybody else want to jump in before Derek? Okay. Uh, we're on 15B. 15B at long
last. Then uh open the public hearing on a request for determination of applicability by Derek Russo pursuant to Massachusetts general law chapter 131 section 40 the wetlands protection act and or the
reading wetland protection bylaw section 7.1 the applicant proposes excavation to install new fibers by shell construction of 30inch retaining wall papa surrounding the pool and restore the surrounding landscape native plantings.
All of the work is within 100 foot buffer zone. The application and plans can be viewed during regular business hours at the town hall conservation office 16 lower street writing mass and on the conservation division page under the project by year assessor map 29 lot
25 RDA 2025-6. introduce yourself please and walk us through it. Hi, my name is Dr. Russo, 15B Street. I'm proposing to putting a pool a new pool in an existing spot where our pool
is now and native plants planters that the backtory or anything. Did you have a chance to look at the native plant list on the website? Yep. And did you pick out something thinking about
ink ink berries and switchgrass? Mostly alternating like seag the switchgrass, ink berries, switch grass, ink berry, switch. Um I was just checking to see if they
were poisonous or anything for my dog. That was the only real. And you haven't yet figured out? I went to Mahonies and talked to multiple people and they said those were the ones they would
suggest. Nothing with berries or nothing that dropped anything had big leaves that dropped. So that they would probably not go on pavers for the dog. And what he said, the switchgrass
and then maybe also mostly uh any of the other ornamental grasses probably maybe mixed in that are on the list. I have two dogs and two ink plants where the dogs are. I looked into this about
four years ago, but don't quote me. Well, that's what they said. Yeah. No, that's what they said, too. Like he the guy said he had them in his house and that's why he suggested. Yeah. And they grow nice, the ink bers. Yeah, they look And they don't produce inky colored
berries. I mean, they're named ink berry. I know. I would have thought so, too. That's why I was nervous. Yeah. The one thing you should know is he used to have four dogs before he put in the bushes. Now, some plants come as male and
female, and if you plant the males, you won't get berries. I don't know if that's true of ink berries or a holly. I think I don't know if holl's come male and female, but that might be Holly's do come male and female. Ah, so maybe that's why your ink berries aren't
producing berries. They're not dating the ink berries. updating, right? Okay. So, but that would be something when you buy them at Mahoney's to check and see whether they can sell you male plants that aren't going to make berries at all. Then you don't have to worry about
that. Check that out. Any other questions? Um, and all three of these highlighted yellow strips you're going to plant the na native plants along. Okay. Um, I did notice you have a lot
of materials stored in the area where it says proposed sun room. That's that's they're all going to Maine. Okay. So, that's what was everything that was all the furniture that was in the pool area. That's all getting transferred to a post in Maine. So, once all that gets cleared
out, what will that area look like exactly to what it is now? Is it grass underneath? I couldn't tell. It's got all stuff. It's grass. It's all grass. And then there's a little gravel area where there was a swing set. Okay. All right.
I'm done for now. I just looked up on the internet. It says the berries on Inkberry are poisonous to dogs and cats. Oh. So yeah, you want to get the males. I must have males. Thank you for looking that up.
Okay. And and you've already got the erosion control down, so we don't have to ask you for erosion control. So, your turn. Uh Tim, you got anything?
No. Okay. Thank you. Chuck, you got anything? I I don't. Okay. Then, um can I have a motion to close the hearing on 15B? You don't have a thing to say. Shocking.
I've been there twice. So, okay. I move to close the hearing on 15B's pool construction. Totes the motion. Tablets in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Ryan Mo in
favor. Okay. Um I have water there any conditions? Yeah. That the plant should survive for three years. They need to be native. If you change your mind and you have to let the conservation commission office
know. Um some point we should let us know when you're paving uh pool. Yeah. the pool surround area, make sure that I'd like to monitor it at at
that point. Um, and uh just keep the driveway and the roadway clean from any of the trucks moving in and out. I think those would be the conditions I have. Yeah. Um, that case, uh, can I have a motion
for a negative determination? I move for a negative determination of applicability on 15B Street. Walter Talbert seconds the motion. Tim Michelle in favor in favor. Martha Moore in favor in
favor. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for staying so long. No vote. Okay. Um moving on. The next is a public hearing on a notice of intent for 885 Main Street at the applicant's
request that has been continued. Earlier we erroneously said to May 7th, but it's really May 14th. Can I have a motion to continue 885 Main Street to May?
So moved. Multit. Martha Moore in favor. Brian B in favor. Okay. Next one is continue public hearing for 695 Pearl Street. This also at the applicant's request has been continued.
Uh earlier we said May 7th. Reality is it's May 14th. And I have a motion to continue 695 pearl to so moved. Talbert seconds. Michelle in favor. Walter's in favor. Martha
Moore in favor. Brian Bow in favor. Okay. I need to set up the next one. So, okay. We went too fast. No, but I need to This is uh I need So, that's the end of our
hearings. We move on to old new business and item eight which Chuck will set up for us. Yeah. Is us voting to release remaining consultant funds. So the the commission's already done this. I've run into a problem with the accounting
office where about language and there was some confusion over why does the check say Howard Street but we said Joy Lane. And so I provided a bunch of information. So, we're just doing this to make sure we
covered all the bases because this will get into the meeting minutes, which which I don't think is needed, but just in case. So, I'd like the commission to make a motion to release the
um remaining consultant fees for Joy Lane, formerly Howard Street, 135, 139, and 149R to
Steve Knight. and um also to release the bond for Joy Lane formally 135, 139 and 149R
uh for Joy Lane uh to to Steve Knight also. And so and then this project is finished and you're satisfied with it. So you don't have to try to repeat that. Uh, if you just say someone said just so moved and then Walter or someone else
can say second. Okay. I just want to be clear the numbers referred to the addresses on Howard Street. Yes. Yeah. When it originally addresses Okay. And that whole property is now called Joy Lane. Joy Lane. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So moved. Walter Talbert seconds. All in favor. Mr. Talbert in favor in favor. Rainbow in favor. Okay, we covered the next item. Now the
reading open land trust brings us to violation notices. Um need to talk about uh book or just need to sign the Yeah. So uh I'd like to have it ratified. So, if you can make a
motion to ratify the um enforcement order for 445 Pearl Street. The amended enforcement order or is it new? I I would call it updated. Okay. Can you make that? I move to ratify the updated enforcement order for
445 Pearl Street. Yeah. Walter Talbot seconds the motion. Tim Michelle in favor. Walter Talbot's in favor. Martha Moore in favor. B in favor. Okay, that brings us now to discussion
items and the only one we have tonight is DPW storage container review. Um, so but is this really the water fountain or the uh store with the
containers? Same same. I think we did this last time, too. I know. I just want to be sure it's consistently silly. Um, okay. So, I did go there today to look at the water fountain. The issue we had
last time was while they had put in the gravel area around it and surrounded the gravel with wooden timbers, there was a gully outside of the timbers where they hadn't filled in. Uh so BPW was asked to
correct that. What happened on today? In fact, it has been filled in. The new soil has been seated. Um I think it's sufficient for now. Although I expect there's going to be some compaction over time and it may
have to be visited, but we already have agreement with them that they'll revisit uh if there anything that comes up. So at this point I would consider it closed satisfactory.
All right. Any questions? I also while I was there looked at the containers uh where they're keeping the new carts. Um and it's all right except the gate leading to that area is open. the gate
leading into the containers themselves was open. Um, and the lefthand container is a skew. So, it's actually too far back compared to the the gravel
pad that they put in. None of that's worth uh screaming high heaven about, but I just thought I would note several things. Yeah, I'll uh let Mike know that the gates are open both. Not sure. You
mean the one way up by the compost area? Uh the one the new one by the compost area. So by the second entrance, that one was open and the one um you know the chain link link fence by the way with where with the storage by the uh
containers themselves went that's open. The containers are locked heavily. I got 40 feet I measured. Um, so okay. It's really minor, but I just thought I'
noted that. Is there anything else we need to discuss before we adjourn? Well, we have an administrator's report. So, wanted to go. Sorry, Tim. Uh, so administrator's report. I just want to let the conservation commission know
that I've been trying to get a proposal from the Montasauri school the um Milberry Forest Montasauri school uh they have uh identified Mater Cabin as a possible
outdoor classroom area and when the project is well actually when they're when they understand the project they have a sumary that I agree with. Bring it to the commission. You'll get a
presentation from that group. What it looks like is right now they have six to eight uh school-aged children and adults that want to do an outdoor classroom through the entire school season. They
would need the material cabin or a bathroom area. And on rainy days or cold days that are too cold, they assure me that they're not uh going to go in there when it's just misting out or it's just
kind of cold, but uh they would need something like that. They also said that their um they would support the conservation's efforts and that they would participate in uh you know part of their curriculum uh would be to
uh work on a project that that we uh that we presented. So, it's not formalized yet, but I want to let you know that uh there's a group looking at um being at the material cabin grounds in Bare Meadow and being out there and
what they typically do is find a spot and they teach right there. So maybe where we decided to put the bench or a fallen tree somewhere and they would have their classroom and they would talk about whatever they talk about out there
and they would move on uh in a few days to another on the property. They've talked to Karen Heric about this and she supports it wildly. So I think that we're going to hear about this a little bit more. I'm gonna let them come in and present to
the to the to the conservation commission and we'll see where it goes. Great. Also, drop off would be four or less cars. So, that seemed to work also. The next thing I have is I just wanted
to let the conservation commission know and anyone listening tonight that we're going to have a cleanup day, a community cleanup at Mlette Psalms and Morgan. It's going to be on Saturday, May 10th. And um we want drop off at the uh Willow
Street entrance, but those parking spots are not going to be available except for the handicap parking spot. And um parking is available at Austin Prep and there's a spot on the right hand side just after the railroad tracks for
any parking. But we do expect a lot of people to walk over from Hunt Street and Willow Street and uh Grove Street and help us. We need a lot of people. We're planning to do a lot because we're combining our day. This is a conservation sponsored event at the
Mlette SS and Morgan area. But the trails committee on that same day are going to be doing a they're part of this cleanup. They're going to be doing work on the head of the Ajona Trail, which runs from um the Mlets and Morgan area
to Hot Street. So, we've been out there many times. We understand what what they're doing. So, we're going to do debris removal on the trails, storm water for bay cleanup, uh, which is needed. If anyone's been down there recently, you'll notice all all the leaves in that area and the sediment.
We're adding wood chips to the summit path and the Ajona trail. That's the portion that the trails committee going to do. Now, we're not splitting this up as oh, you know, you came to work here. Yeah. Everyone's going to help out all around. It's a combined event. Uh we're going to look at some erosion control around one of the trees. It
looked like a little bit uh of rocks. They did about twothirds of the rocks around the tree on a raised area and the rain hits that and it and the dirt runs right into the path. So, we want to add a few more rocks and stones around uh
probably another third of it and uh see if we can close that out. And then we're going to put some signage, just additional signage because uh we want people to know that those rocks and those four bays areas and the we are
here for a reason. Yeah. To uh stop the flow of the water and letting things settle out and when they pick them up and kind of throw them. That that's not what the intended purpose was. So that's May 10th. We're going to have a a media blast coming up. We're going to try to get it in the paper. We're going to
reach out to as many people as we can and on that day we're trying to sign up people for trails conservation and friends of the Mlette PS and Morgan project and they would be specifically contacted and updated on
things that happened at Mlette and Morgan. So that's that's my uh you see this. Oh, thank you. Uh from 10 to 3 from 10 to 3 on Saturday, May 10th.
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, we need wheelbarrows. Bring wheelbarls and brakes and gloves. I'd have to get mine emptied by the person who uses it first. I can bring it down full. We're having DPW pick up everything. Thank you. JK
everybody that's I'm not Don't bring your trash to MLET on the morning. Okay. Uh anything else before we That's the two things I have. Then can I have a motion to adjourn at uh Wait a minute. Yeah.
You know I have Never mind. I apologize. I was thinking I already knew what you were here for. Yeah. I just want to let you all know following up my last meeting and submit my application, I did have two arborists
on site. Uh, one from Mayor Tree Company who wrote a letter to you all explaining the dangers of all these trees in my backyard. Pam from North Northeast Tree who has visited the site multiple times has stressed her concerns over these
trees. I do believe I am over these pine trees or over the 100 foot buffer. I don't see there being a problem there. I just had a surveyor come on the property today, found out I have a little bit more land than I thought I had. So,
there are some areas where I can plant some native trees in those area which are actually closer to the existing wetlands on my neighbor's yard that would help out them. Same time, Brian, I know you had concerns about the man-made ditch in the yard have been breaking. I
think if you go by, you'll see that it's been break down. Now that I saw the surveyor come on site, I have a little bit more room to clean it up a little. So, I just want to let you know and I'm also in in the application, you'll know that um obviously one of the gentleman's
showed the uh leaves and all the pine needles that had built up over the years. I had a similar problem. If you look at the pictures I put on the application, you'll see there's no grass on my right. Can you give us your name and
address? My name is Richard Kio 692 Pro. Thank you. Like I said, I would love to be able to plant these native trees. Also willing to give a $500 donation. Get these down. And I like the
idea of this May 10th event. Show my appreciation to you all. If I can get these down. How many trees all together? It's 21 pines. You want to take down 21 pine trees? There's two There's two to three that
are healthy, but we did say obviously also that risk. I'd like to wipe them. I can, but I'm also going to be Are all 21
in our jurisdiction? You know where the whereoot is. So, no. You'll see the I posted a GSI GIS map locating all the trees and they're all over 100 ft. Don't
worry. There's one tree that I noted after the operist had left the property that's on the ditch and it's I believe it's an oak tree and that is leaning towards the house. Looks like it might be dead. I don't know. But my main
concerns are the pines. So, you've submitted the application. So, we'll actually be considering this at the May 14th meeting or the I'm looking at it now if you want a little tidbit. Sure.
This is the plan. And where's the 100 foot line? There's no 100 foot line, but I would I I've looked at this property also. It's It's Where is it? Where's Where's 100 feet from the stream at this? Yeah.
wetland over here at 700 in this backyard. The wetland to my property line is about 60. Okay. The shed I think was like go to the next map. Oh well, now you're asking.
See if I can find this photo. Photo attachment. Which one's that? Oh, it's on the same page. It was on the same page. Yeah. Oh, thanks. So, I have a shed right here that I purchased the home.
111 ft away. Yeah. From the existing wet set. Yeah. These are where all the trees are. Now, there's these two three they're healthy, but the arguer said that there's still risk obviously. What does red indicate? Red means the
arborist highlighted the ones that he would take down. Okay. And the black ones, the black ones, he said, "These are healthier trees, but there's still a risk. I'm an insurance guy. I don't like a lot of risk." Okay. So, um yeah. So, Brian, you're
going to go out there anyways, right? And and do it. I don't know what you guys were talking about is cleaning up at Ditch. So, maybe maybe I should go with you also. That's fine. Uh you just want to realize that this water here also jurisdictional.
So it would be water also even though it's not wetland. Yeah. So streams, rivers and wetlands. So yeah. Yeah. That's why I was surprised when you said it was outside jurisdiction that was
man. Well, underneath the road, right? But over here, it comes out of a wetland and then goes underneath the road. But all the water is going one direction. Which way? Going towards the wetland. It's going this way. Yeah. We
haven't seen that. We So, we're working on the site across the street and there was some confusion about what happens here. But the covert invert is higher on your end than it is across the street. So that would mean it's flowing towards
away from your property to to the property we're reviewing, but it's easy enough to look when we check. We just we'll just have to a second. Yeah. So maybe maybe I don't know when everyone's available, but uh yeah, thanks for the little uh thanks for the map. This it's
good. Yeah, good map. You did a good job. Thank you. You want to set up a site visit before you uh do you know when you're at or you want me to do this by email on Monday? Want me to do email to give a chance for
the rest of the group. Okay, that's relative. Y can I can just stop by give everybody a chance to do it. Okay. Sorry if I cut you out. I don't doing that a lot tonight.
Um, okay. On that note, anyone I don't Let me just check and see if anyone's attending our meeting because it's a wildly popular meeting. I know. See, probably do it all the way. Well, we
beat we beat our uh toll for last last time. There's three people. Town Hall, Commissioner Tim, and RCTV. Okay. Okay. So we can adjourn at I move to adjourn at 9:42.
Talbert second. All in favor. I I All right. All right. Tim, enjoy. Enjoy Canada. Thank you very much. You should have at least one blue for me. Okay. All right. We'll see you all. Just
send out the email for the site visits. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks. All right. Thanks. Bye. All right. Did we adjourn? Yeah, we did. Right. It's still green up there. Yep. I'm gonna I'm gonna can't I'm gonna shut end the