So, we're live. I'll give those guys a second to uh join. We can uh actually go to different view and see if anyone here. We got that view up. And now she's
not. There you go. All right. So now me playing around with it. All right. So it looks like they're on. Looks like everyone's here and on. So hello everyone. This is Chuck Terrone, Reading's Conservation Administrator. This meeting will be conducted in person and remote format
consistent with chapter two of the acts of 2023 which further extend the co 19 measures regarding remote participation and public meeting until June 30th 2027. Please note that all materials listed may be uh not all materials listed may
in fact be 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 that this meeting is being recorded
and that um all materials are available uh at the following link which I'll provide in the chat but they're also uh available at the conservation division page under projects by year. Brian Bo the conservation commission chair will
facilitate this meeting. Please note there will be a public comment period for each hearing. Each vote taken during tonight's meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. We begin with roll call attendance. Brian, can you please uh review the agenda and take the
attendance? Sure. Okay. So, first item on the agenda is 288 Gro Street recording in progress at the continuation of the public hearing on a notice of intent. will then move on to 885 Main Street. Also continuation on a
notice of intent, but that will be continued to July 9th. Uh the next one is 695 Pearl Street, which will also be continued until July 9th. Um the last hearing for the evening is 57 Longwood
Road, which will also be continued. So, the hearings are going to go quickly. Then we get to old new business. Um we're going to have a budget discussion of our budget for FY26. Uh conversation about 1503 Main Street
request for certificate of compliance. Conversation about the uh proposed Mon Mberry Forest Monator School at Matera. Um, and then we'll get into discussion items and that includes some minutes to
approve and that's it for the evening. Having said that, let's talk about uh roll call. Um, this is the order that we're going to vote in. Walter, can you be first? Walter Talbot, commissioner present.
Jerox, member Michelle, member. Martha Moore, vice chair present. Brian Bo chair present. Okay. Tony's absent tonight. Tony's absent.
Five present. Five present. Tony absent. Yes. Okay. So, the first item is 288 Grove Street. Um Jack, do you want to come up and talk us through your updates? Yeah.
Thank you for commission members. For the record, uh my name is Jack Sullivan. In attendance with me tonight is Dan McCarthy and Pat Tomkins of the Mebrook uh Golf Club. I don't think Excuse me. If you guys could sign in in
the back left corner. Thank you. I don't know where the speakers are and so The other thing is I don't know why it's not picking up this speaker. Let me go back to the other view. You
want to start again? Um, sure. That's the best view I can get at this moment. Yeah, there used to be there was this afternoon there were speakers all over this table. Okay, I'll introduce myself. Let me know if it picks me up. I hope it picks me up. Um, for the record, my name is Jack
Sullivan. I'm owner of the Sullivan Engineering Group. I'm here representing U Mebrook Golf Club. Uh, two members of Metobrook Golf Club are in attendance with me tonight. Dan McCarthy and Pat Tomkins. Um, we had a productive first meeting
with the commission. Number of comments were raised. I tried to go through the plan and address all the comments the commission made. Um, I'm going to go through some of those changes I made. if Chuck's able to pull up the site plan that I prepared. Sure.
Okay. So, as we talked about the first meeting, there's an existing storage building um on the property that will be demolished and a new storage building will be um constructed. Um the entire building is outside the 35
foot no structure. A small portion of the existing building is within the 35 foot no structure zone. What I try to do is uh there's a lot of discussion on what would be what's going to be done in this building and and and it's strictly
for storage. Um to to clarify this a little bit better, in the upper right corner of the plan, I I labeled the existing maintenance building in bold lettering just so everyone can see where their existing maintenance building is located. Additionally, um I had
previously had an entire gravel surface area at the front of the building and to access the new building. Um my proposal now is to add a 12x 94 ft paved apron along the front of the building. We'd still have a gravel portion of that
area. It's not being used as a parking lot. It's it's just for access. And as I said, the building's just just for storage. Um to further clarify how this building would be used, I show five individual storage bays. Um so I labeled
five garage bays. I also added two exterior doors on the building. One on the side of the building, one on at the midpoint of the rear of the building. And outside of those um exterior doors, I show a three and a half by a three and
a half by three and a half foot concrete landing um outside each doorway. Also, we had discussions with the building inspector. Even though it's for storage, um he wanted to see floor drains put into this building. Um um he felt to
meet code. So, we've added um interior floor drains. As part of that, they have to drain to a um oil and grease separator. So, I've added an external oil and grease separator and I provided a detail for that separator on the plan.
Um, also along the 12x 94 ft paved apron, I've put a continuous trench drain, a drainage trench drain along that apron edge, 12 feet out from the the face of the building. Um, that trench drain would collect any storm
water that comes off and it would be conveyed through a concrete manhole that I added with a two-ft deep sump in a gas hood for pre-treatment and um, and containment in case of there was spill or leakage in in that pavement section
and then water would be able to then flow through to the culttech drainage infiltration field. If you remember from the first meeting, we did do soil test holes on site. Uh we have really nice material for infiltration. It's all sand and gravel. Um and I had submitted
drainage calculations um for for the drainage field sizing. Uh one of the big concerns that came up with the commission last time is uh behind the building uh there's a lot of storage and materials uh people going out there. It needs to be cleaned up. They um I think
when you did your sidewalk, you met with the superintendent out there. He said, "Yeah, it's it's something they're trying to work through. It's always on his list to to keep it clean out there, but to try where we're doing a new building and try to try to limit um, you know, any machinery or or or anything
large going back out there. We have pedestrian access still, but we're adding one jersey barrier at the rear of the building. Um, and that that'll prevent any sort of vehicle access behind the building and it'll keep that area clean. And now that the storage
building's larger than the existing building, it gives them more room to to put things they need inside the building and that area will not be used for storage out back. It'll it'll deter them from going back there with um large equipment. Um, another concern that came
up was snow stockpiling. Um, for the most part, this building will not be used in the winter. they basically shut down in the winter out there. But in the rare event that they had to access the building or or do anything like that, that was one of the reasons I left some gravel um for this site. We did show a
snow stockpile area. Um, it's hard to see because it's so busy, but we uh in front of one of the the the far bay when you come in, we showed a a a large uh snow stockpiling area in in that area. But for the most part, they don't even plow back there because it's
it's not really in use until um the spring season starts up for their activities. Um I did add one tree that I had previously missed with my original survey. Um I think Martha pointed that out last meeting. So, I did add that.
Um, I added a trench drain detail. So, I talked about the trench drain in the paved apron. I also have a detail of uh it's a shea concrete uh trench drain. Typically, what I use um since we added some pavement, we added the the small
con landings out um for the exterior doors. I did update my um my imperous area summary table with the existing and proposed imperous surfaces um on the southerntherly side of the building. So on on the lower side of
this sheet, I previously had a retaining wall um about 5t off the edge of the building. Um that's been eliminated. We're now using the building foundation as as retaining. um they had their structural engineer and their architect
uh redo that section for the foundation so that we could eliminate that wall and just use the foundation wall um to to manage the grades in that area. Um okay and I added a note that all the floor drains uh for the building will
connect and tie out to the oil and grease separator. Um, one big thing that came up is how is this building going to be used? So, I tried to further I did put a memo together with my email with the submission of the plan. So, just to
summarize, um, no washing or servicing of vehicles will be done in the storage building. All that will be done in the existing maintenance building. Um, there will be petroleum cans stored. um no larger than five gallons and they feel
that maybe a maximum of 10 five gallon cans would be stored. Um no oil will be stored in this building. Fertilizer storage will occur inside the building in appropriate storage containers and no pesticides to
be stored inside or outside the storage building. They are stored outside the existing maintenance building. Um so our thoughts were from the last meeting you know there was some discussion uh with the gravel parking
lot. I think we'll have further discussion on that tonight. Uh we are in the aquifer protection district. I right now the existing building has no drainage. It's all gravel. There's no floor drains. Um the new building we're
we're bringing this all up to snuff. floor drains, oil and grease separator. We we've added drainage. Um and we've added containment in the event of a spill. Even though, as we said, it's a storage building. But, you know, there's still concern if there was some sort of
leak. I think what should make give the commission a little bit of rest is we don't have this isn't a full parking lot. Um ba basically, you know, um you know, they'll pull in and out of these bays and leave. there's not going to be storage of vehicles outside. We thought
the 12 by 94 ft paved strip um gave some area if they pulled up to access if there was a spill. Now we have the trench drain with a containment system with that deep sump manhole and gas hood. Um just so the commission knows when I submitted um Chuck did say he
thought he'd see more pavement. He'd rather see uh the majority it sounds like the majority of the gravel area paved. And I did go in and speak with him Tuesday on it and explained what I thought and I see his point as well. You know, we want to protect the aquifer.
It's a sensitive area. Um, so we're open for more discussion on that, but I think you'll see that uh we tried to take all your concerns and put as much of this into the plan as we could, but like we said, we're open to further discussion. So, I think at this point, I'll turn it
over uh to the commission so we can discuss it. Okay. Thank you. It's a good update. Lots of notes and have you. Uh, any comments, questions from the commission. I like the changes he's made. Okay. Um, I I have a couple actually before I move
on. Walter, I can't see. Oh, there you are. Do you have anything you want to add before you disappear off the screen? Can't hear you. Muted. You're muted. Sorry. It's been since I've done this remotely. Um, Jack, first of all, I'm impressed with
the changes you made. Sounds like you listened. I really also appreciate that the people at the golf course are now being realistic that stuff will happen in that building or near that building, but you've also put in systems to
alleviate that risk. The the one minor question I have is one of the things that we had talked about was absolutely no access behind the building and I think I heard you say you're putting a door in the rear of the building now.
That's that's correct that they they need um they needs access and egress from the building. Um I is it a building code issue, guys? Yeah, it's a it's a building code issue. So they had to provide um you know, they had the bays
to get out, but they had to have doors to get out, too. Um, so they put one out back, but it would just be for um, you know, employee use. It basically anything a pedestrian can do. They they can move in and out, but you wouldn't get large vehicles or anything back
there. There would be, you know, dropping off supplies and not enough to even get um, you know, like a backhoe out there. We just left enough. It's like four to five feet just as a walk through for for people to still get back there if they had to walk through. It's
really Thank you. Yeah, as one of the members said in the public, I'll just echo what what Pat said, um it's really just for emergency reasons. We don't see it being used really at all. Got you. Okay. Will it be labeled as
emergency exit? Yes. Well, it'll have to have an exit sign. Yeah, we added it because code requires two doors and they need to be spaced reasonably, you know, within
for safety. For safety, the left side is all a retaining wall. You can't go out the left side. The front is all overhead doors, which is where people would leave in an emergency, but they don't count. So, it's a passage door three foot wide,
one on the right side, and then we had to get far enough away. So, one in the back, and it would have an exit sign, and we could put a egress only sign on it, three foot wide, not four to five. Well, I interrupted Walter.
I'm good. Okay. So, following up a little bit more on that door in the back. Is that going to be alarm with a bar or is it just like a regular old door with a I I would imagine it would have a crash bar. It's
egress. So, code would require a push bar. So, then my concern is I get why that has to be there and what your intent is. My concern is what people actually do uh on a hot day where they
leave it open and go out there with small things. Maybe they take out a uh one of those gas cans that you were talking about or something. So, I get that you're blocking off vehicles and big things, which is great as improvement, but there are small things
that could be carried out that could still be problematic. Um I don't think there's any way to absolutely prohibit that puts the burden on you training oversight and what have you. But um I am
concerned about that because people do what people do. Um anything you want to say to that? I don't know what what you could say. There's there's not much to say. We we need you know code requires an egress door. We actually originally only had
one door and then our architect told us we had to add any a door for code purposes. Um you you know someone can access the back of the building, but it it wouldn't be there wouldn't be any reason to. If you wanted to get outside,
there's five 12 foot wide overhead doors on the other side of the building. You would go out the front of the building. We can put some signage up. Um, and we can put signage. I would imagine you we can put some signage on the right side at the back of
the building. You know, no storage um behind the building. We could we can do some signage and yeah, but to build a bill like we have to put that we just I think you have to do as much as you can. When I was writing software, we learned
never try to anticipate everything that the user is going to do because it always uses some other way. So just my inherent thought is that somebody will use it in a way that you don't intend them. So signage some kind of oversight
whatever you know if somebody does do it correct them as soon as you can. Um I think I beat on that one or not. And your pack. Yes. Okay. Just so that the person doing the minutes knows you're Pat because he introduced you both but
it wasn't clear who was talking at the moment. Pat Tommpkins of 83 King Street and I'm on the board metro. Thank you. Okay. My next question has to do with the gas cans that are going to be stored there. Can you explain why that changed?
Why do you need them then now? Can you answer that? Uh yeah, I mean I would hang on a second. Can you come up to the podium? I can go home. Thank you. And don't break your leg on the way up. Uh Dan McCarthy, 91 Prospect Street, and I am also on the board with Pat. Um and
probably will be one of the two people helping to build this building. Um originally, I don't originally when I had met you guys out there, I had said there would be no gasoline storage out there. In the back of my mind, I was thinking large tanks
of gasoline storage, meaning a 500gallon tank, which is what we have up at our maintenance building. I wasn't thinking five gallon buckets. So, I misled you when I said that. Um, the plan would be to have cans down there because there are currently cans down there and I
don't think we have enough storage at the other building in order to keep that. But if they're going to be refueling primarily at the existing maintenance building, why would you need that? they take them out with them on the course and such and there's no place to store those up
at the main tank. So when I'm up there to get to get you'd have to rework the entire aspect of it um of the way things work. Right. Currently we have a external steel um gasoline can storage
unit. Um, we would purchase a new one for the for the building uh for the new building uh to keep the tanks. And where in the building are you thinking the storage for those cans would be? I would think it would be on one of the sidewalls kind of near the front near the base. I
I would think so. So we have access to them. Spill you could direct it out to that trench drain. Correct. Yeah. I mean, we also have a spill kit up at our current unit and down in the current building now and plan on purchasing new ones when we do the new building, um,
which all the employees are up on and training and such. That's part of their regimen. Okay. Um, this next one is for Jack. So, Jack, you had mentioned that you had a discussion about the size of the apron and not covering all the
gravel. You can't enlighten us. Sure. So, um I thought I heard at the last meeting that the commission didn't like the the idea of the entire gravel area in case there was a leak or spillage, we could look at
paving some of the lot or doing a liner. So, I looked at both and um I sent it in and Chuck sent an email response which was was great. It's it's fine. He he he said, "Did you explore the liner?" So, I went in to meet with him personally Tuesday. I said I did explore a liner,
but liners are impervious. So, they're great for spills. Nothing can get through them. But on a gravel parking lot, when there's rainfall, it'll go through the gravel and sit on the liner. It's imperous. How do you drain it? How do you, if there is a
spill, how do you clean it? There's maintenance requirements with the impervious liner. When I brought that up with Chuck, he said, "No, those are good points. I It does. It may work in some situations for but not in a a parking lot that you're taking drainage on. Um
so then it was more like um I think he felt and he can speak for himself but you know it's where from the face of the building out where there's 30 ft. We we figured 12 feet was a good compromise. We have the trench. We're not using that
area to park. It's just for trap uh travel. And um usually with snow storage, you like to do it over a a pvious material like grass or gravel so water can go back into the ground. You don't usually do it over pavement. Um
we're not 100% opposed to the pavement. It's a cost the club doesn't really want to take on. We didn't really see the need to pave the entire area. Um, and I also noted like we basically are paving right up to the 100 foot BVW line. I
didn't do that intentionally, but when I got the comment, I said, "Oh, wow. My 12 feet came out to basically the 100 foot line." Now, we could we could pave more if the commission feels we need to pay more. But I thought with all the improvements made um in it, I I think it
was discussed that you weren't looking for the entire lot to be paved. But if I'm wrong about that, then that's the discussion we can have tonight. But that was our thought. We knew we need we talked to snow storage different things. Cost is a concern to the club. You know, now we didn't think we were going to
have to do the internal floor drain. So like Mr. Like you said, if there's a spill inside, now there's a floor drain system with an oil grease separate. That never that wasn't in our original plan. So that's a cost. And now we've made a larger drain field. We're adding
pavement. We we added a bunch of costs to the project. So, you know, there is a budget. So, we were looking to kind of meet all the requirements, make an improvement over the existing condition, which we really have. And um but then it's open for discussion obviously. So
Chuck, do you want to speak for yourself like he said you could? Sure. So I just want to remind the commission of Walkersburg Drive and the gas station that was down there. And so aquifer protection district is basically a zone two wellhead protection uh area. Very
similar. Uh this was the u redundant water supply for the town. The the wells are not capped. They're not um they're they're still in effect. um there's no abandoning abandoning these these wells.
So, uh, my my comment was this use in the aquifer protection district should be protected. And we talked about a liner, we talked about paving and reason behind that is the building's
going to be there for a long time. And we may know what's going to happen now, but at some point over the next 50 years, someone's going to spill five gallons of gasoline, one gallon of gasoline. Just things coming in and out, as we
know from the NBTA, oil and grease strip off of things, and they're they're going to get down in that in that area. So, there's no protection for that. um outside of the 12 foot.
I don't know how they can maintain the gravel and and say that the aquifer is going to be safe. Seems like it's a uh it's a tough cell for me, but um and I know they were talking about
costs and whatnot. And I had talked to Pat this afternoon and I don't know if you talked to ended up talking to Jack about anything, but I I said, "Well, you get some very expensive Coltetech chambers in there. What if you just direct the roof uh directly into some
rip wrap because it's clean water? roof roof water is clean water and that doesn't go into the infiltration and then you pave everything but divert it into a rain garden because what what gravel does and what dirt does pretty famously is it it sticks to oil.
So um maybe that was a I threw that out there. I wasn't trying to design it but I but I was trying to say there are some options that weren't explored. So I don't know if there's and and for the conservation commission and I never do this in my other life.
I'm not concerned about what things cost. I'm concerned about the environment and and and I just, you know, I just think that one of the things that we want to do is we want to be clear with our regulations. And here in uh section 2 uh C4
it simply says outside the um activities outside the buffer zone and then it talks about any activity blah blah blah and then it says the conservation commission shall impose conditions on activities or portions
thereof as it deems necessary to contribute to the protection of the interest of the acts. and that's when the activity is more likely than unlikely to alter the subject area. One of the interests of the act is the
protection of groundwater. And so it's clear that we have something right here. It's clear that we're very close to at least um like seasonal high groundwater. The the the wetland's right there. We know
that's basically where it is. And it doesn't take much to contaminate someone's well out west. And I think this is a likely spot where something may happen. Obviously, not on purpose, but you know, this and I'm also not
completely comfortable with the site just only being used for one thing. I think that when when you need some space or something, you you're going to put it there even if it's for a short time. So that was the reason what I was thinking about this protection our um
you know what we're supposed to follow and uh and then the thing about saving the money I don't know if that was a a good suggestion or not but there may be other options also. So did you have a response to that when Chuck talked to you about it? Can you
come up there please? Um yeah, we we talked about it. Um we talked about it briefly. So there's some some challenges with a rain garden with um with grading. Um so we and you know, we talked about it this afternoon. We haven't had a
chance to fully vet that. Yeah. you know, a pursery, like anything anything on the pavement, we couldn't really we didn't we didn't see it was viable to get to a a rain guard drainage wise because you're you'd be trying to push water uphill. Um potentially the roof
rain water you could, but we didn't see any way you could completely eliminate the cult. So didn't completely rule it out, but we just in the last six hours, maybe five, four, five hours since I talked to Chuck, we haven't fully fully vetted it. If you pull up the site plan,
Chuck, there's only one Just to cut you off for a minute, Pat. But just there's only one area to put the rain guard in. We can't put it out behind the building. You're not going to put it to the right of the building. It can't. We were trying to put the drainage under an existing parking lot to to keep our
limit of work low. So it would go over to the low side of the plan, the left side of the new building. Um and that's where that steep grade is. So we to put the rain garden in, you know, let's say we did a rain garden 20t wide, 40t long,
you know, we'd be excavating out material, removing trees. Um then then instead of using we'd probably need a retaining wall because we'd be cutting into a hill or I'd have to take the hill out to get to the other side to match grades. I I see the point. I like rain
gardens. I if I have room I do a rain garden because like Chuck said it it the cult's again expensive. Um, we just thought we knew we were in the acryer district. So, I said, you know what? We don't have any drainage now. Let's add some because I knew when I when I come
before you guys, you want to see drainage anyway. So, we did. Um, I don't think the rain garden would work in this case. Yeah, there might be other options you can look at like porous pavement, but porous pavement's good when it goes in, but a few years later, you got to
vacuum clean it. No one does it. So the town engineer doesn't like it. Um so we're really just left with conventional, you know, drainage like um the underground systems. What's the So have you run the calculations on uh the
capacity of the existing infiltration chamber if you pave the entire lot? I haven't yet, but I told my client right now it's designed to hold a 10-year storm event, which is like five inches of rain in 24 hours. Um, if I pave the
whole lot, maybe we it stores the 2-in storm, which is like three and a half inches of rain. Um, and then one of the roof down spouts would have an overflow and the water could run off. So, that first flush you would still contain. Um,
or I'd have to make the system bigger, which I really don't want to do it. So, is isn't two inches pretty typical though? First two inches. the fir uh yeah the first inch or two inches is typical. The the first flush is the big thing people want to do. That's the
that's the the the fast one or two inch rain event. Those heavy downpours that just flush sediment and whatever to you know towards wetlands and river, you want to capture that. So the first flush we'd still deal with that if if we kept this system the size it is. Are you
picking up the roof with this system now? Yes. Yep. So you would pick up whatever the I pick up pavement and roof. Yep. Pavement and the roof. And so any oil and grease if it went through that went through this system,
it would be in contact with the soil. And it seems like it's it is more expensive, but it would it would do what the commission uh should do, which is which is to uh make sure that any discharge is uh
clean. So I have a question. Um given that cost is a consideration, additional cost is a consideration which makes sense. Have you thought about what it would take to
expand add add something up at the maintenance building for the storage of those cans? And then it takes away from the issue down at the new building. Yes, there would be some cost in building something. By no means am I going design that, but
uh is that a possibility to store it elsewhere and avoid the issue here? I don't think we're just talking about gas cans that you guys are concerned. I think we're talking about all the equipment that's down there. Correct. If you're just talking about gas can
storage, then heck yeah, we could. Yeah, we could move the gas cans, but I don't think that's the only thing we're worried about. Yes, if we're paving that parking lot, I would think we're worried about the the the pieces of equipment that are being
pulled into the storage building and then pulled out of the storage building out to the go out to the fairways, cut the fairways, come back and and go back in. But if I understand it, if the equipment is in the building most of the time when it's not out doing something,
then you have a system to handle that with the floor drains and the separator and what have you. Um, and you're going to do what you can to limit spontaneous tweaking of equipment on that apron. You
know, somebody's going to do something, but you're going to try and limit that. Um, so it just seemed to me that the gas can spillage was the more likely extraneous event. But you know, we I agree. We we know things leak.
Right now, my snow blow is leaking in my garage. Um, so we're we're at an impass here where it does seem like for the sake of the environment, we need to ask for more and
that will put an additional burden on these but that commission has to decide. If I could just talk a little bit about the a little bit of reasoning behind like the 12 foot
equipment is stored in the building. Um, you remember in the maintenance building, we have a full-time mechanic with a mechanic's shop. So, that mechanic doesn't want to go somewhere, right? His tools are in his shop. So, maintenance, repairs of equipment
happens at the maintenance building. So, we're talking about equipment coming and going. Um, there's a little bit of like where do you stop, right? because the equipment comes out of the building either goes left and goes out to the eighth hole or goes sort of right
through the the gravel parking lot and out to the rest. So equipment's basically coming in coming out and stored there. Um realistically, yeah, if you're if you're right in front of the building and you stop, you might stop and park a piece of
equipment there and move some stuff around. So we felt like, you know, this becomes a question of where do you stop and start? We felt like by doing the the front 12 feet, we covered the likely scenario, the most likely scenario where there's some equipment parked for an
extended period of time. But the like 99 something% of the time the equipment is either going to be in the building or on the fairway or on the green mowing the mowing the grass. there's a, you know, a fraction of a percent of time while it's driving over that area. Granted, you
know, there is a likelihood that the equipment might sit directly outside. We felt like 12 foot would would capture that. It also provides a couple of ways with floor drains in the building and a trench drain outside the building. Certainly, if there was a gas can spillage, it would certainly be within,
you know, reasonable expectation, it would be within that trench drain or in the building. So that was sort of the thought process. And from a budget standpoint, there's there's a point there's a there's a push point. You know, h half of membership would would
probably rather not pay the assessment for the new building. They'd rather spend money on on new greens and bunkers and and buildings. Of course. Yeah. Something. So that becomes, you know, so we're trying to we're trying to, you know, to build a a responsible building
that's going to be um put this from a conservation and environmental standpoint. It's going to put this area, I believe, in a much better position. It's going to put the club in a better position long term. Some members are short-term thinkers, so that becomes a challenge. So as the price goes up, we just, you know, we have to go back and
we get pushed back from membership. So, we're trying to, you know, we're doing everything we can to build it on a on a on a really tight budget, which is why, you know, why Dan and I are managing it instead of hiring hiring a contractor. Um, but that's sort of the the thought process behind the 12 12 feet. I guess
if it's if the answer from the committee is everything looks good, but only under the case that a certain area gets paved and we have to define that, then that's what we'll take away and and work with. But do we do it does need to be defined because it becomes like where where does
it stop and start. Thank you. Sorry for the longwinded explanation. Okay. Um any any last comments, questions from the commission. Does not have his hand up. Okay. Chuck,
do you have any comments, questions? I do not. No. You can see if anyone's here wants to talk about it, but um okay. Is there anybody online that you can
see? Is if anybody online wants to make some comments, find the reaction button in the lower part of your screen, hit the raise hand and Chuck will see it. Seeing none. Okay. And nobody in the room has anything else to add.
Okay. Um, so I think we're ready for a motion of some sort. I feel like this is over my head. Um, so I'd rather somebody else make the motion. I just I I don't know how to
make a decision. So, so wouldn't you want to first you should So, it seems like the one sticking point is is the pavement. So, you want to you want to ask the commission about that first and then it might make it easier. So, does everyone
agree? Does everyone not agree? Maybe if if you agree, you would ask Jack to come up with something that you could see, you know, define an area, which I agree tonight. It's a good approach. And then you could then you could make a a vote or something like that. You could close the hearing also and you could just say
look it's within a jurisdiction of protection whatever those are the two options okay let's get that sense of where people people are on the question concrete question is what's planned enough or do people feel there should be
more I have no problem with it they've done a ton so you think the 12 feet is sufficient to this Yeah, that's it. What's your sense? Um, my sense is that the 12 ft will handle
most of the issues and you can only design it to cover so much. There's no such thing as 100% solution. Um and so the question we have to ask ourselves is if that small likelihood event happens
will this system handle it and how likely is it to handle will handle it entirely? Suppose the gallon of gas or whatever gets spilled right near the edge of the trench doesn't flow over. I you can imagine scenarios where this wouldn't work. That's true of any
system. Um, and so that's what we're deciding. Um, when is it enough? Right. And and the original reason we asked for pavement outside the garage door is you were saying on a nice day somebody might
pull the machine out and then fill the tank just outside the door. Seems to me this covers that because it's covered just outside the door. But I understand that Chuck is concerned about it. So I'm
looking for guidance. Yeah. I mean, it's a tough one. Not for me. I've we've both said everything. It's It's up to the commission. You know, you you you have
to decide whether there's sufficient um precautions going on or not. I think what Brian said, you're going to pick up a lot, but he keeps on talking about gas cans. It's that's not what we're talking about here. There's gas cans there. There's vehicles coming in and out.
There'll be a truck down there. You know, my recollection when I was down there, guys were pulling in and out pretty quickly and avoiding each other. So, they were driving all over the place. So, you know, they were just golf carts or something like that. But, you know, it's active.
So to finish the thought, u to me the compelling argument is 87 Walkerbrook because there because of the spillage into the wetland there, we
really made them um do it right. You know, it wasn't the simple answer they originally chosen. we were looking for them to do um a more extensive trapping system which they did do. So
from my mind that argument is the strongest one especially if we're trying to be consistent which we've been certainly trying to do. So given that past to me it seems like we should be asking for more.
I don't know if that counts as guidance, but that's what I'm thinking. I I just I don't see that this is as directly connected as you do because at 87 Walkers Brookke, they had deliberately made a channel for water to
flow into the river. That's true. And here they're deliberately making anything they can anticipate spill go into the trench trench drain and the floor drain. Certainly this plan takes
more precautions than we saw. Yeah. But the end result still could be uh pollutants getting into the level two zone two. Where's our 100 foot line again? Can we
zoom in? It's Yeah, it goes right by the um the edge of the of the culttech chambers between the chambers and the building. Thank you, Lord. Yeah. And then it pops out here. So the
the snow storage is here, but your 100 foot buffer falls, you know, on the inside there. So that's one thought. Next thought is Chuck, do you have some particular distance that you think you would be
satisfied with? Is that something you would want Jack whatever to come up with a a proposed plan first and then to think about that? If I had to, I would like the whole thing paved, but
I can see that there's some uh trepidation from the commission. So, reasonably speaking and defensible would be everything within the 100 foot buffer zone. And there's a big section you missed.
I think we'd be okay with that. what what I just pointed out that that would be, you know, we'd still keep our 12 feet. So, we'd be a little outside the 100 there, but when we get down to where we had the snow storage here,
we'd end up paving this area. It would still be our snow storage area if like I said, they don't use it in the winter that much anyways, but they may follow us around. Okay. So, I think I think that would be a fair compromise if you would go along with that. Is that okay with the
commission? Walter, what's that? All right. In that case, given that we could do a motion to close Walter's hand. Oh, go ahead. Walter. Having listened tonight, I'm very
pleased what the changes that have been made because now we're getting realistic comments what people are actually going to be doing, not idealistic comments about, oh, they're not going to do that, they don't do that, there's no procedure
to do that. And I think Jack has come up with a design that you can't anticipate everything, but I think Jack has come up with a design that has done a great job of hopefully rendering any problems being abandoned.
So, I'm in favor with it right now. U Well, it doesn't matter. We looked at a motion first. So, I thought we talk I thought we were having a discussion. Sorry. I thought we're ready to move on. I have no comment. I just Is Walter in
favor of the existing plan or the recently reached compromise of everything within the 100 foot? I don't know if you heard it, Walter. Maybe you didn't you didn't hear that. So the question is, are you saying you're in favor of the plan as currently
proposed or the plan that we just discussed of extending it somewhat to cover up to the 100 foot line? Yes. The second the second comment. Okay. Good. All right. So given we seem to have
agreement on that um and you folks think that you will agree to that then um we need a motion to close. Okay. I move to close the hearing on Meadow Brook Golf Course
288 Growth Street. I second you want to vote. Hasn't been second, has it? I seconded it. I I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. Okay. Yes. I apologize for being remote tonight. Um,
Walter Talbertson in favor in favor in favor. Mark Moore in favor. Brian B in favor. So now can I have a motion to order sorry to issue order of conditions with the um
uh proposed plan? Uh you want to ask for any additional conditions before we issue? That's a fine idea. So the additional conditions are paving up to the 100 foot line. Then the signage around the back door to
do what can be done to control it usage. Basically no storage behind the building sign. Yeah. Yeah. Not even temporary. Do we ask for a maintenance plan for the chamber? Uh that was already Okay.
Um, do we want to ask for emergency exit only on that door or if we have the sign for no storage, does that not also need to be? That's up to the fire department building. So, not our not our purview.
No. Yes. I was thinking the jersey barrier. Uh, I'm not sure if it's in place. Do you want to ask for that to be in place in perpetuity? Is that something that did you ever intend to take that out or is that So
that would be all right. So leave perpetuity. That stays as long as the building does. you hope is taking it. And then of course the the shrubs and the plants part of the mitigation typical three-year survivability
we'd like a report once a year on those make sure they survive and then we usually say 100% on the trees and after three years 80% on the plants. But you could say 100% of the plants too, but it's usually Yeah, we do 80% on
that plants shrubs, but 100% of the trees have all trees. So I thought it's irrelevant. Don't want to be consistent. 100% irrelevant. Best way to be. Did I get that wrong?
Yeah. Anything else we have in the notes? I'm good. You can take your No, I didn't. The only thing I wrote down was um the size of the the pave strip. Okay. And you're proposing two and a
half to three inch caliber trees. Okay. So now can I have a motion to issue order of conditions with the updated plan? So moved. I second. Walter Talbotz in favor. Roxer in favor.
Michelle Martha Moore in favor in favor. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you next week. All right, Jack. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Bye, Jack. Have a good night. See you later.
Okay. Next is 885 Main Street continuation of public hearing for notice of intent at the applicant's request. This is being continued to July 9th. Can I have a motion to continue 885 Main
Street? I move to continue 885 Main Street to July 9th. I second. Walter Talberts in favor. Sticker in favor. Tim in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Brian Bow in favor. Next up is 695 Pearl
Street also continued to July 9th. And I have a motion for that. I'll move to continue 695 Pearl Street to July 9th. I second that. Walter Talbbert's in favor. Hawker in
favor. Tim in favor more in favor. Brian Bow in favor. Next is 57 Longwood Road. Continuation public hearing a notice of intent. This is also continued to July 9th. May I have a motion on that, please?
I move to continue 57 Longwood Road to July 9th. I second. Walter Talbertson in favor. Ster in favor. Tim in favor. Martha Moore in favor. In favor. Okay.
Um so that's it for hearings. Now we have old new business. Um, so we do have um Mary from the Montary Ford School here, but we also have Garrett from uh 1503 Main Street. Okay.
So, why don't we push the budget discussion down? So, at the chair's prerogative, we'll take 1503 Main Street first. Uh, this is a request for certificate of compliance. Hello, Garrett. Hello. Present. Thanks for uh having me
here. Sure. Um so we had a site visit there today. Martha, do you want to walk us through that? Sure. Um we just Brian and I met with Garrett and we walked the line of the
granite bounds to mark the 25 foot no disturb zone. Um, and we found all the granite bounds that were expected to be put in. Um, they don't yet have their yellow signs on top. So, Chuck, you're
going to provide those to Garrett? Yes. Okay. Um, and we noticed that Garrett has been doing a lot of invasive management. He's really done a good job keeping the knotweed under control and
he's working on the buckthornne and he's been leaving the buckthorn basically where he cuts it down so he's not piling up in piles the uh the pieces of buckthornne branches that he's been
cutting. Um we did notice that he has been putting some things in the no disturb zone. We talked to him about a uh compost barrel on legs that
you spin and he has agreed to move that out of the 25 foot zone. There's a child's swing that is just barely out of the 25 foot zone. There is a zipline
that starts well uphill and then ends within the 25 foot zone. possibly even within the wetland itself. Um, but it's tied to trees. It's not actually a structure sitting on the
ground. Um, and then we saw a treehouse that's substantially behind the 25 foot line. I texted you some pictures of that, Chuck. Did you get my pictures? I did. Okay. They're not available
tonight because Okay. You texted them to me and I need to email them to you. Yes. Okay. Sorry about that. I thought they were just for me. Oh, okay. Um anyway, um the treehouse is supported on trees, but it does have
a ladder that comes down and is on the ground. And it is in among the ferns, which are well behind the 25 foot line. so it would make it in the wetland itself. Um, and that was I think the
thing that Brian and I were most concerned about. Um, the er erosion control has been removed. The grass is well grown in. There does not seem to be any erosion um in the uh
property that would be eroding down into the wetland. Is that a fair assessment of what we saw? That was good. Fair summary. Okay. Um, any questions, comments from the commission? The latter that you
mentioned, is that a concern? Uh, it's not a permanent structure. Is that still it's attached to the treehouse? So, as long as the treehouse is there, the ladder will be there. So we we can come back to that. When
it's my turn, but in the meantime, do you have any other comments, questions? Walt, do you have anything? You have any other questions, comments? Does anybody want to see it? I could email it to you. Is it too late to do that? Yeah. Okay. We don't know how long
the discussion will Yeah. I'll work on emailing while you guys talk. So, I'll give my impressions um of our visit there as well. To me, this is a homeowner who clearly has done uh the right thing in many ways. Um and
has all intents of continuing to do the right thing. Um he has agreed to move that compost wheel, whatever you want to call it. That's good because our path have begun to grow towards it. Um removing fighting the invasives is
great. Um, personally of the two more problematic children, um, I would like to see the zipline moved, but I'm content with the for the three for play structure staying
there until the kids age out. Um, and I guess I would see a condition on that. One of the things we noted, Garrett, when we were there, is how solidly that is attached to the tree with lag bolts
and what have you. So, um, I'd like you to be paying attention to see if that's causing damage to the tree over time. Um, at which point, you know, you may want to do you may have to do a replacement. But at this point, it's
early. I don't know how long the fort has been there, but I didn't see any apparent damage. So, that's more a thought for the future. Um, so that's that's my general thoughts. Um, zipline I think should be moved. I don't have an
idea where uh obviously somewhere more upland and I think the uh fort could stay. My thoughts, questions, comments? I did send you the email. Um, and I know
sometimes we ask for mitigation for something and sometimes we ask something to be removed. Um, and it seems like the mitigation we might ask for if
we were looking ahead would be invasive removal. So which is ongoing. Yeah. Right. So in some ways I think we could consider the invasive re removal to be the mitigation for the treehouse. Time
served. Yeah. But what do you guys think? I mean we made you take your hockey thing out. You didn't make me take my zipline down. Okay. You had a zipline, too? I did until last week. My kids aged out and
it's gone. No. I think that's fully perfect. We're consistent, you know. So, you said put rope around my area. I did that. They stayed out of it. The zip line was outside the 35 ft. But now that the kids are 18 to 20, it's gone. Yeah. But your zip line was
outside the 35 ft. His zip line ends. We never measured, but it's it was real close. Yeah. I think over it. It I think it went over it, but the landing zone the pickup and landing zones were outside it. It went over it. Nobody
fell. Right. Exactly. No long as no one fell off it. But in this case, the landing zone for the zipline is in among the same kind of ferns that are at the base of the tree. Okay. So, what kind of f were those? What kind of ferns were those? Um,
New York or cinnamon? Not cinnamon. Um I would have said poly pod poly pod do you know its foundative status um is it if is it just beyond or just
inside the 25 foot line it would be no because no it's well beyond the 25 foot line it may even be in the resource on the edge of the resource but you didn't make me take my rink down I had to get a simple permit so usually the only obligate is a permit to keep it up.
Okay. That was all I had to Yeah. I I did not bring my fern guide with me. Sorry. Where does the zipline go to? Right. To the treehouse. No. No. It's separate. Can is trees at the treehouse a possibility
for the zipline like landing area? I'm just I'm not trying to design it. I'm just saying look that's already an area that's my opinion for how much used it gets used it's a very minimal you know there's it doesn't get used
much they might go one or two times a a month or never how old were your kids when I put it in eight and 10 okay are somewhat younger so they maybe maybe a birthday party it got used more but it would go months without anyone even
setting foot near it that's my experience with my neighbor process. Right. So, like I said, it was like certain occasions, yes, it would get used, but then it pretty much dormant. All right. Is it time for Chuck or does Walter have something to say? He doesn't have a hand
up. No, time for Chuck. So, I just want to let everybody know that the commission usually never weighs in on three houses. That's been pretty consistent for many years. And I was talking to Brian earlier today and I'm after I heard from
Brian I am sure it wasn't this commission sitting right now that that gave me that direction. That is correct sir. But that has been uh you know because it's a compromise like
you know I grew up in the woods. I grew up playing in streams. It's not happening too much anymore. The compromise is to get kids closer to the forest. Zipline does a good job in this case about that. And so does this tree for you. You remembered
their entire life. I think it's well worth what happens to these trees to have an excellent tree fort and that you know all that activity. Uh, you know, I can't tell you how many neighbors of mine are
afraid of ticks, afraid of dogs and all that there. And it's just not Yeah. It's just how That's why I I focused on Yeah. looking for damage in the tree as opposed to actually removing it. Removing is going
to cause its own kind of damage. Yeah. So um so maybe I would suggest that the mitigation of the um invasive removal is sufficient to
overwhelm the damage caused by the zipline and the treehouse, but that we ask Garrett that future construction in the woods happen in the upland area outside the 35 foot zone. Yeah, I don't if he has some up area
available. I don't think we should tie any unless you're going to change the policy. Is everyone that puts a treehouse in half going to do mitigation now? And if if not and and how do I regulate that? How do I find them? I mean, this is this is another trampoline at everyone's property that we're kind
of like getting into now. So, I just think about what you're doing. I think you leave it alone. you thank him for doing his work and and you know unless you want to kind of make a policy.
So, so I would add to that one thing in general. I agree. Um, leave it alone, but Garrett, if you could watch for damage. If in the future yours gets used more, if begins to wear the zipline,
yeah, at at the landing end, if it's causing some issues down there, perhaps you can move the end point or something. But that would be just leaving it up to you to steward the area. And it to me it appears you've been doing a pretty good job at at doing that. So
we did ask somebody else to take a zipline down when it had pretty much girdled a tree, right? And that's what you're worrying about. That's why we did that. Yeah. Yeah. So you want to be careful not to girdle the tree as the tree is growing and you don't make the
zipline loop around the tree big enough for that. Does that make sense? Okay. So, any other comments? All right. Um, then can I have a motion
to issue certificate of compliance for 1503 Main Street? I move to issue a certificate of compliance for 1503 Main Street. I second. Walter. I second.
Walter Tal's in favor. Stelica in favor. Michelle in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Brian Bow in favor. Okay. Thank you, Garrett. Thanks for all the invasive removal you're doing. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for your careful consideration of all
this. I appreciate uh the time coming out here in the heat today and uh and um your your consideration again. Nice and cool in this room. Excellent. Good night. Okay, why don't we move to the uh
Malbury Forest Montory School still pushing the budget discussion down a bit and deal with this because Mary is online. Hello Mary. Hi Mary. Hi guys. Thanks for having me. Okay, so um we've had these people in
before. Um, there's been some conversation, what have you going on. So, I think we're at the point a little more conversation. Is there any more questions we want to ask? Um, perhaps we can move it along, but let's start with
any questions or comments. Does anybody have any questions, comments? And also, I did email um two commissioners. I think it was uh it was Walter, right? And Tony had a couple of questions,
mostly Walter. So Walter, I just wanted you to know that that that Mary received those. So actually I Mary, do you have any answers for the questions Walter asked? I can give some answers if that would be helpful now or
as as you guys wish. Yeah, thank you. Go ahead. Okay. Um I can just let me just take a quick look at this. So basically I I can just give an overall should I answer them one by one or should I what's
if you think you can answer all the questions he asked in one big diet tribe go ahead. Okay I will try to to do a bit of both. So the first the first thing I'll say overall sorry I'm toggling between the email and and you all so I
can see you both while I answer. Excellent. So the overall arching is that we plan to to to we are pursuing EEC and a certification which is the department of early education and care
as well as to have our school accredited by the local school board, the school committee in writing. And so those those different approval processes require us to do most of the things that have been asked about here. So I'll say, you know,
there's a question about Corey checking. Yes, certainly every single person who works at or volunteers at the school will be background checked and we will, you know, make that information available to you as well as um yeah,
every volunteer and staff person. There was a question about how this applies to visitors and people visiting their garden plot as as to whether those like how would that um be managed about sort of a a school on public land. And I'll just say that the as far as I understand
the EEC regulations and I'm happy to double check with my license about this, but they they specify background checks for people who are in regular and especially unsupervised contact with the children. And the children will never be unsupervised with a member of the
public. And by their nature, outdoor schools, of which there are now many in in the state, have contact with people in public land. And so uh you know Right Lock Farm for example has a program. There are usually visitors. There's people who come to the
farm store. Ottabon is the same thing. They have summer camps as well as um as well as a program sometimes uh like a I think it's a vacation camp and they might there different Ottabons also have outdoor
schools and so in all of those places there are sort of public use spaces that there's not um that that people come into contact with the public and and that's sort of perfectly understood and and accepted and and so the the rest of these questions is about
the ratio Yes, we intend that our ratio will be 1 to 10. It will likely be less. We have a very good emergency plan where we will always essentially have three people
around and those and if somebody needs to accompany a child to an a medical emergency that there will be additional staff to stay. uh as well as the fact that we have parent some parent volunteers who who sort of end up
sticking around nearby all day. Um first aid, everyone who will work and volunteer at Malbury Forest School is first aid and CPR trained. We have a primary care physician who works at at Cambridge Health Alliance on call in case we need any additional
um advice and plan to let me just take a look at at what we put. Actually, we we created a summary document yesterday, which I'm happy to share again, but essentially all staff will be first aid and CPR certified before the
first the start of school. We keep a comprehensive first aid kit on hand. Parents will be notified to pick up children who sustain minor injuries and in the case of significant injury, emergency services will be called and the student plus one qualified adult will be taken to the nearest hospital for treatment.
So that's the and you know again all of these things will be present in our in our handbook and and readily available to the conservation commission at any point as well as you know in advance of us starting the school year. uh usage of
area, parking lot and cabin. As we had mentioned before, we are happy to sort of agree upon a set number of parking spaces that we're able to use. And other than that, parents will be picking up and dropping off children, you know, at the start of school and at the end of school. And and then how is
the location of each student tracked and monitored? Children are obviously curious. um our our student toteer ratio is is sort of so small that so low that children are just supervised at all time
and we also have a very clear sort of community agreements and protocols with the children about staying with each other and about taking care of each other. It's it's sort of quite a little bit different from maybe a summer camp where there's a bit more
um I don't know children kind of sort of different I think maybe agreements and protocols among children but but sort of really dear to our heart and to the spirit of both Montasauri and and to what we are trying to do is really about taking care of you know the
sort of three principles of Montasauri are care of the self, care of the environment and care of each and and we really value that immensely and and sort of from day one instill in the children the need to sort of look out for each other. So the older
children kind of keep an eye on the younger children and and and also about sort of listening and staying, you know, within a certain distance of of the parents. And for sort of the younger children in the preschool, we also have
uh brightly colored vests that we can put on them. I think I answered all your questions. Oh, I believe that there was a second question about environmental education and kind of conservation mission. And I and what I can say to that is uh I just loved what Chuck said a little while ago
about growing up playing in the stream and in the trees and and you know that is environmental education in and of itself and that is sort of our intention of locating a school outside on conservation land is that it is both a
passive experience of land stewardship and also an active one. And so for the younger children, we work into our curriculum, land stewardship throughout the day through things like identifying invasive
species, uh identifying different leaves, uh talking about cycles of of of life, the seasons, and that of course will become much more sophisticated when we get into the elementary years, uh which we which we will be doing in the fall. We haven't yet had elementary
students. Thank you. Walter, Walter, go ahead. Can we rewind one second back to the Corey checks? My my knowledge of Corey checks is now
over 10 years old. So bear with me. It I know whenever I had guest speakers come into the classroom the first time, not a problem, but they came back the second time they had to be Corey checked. Is that still the same regulation? And if that's I'm sorry. And if that's
the case, uh, say Chuck Tyrone wants to make a presentation one day and then come back a week later and make it, he's going to have to be Corey checked if I'm correct. Certainly. Well, I I I spent a lot of time in school with my with my kids
reading and teaching whatnot, and I had to be Corey checked the first time I went. Okay. I'm not sure if that was just policy of the town I was in. So, but anyways, Mary, sorry I took the floor. No problem. No. Yeah, I think I mean I think you're right. I think it
depends on on how we kind of your question here in in writing had been sort of like I think I had understood if there was I don't know um grounds people who kind of came you know once a month and grabbed something from as I understand their storage under the cabin
uh versus what you've just described which uh shore I think that that does sound like um a regular a regular contact and and that you know we're sort of happy Again, we that hasn't that hasn't come up apart from because we
have been in not in a situation where we've had regular contact with like people who weren't volunteers, but but of course like yes, we plan to follow all of the EEC and and sort of state and local regulations and
we will certainly if that's the case then, you know, we'll figure out what constitutes a volunteer and and make sure that they're background checked. I know like for example going on a school trip there's no way you can corey check every adult that they're going to run
into. That was an exception. However, now we're going to have people frequenting your area to take care of the garden or do other things. That that would be my concern. I I believe that the distinction is about um and kind of think it also applies to what Chuck just
described sort of coming into like intentionally do something with the children versus being sort of in the public. And as I've said, I mean, you know, I'm again we'll happily I just received these questions earlier today and so there wasn't a chance for me to contact our licenser. I'm happy to sort
of get clarification on how that works. But as I've said, we've sort of received a lot of support and mentorship from particularly the farm school at Wright Lock Farm in Winchester and and they have members of the public all around all the time. It's sort of a very
similar situation to the community garden where they have a farm store, they have different programming going on and I would be very surprised if they were needing to background check like the regular visitors to the farm. um you know the staff they probably have to do
that anyway for their own hiring but but but visitors and that kind of thing I I don't I would be very surprised but yeah I will definitely get I mean I will get an answer I'm a very thorough person I believe in uh you know finding solutions to things and and following
through so I'll I'll ask that question of the EC and get back to you. Yeah. So, Walter, if uh they are going to run into people out in the field, but it doesn't seem like the morning is the is an air is a time when there's a lot of people out there. But you had a specific
question about gardeners. They, you know, so dealing with the garden. This is our third year with the garden and they usually park just below the garden. They walk up to the garden. The entire garden is within a fenced in area. They work at their spot. Even the
water's in there. Everything they need is inside the fence except for their, you know, they have to go back to their car. So even if the class went up the cart path to the pavilion, they would have to open a gate to get into the
garden to be with other people. So there's a lot of separation there except for walking back and forth to your car. And I'll say also, I pulled up the EEC regulations before this meeting just to make sure and see if there was anything
written in there and the specific things that they so they have a specific rule about for young children. They have a specific rule about family child care situations which take place in a private home and those concerns they do say, you know, anyone who the ch who the children
come into regular contact with, supervised or unsupervised, needs to be background checked. But I believe that that's because it's in a sort of in a home and an enclosed setting. So it would apply to people who for example in this case analogous. Um I think that the question is about being like sort of
closed off to the public rather than outside in fact and so if people were going to be regularly coming into the cabin at the same time as the children that would be one thing. Um but yeah, but I think I think Chuck has sort of given a a good answer. And then I'll
just say and in the regulations for uh preschool and small age school age groups, they don't they only mention unsupervised contact. So anyone who would have with whom the children would have would be like essentially one of the adults that would be with them alone
or not alone I suppose like as one of the supervisors would have to be background checked. Okay, a Walter. Thank you. Okay, any other questions, comments? Um, I just was thinking between last meeting and this meeting um
there were some questions about the um philosophy of the school and how the school is run. And I think that's not really our purview. Our purview is more how our property is used and I don't see
any difference between the Malbury Forest Monasuri School renting the property compared to say a Girl Scout meeting renting the property. They're using our property. Um this is certainly more intense because it's many
days but we're not questioning what the Girl Scout troop is doing while they're there. That's their business. they're just renting the property for the afternoon. So, I think we need to be aware of that. We're not judging the
value of the program, but merely the um use of our property by the program. Yeah. So, uh, we I talked to Mary a little bit about this and, um, had the benefit of reading a few emails from
town council and it seemed that the Montasauri forest school is aligned with article 97 because it promotes conservation, you know, uh, and it teaches that and they have a specific
uh, platform to bring that to the children. So, I mean, and that's what conservation, that's what we want. We want to protect our land and we want to make changes and we want to um keep up the value of the
habitat and the water supply and all that. And so we make these changes and we bring on and remove things for the benefit of the value of the conservation
um that happens in that area. This is one of the areas that we've decided that is going to be focused on. Uh we just recently asked that dogs were banned there so we could try to bring in uh more wildlife that
used to be there and is no longer there. We've been struggling with some of the neighbors who uh you know you know it takes a while for change and but uh we are we are doing that but I think that this something that they come in with an
understanding of the values and the protection that's needed and they can also advocate for the conservation commission just by being there. They don't have to talk to anyone, but but they're out there in the field and they're learning about the different
grasses. They're IDing trees. They're checking out wildlife. They're understanding that it's not only the bees that are the pollinators, but it's the bugs and the insects also that do a lot of the pollination. So, really cool stuff can happen out there. So,
when do we do it? Right? But that might bring more questions to the conservation commission and it might make these seats more valuable to other people in the community. So obviously I'm a fan. I think it's a
great idea. Um I know that Brian uh and I talked about this this afternoon. So I don't know if Brian you're gonna say something and about when I get a chance. Yeah. Oh, I understand.
We need two commissions, don't we? We need a commission each. No, we don't. All right, I'm done. I agree with what Chuck said. And Mary, I'll say it sounds like he's ready for his first class to teach something. I
know. I was like, I want to go I want to attend Chuck's class in the forest. Amazing. But but I will say that I am strongly in favor of this. Uh I do think it's great to get kids out there. We as a commission want Bare Meadow and all
our lands to be used. That's the reason we um work with the trails committee to get trails put through so people can use it with minimal impact. We don't want people out there cutting down trees for the fun of it, but we do want them out there to learn about it, to enjoy it.
Um, I won't get into the studies that talk about the uh physical and mental benefits of being out in nature, but those things are all well understood or better understood now than it was before. I agree with Martha that our focus needs
to be on how the the cabin and the property itself will be used. Um, this is a pilot program which means we get to look at it for a year and they get to look at it from the school perspective for a year
to see if it makes sense to continue in the future. But that's a a second chance to look at it and if we have second thoughts, that's our chance to say something. Um, I also expect that if there were anything that came up during
the course of a year, obviously we could reach out to Mary and and ask her to explain something or to focus on something herself and it seems like there would be a lot of cooperation. So, I am fully on board with this. Uh, I
think it's a great use of property that we want used more. And frankly, if a tenth of the kids who went there came away understanding nature more, respecting
the woodlands more, if two of them became certified tree huggers, I'd be thrilled. I'd be thrilled. And so for me, I'm I'm all in. I think it's great. I didn't give the class Chuck did but
I'm on board with it. Any other comments, questions? Um just a question like super on board. I think it's a great idea. Uh one question is I I know last time we were discussing whether it's going to be for this fall or the following. What is
that? Uh any discussion on that like whether it's that's an ongoing discussion right now. I I don't know the latest, but um I would hope that, you know, we're all trying for this fall. I think there's been some adjustments with
the schedule uh with with the Montasauri school where it may happen. Um, it may just so happen that they could change locations at the last minute, kind of go with what they know they
have, but um, the reading area offers just the cabin to the pavilion, things like that. And and for anyone listening tonight, I just want to make sure that you that you realize that the this area is not used during the day. during
school hours, there's no one there. And that's exactly when this this is going to happen. And so when we switch over to our programming and these evening uh events that happen, the school's already gone and packed up and and gone home for
the day. So it's it's a it's a a vacancy looking for uh something to happen during that time. So, and I do want to note that the governing document for this would be a
licensing agreement that would be prepared by town council and then we would review it and approve it and of course the school would have to do the same thing. But that's that would be the underpinning. Yeah. Yeah. With that being said, I don't know if the town is
at that point where where they have even told town council to stop working on that. So, so it's just been something that's been discussed. And you know, that's a great point like if you know, I'm assuming there's going to be a vote tonight. We're going to see
where we stand, but but how can we help move this forward through the U town select board process? uh because I understand that they want to they want to look at this also. So maybe that's something that you know a little more
about or can help us out here. Um I I don't know a lot more about it. I have talked with some select board people um and the ones I've talked to are on board. They think it's great. They have additional
reasons and beyond the ones that we've talked about. Um it's important to remember that we do want we value input of town manager, deputy town manager, town council, select board. We think
it's important that there be some general consensus. At the same time, it is conservation land and so we will make the final decision as to whether or not we think this school is an appropriate use of property. But clearly we want the
town to be uh uh on board with us. It does no good for us to say go man go and and have a uh unhappiness all around. So I don't see us just charging forth to the end without uh some agreement from
key parts of the government. It may be premature to go into this level of detail, but there is that driveway that goes around to the garage underneath. Would it be possible for the Montasauri staff to park there and not
take up parking spaces in the regular parking lot? Yes. So, uh, you know, me and Brian hosted PorscheFest last year. We crammed them in. Yeah, we we crammed them in. Let's take some of some of the cram out of uh the cars, but I I would
say, you know, you could get 20 to 25 cars in there easy on the upper parking lot. There's never that many cars there. Yeah. Um Mary, how many um teachers are you expect? How many staff are you expecting? Three, probably three to
four, right? So, I don't expect there'd be a problem with uh overflow parking, but if we're ever needed, that lower driveway, if we wanted to use it, certainly could accommodate that. I think we had six or seven there. Yeah, there's there's there's there's
other parking, too. Um but, you know, a few cars. I think there would be a limit on cars. I mean, there would there would have to be a limit on cars. We we would we would do that. But um outside of that, I don't think there would be an issue. I mean, we had the
same discussion when we were thinking of people using the field and having the garden. Never materialized. I've had a sign and my desk that that directs people to the L. I've never had to use it. It's it's people come in and water the garden and leave.
It's it's a 15minute situation. if if it turned out to be an issue that lower driveway is accessible. Well, that's what the licensing agreement will talk about. It'll it'll when you know when they're who has to give way, where they would go
or they have to go somewhere else. So, all that would be covered in the licensing agreement and is just as it was in our gardener's agreement. In reality is anything like this, people will find places they prefer to park. So
the staff will end up being in the same general place every day. And so gardeners or whoever coming in will learn that and they'll go to the same part of it every day. Let let me add so I don't get in trouble. There's no
license agreement yet. We're still waiting for the town to to to be involved. They're they're they're a partner with us in this situation. Sounds like It s it sounds like there's been no real roadblocks, but yeah. Well, that's why
to make sure that they are okay with this. If they are writing a licensing agreement, there's not only the one parking area above Mata Cabin, there's also the driveway that goes to the garage that could be also considered for parking if
it needed to be. That's all I meant. We don't have to waste more time on it. All right. Okay. Um, so then I do think it's important for us to take a vote tonight um to indicate to the town and the
school clearly um what we're thinking. We did did take a vote last time. Uh it was um uh definitely it was talking about the way we were leaning. Uh this one we would take still would not be
final. It still would be dependent on whatever the governor agreement became. We would have to review it and approve it. Um, but in the meantime, I think we want to tell the town government clearly where we stand and what we'd like to see done.
Uh, so does anybody disagree with that sentiment that we should vote? Okay. Okay. Having said that, then um would an appropriate motion be to instruct the town to
proceed with negotiating an agreement with Malbury Forest Monastery School or is that too No, I don't I I think you want to say the conservation commission approves of the Montasauria schools
pilot program and then add what you were just going to at at the material cabin conservation area. So that's clear. If it can happen, this is what I'm hearing. If it can happen, the conservation commission,
right? Yeah. We want it to happen. If the other pieces fall into place, so let me try that wording based on what Chuck said. The conservation commission approves the Monttoauri Malbury Forest Monastery
School running a pilot program at Mata Cabin from 2025 to 26 school year and we would like the town to move forward with the licensing agreement etc that is
needed to make this possible. Does that work? I Yeah, I thought that was pretty good. All right, second. All right, Walter Talbert in favor. Jark City in favor. Michelle in favor. Martha Moore
in favor. Rambo in favor. Okay, Mary. Thank you guys so much. You're such a wonderful group. Also, I I really do hope that this works out and we're just so excited. Hey, Mary. We're excited. Mary, a personal question. Did you ever make
movies once upon a time? That's my profession is as a filmmaker. That's right. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Yeah, I do a lot of I wear a lot of hats, but I think a lot of people in this room do, too. and start starting
this school, you know, part of my commitment to to land stewardship and and also to having a, you know, accessible place for my children to be in school outside and learn the kinds of things that I think they need to learn
to to yeah to be tree to become tree huggers. So, it was very delightfully put here. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a good night. Tonight. Tonight. That's 15 minutes.
That's 15 minutes. I just want to like clear like 15 minutes. You're the one that told me when you got here this that when you first walked in, you're like and and you know that I give you the signal. I'm I'm giving you the signal.
Okay. Now, we're going to go back to the uh annual budget. Uh this is annual budget for the upcoming year FY26. Uh this was put together with um many ideas from Chuck and a few other
ones thrown in. Um so I'll keep I'll keep this brief. Basically there's a few general buckets. Um the first bucket is to buy landscaping maintenance tools for use at our various
properties. obviously mater wherever. Uh so this includes things like weed whacker uh shovels, garden rake, wheelbarrow, things like that. Um and I'm there's nothing to do with the
labor of who gets to use those those pieces of equipment, chuck at least, but this is to buy those things so we have them available. We saw the other day when we're planting trees of bare metal that we could have used more shovels for example. So there's plenty of ways we
could use that and and everything will be kept at the cabin and we wouldn't mind if the if the trails committee and sometimes the town forest committee uses our stuff. It's just how it is. What's there they just have to sign out. Okay. And then there's a bucket for invasive
management. Uh this is put in there with a placeholder of $5,000. Uh this is focused um on bare metal. This also is in line with the mass autobond report that we got at the beginning of our work uh at Baron
Meadow. Um we have had some mappings done of what is out there and where it is. So this would be to take a first bite out of actually dealing with the nasty things that are out there.
Next is a continuing effort to um put some signs onto our conservation areas. You've probably all seen the one at uh Mata at the driveway. That was the first one of these new signs that went in. You
can see it follows the same general format as town of Reading signs like the one at town hall. And we have added a few over the years to other places. and this budget uh would like to get assigned for woods at the end of
Veterans Way. As part of the approval for that development, the developer put in three or so parking spaces at the end of the culde-sac. The trail goes into Gchin Woods. Um and so the idea is to
actually mark it to put a sign there. Um and I believe there would be a kiosk as well. There is a kiosk there now. That's right. Okay. So, just would the sign be on the culdeac end of Veterans Way, not out on Main Street? It would be. Oh, yeah. It' be right near the right near
the right at the parking spaces. Okay. Okay. And then um and by the way, that's 3,100 bucks, give or take, then $1,000 for uh various improvements at Bera itself. The main focus of this is
um the the construction of a deck behind Mata. Um so that's ongoing now. Uh the town dug the uh the holes for the pylons. The volunteers are building it.
Once it's done, we want to do things like put on a picnic table or to uh and this will allow us to improve anybody's rental experience plus to put on educational programs. Uh so we get again
to use the area more in ways that we want to promote. And the last is a relatively small one. There's a single section of fence by Mlette Psalms uh that's broken. So this is replacing two posts and the cross
piece between the two. So those are all the items. This has not yet been submitted. It's about to be uh we ran it by our uh the on first and so we haven't got comments back yet. So hopefully we will. But either way we'll be submitting
it to the town. So anything you want to add to that? Uh no I mean we do this every year. is uh so we have to support this. So uh commissioners are should go to the meeting and um there's
five groups there conservation town forest trails historical that's four four there might be a fifth one I can't remember but um and they all have to put in their requests and the the uh select board decides how to divvy up the money. Um,
do we have a date for that meeting yet? Not yet. We'll we'll be notified. It's usually It's usually in June, but might not be in June this year. That's what I thought I remembered, but yeah, doesn't seem
likely. Hard to fit it into June at this point. Yeah. Okay. So, that's it on the budget. Any requests? And by the way, if you ever have an idea, good, bad, or indifferent, of something you see or think that we should do, by all means,
bring it up. Um, you know, it's it's doesn't mean we can get to it this year, but to have a list that we can work towards fulfilling everything on it makes a lot of sense. So, by all means, if you if
you have a bright idea uh oh, hang other than Martha. All right. Anybody else have an idea? Martha, go ahead. I would really like to get a Woodcock habitat restoration area sign with a picture of
a woodcock. Yeah. In Bear Meadow. So, so I actually suggested that to Chuck earlier today when we were compiled a list of other things that we may or may not be able to get to. That's one I had. Okay. I thought that was your idea. Now,
I understand you was talking to Martha. I did not I did not at all insinuate it was my idea. It was a list of things that No, that's great. I'm not even going to claim it's my idea. Somebody else told me that what we really need is that picture of a cute woodcock on the
sign like the um piping plver signs at the beach. Okay. Okay. So, Walter's got his hand up. Walther, if you're looking for ideas to spend money, it would really be nice to have a map or a list of every property in
Reading that falls under our jurisdiction. We have that. We do. as a spreadsheet which is mostly up to date. It was originally it was originally comp
was originally compiled by the open land report and in fact if you go to the open land report and look at it it's near the back. It's not just conservation land. Uh it's a spreadsheet with ours and open space plan. Yeah, open space. Sorry,
that's what it is. Open space. Let me reword properties that are within a 100 foot of the wetlands. Ah, that's different. Well, that's I thought so. Yeah. So, yeah, ones that are in our jurisdiction. That's why I
meant Gotcha. Okay. I can see Martha writing a note. I I will say I did attempt that at one point uh when I first got on the commission and I had
a um a drop from the town of everything that seemed to be abuing anything and it was a nightmare. It was thousands and thousands of entries with lots of duplicates. I spent some time attempting
to clean it up and then I decided to have a life. So, well, the the GIS department, is that something they can do? Because we can look up online and use the GIS online to see what where wetlands are. Okay. So, for the for the
interest of time, let's just say that it's a good idea for us to look into more and it's written down so we can follow up on it. Maybe that'll be your task. I I took a hint. I'm done. Okay, good. Okay. Um
see 50 Johanna Drive. Anybody here? Uh so they reached out um Moren reached out and she said that she had just received this was yesterday the plan from um Giovanni and it's uh and she hadn't
mocked it up yet. So she requested that it was would be continued. So can I have a motion to continue 50 Johanna to July 9th? So moved. I second. Walter Talbertson in favor. Jer in
favor. Michelle in favor. Arthur Moore in favor. Ren in favor. Okay. Next item is the conservation DPW coordination meeting. Uh typically this is the first Tuesday of the month. That gets in the way of the 4th of July. Uh, and so it is
tenatively scheduled for July 8th, but Chuck is working to confirm that's actually going to, excuse me, be the day. And once we know what the day is, we can figure out um whether we can cover it.
Okay. But it's definitely not July 1st. I I uh wrote to Chris late this afternoon, Chris and Mike. Uh and they haven't got back to me. I just let them know that we're not going to be able to do it on the 1st of July, which is the
Wednesday is the Tuesday. So, I said, "Are you thinking about the ETH?" But we'll see. We'll see. So, as long as you have definitely said it's not on the first, I will delete it from my calendar for the first and wait to hear when it
is. Okay. Okay. So, next administrative report. Yes. So, I'll just make it quick. Um, so we're watering out in Bear Meadow every day. We uh couple weeks ago we we planted uh with the next step volunteers. This is a group that comes in every time. Um they originally
reached out to me in 2021. We got some stuff done and then we moved on to like a real program where every week for six to eight weeks through the summer we have at least 10, sometimes
two groups of 15. This week we have two groups of 15 the working. Um, so the whole idea behind the cabin and the deck was to they were actually going to do the footings, but we had the DPW do the footings. uh they volunteered uh as they
always do for when I request things. Uh and so when that was done, we had the uh we had uh the NextStep volunteers come out there and they've been framing um the the deck and uh it's coming out really nice and it's good to see
everybody working together. Along with that, they've been watering the plants that we planted out in the garden uh in the in the in the meadow in the meadow in the bare meadow, which has been quite hard over this week, but they've kept up with it. And then that second group has
worked at Higgins, and they're putting in a boardwalk. So, the scouts working on the right hand side. There's an entrance uh up there, and that's where the scout was going to do his work. And there was a couple of um boardwalks on the
lefthand side. One was brought over from Mlette and Morgan. So they're going to add to that and they're going to fix another spot. So uh you know it's really great. These these um young people are
hard workers. They never uh give up and they're always happy to uh do more. So, it's been a very good uh relationship conservation commission at the at the plant planting. Uh there were ones from
Minnesota, Georgia, Maryland, uh New Jersey this week. Yeah. They're from all over the Arkansas. A couple from Arkansas. So, it's great. They all come together and they the leaders are from Arkansas. Yeah. It's really a good
alliance. Okay. Go ahead. Anything else? That's all. Okay. Yeah, keeping it quick. Um, so then minutes for approval. Um, there's one, two, three, four sets of minutes on here as she sent them all out. I think we've seen the first two.
Okay. Yeah, we vote on those last time. I think the first two. I think we voted last time. Two, I think it was. Yeah, I think but it wasn't the wasn't the April 29th and May 14th came out since our last meeting can now vote
on. Okay. Actually, I haven't seen those. Maybe I'm not getting it said minutes and I didn't know if I was the attachment. It came from me. It didn't come from Chuck. Okay, maybe maybe I maybe we should I'll just always
put it in the uh the uh the hole in the notes. um when I do my meeting notes and I'll just put in that but ma send them out still. Okay. So I'll send them to everybody. I do see them. Sorry. Okay. So the policy we're
following is please read them. Yes. Send comments even if you don't please be um set to uh vote. Who did the comments go to? Emily. Right. Right. I just wanted to make sure that everyone direct not me. You're sending them back to Emily
directly. Okay. But don't send them to everybody and Emily just to Emily so we don't have a open meeting violation. Okay. So having said that um I need a motion to approve the minutes for April 23rd.
I move to approve the minutes on a from April 243rd. A second. Walter Talbbert in favor. Uh, Jerro Stleer in favor. Dell in favor. Martha Moore in favor. Ryan B in favor. Okay.
Next is May 14th. Can I have a motion to accept the minutes for May 14th? I move to accept the minutes for May 14th. I second. Walter Talbotz in favor. Sticker in favor. Michelle. Martha Moore
in favor. Ryan Bo in favor. Okay. Um, next is May 28th. Don't think those have gone out yet. I don't think I've seen them. I just sent comments on two of them. So, all right. So, we won't yet we won't deal tonight with either May 28th
or June 11th. We'll get to those next time. And again, if you have comments, please send them to Emily, just to Emily. But even if you don't get a chance to review it, come prepared to vote in the affirmative. Um,
let's see. Chuck, you wanted to vote on um approving the invoice for MECC, right? So, uh, I need the commission. So, this is our regular membership. It's $850.
Could I have a vote to, uh, pay this bill for conservation membership to, uh, Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions? uh $350. So moved. Need me to pass it? No, no, it's just I
just threw it there. Yeah, I second. Walter Talbertson in favor. In favor in favor more in favor. In favor. Okay. And the last item is uh DPW has reached out
uh looking for a additional storage unit. uh town forest next to the two that are already there. Uh this is for more carts that that they needed. Um uh and obviously there's time pressure
on as there usually is. So So let me just I get a little rundown I can do. Sure. You're my guest. Okay. The meeting back. Here we go. And uh so uh these uh let's say you you enter where the cursor is coming up through.
So, if anyone knows, there used to be a chain across here. Um, but now we enter this way. The first building's right here. Uh, our watering spot, the new, uh, dog watering fountain fountain is right there. And
then there's the first building. And they put in this container and this container. They've decided uh so what is has become necessary for the DDW to begin uh to being directed that the trash containers and the cart requests that people um
there's like 488 addresses who have requested smaller carts. So they needed to I'm calling carts but you know the bins that Yeah. Um they need a place to store those. They need a place to hold the bigger
ones and and do the swapping out. And so they have determined that they need an additional 10 by 50 storage container. And so they mentioned it to us first in our DPW meeting. So the commission's
already said yes to um two. And so a third one, it seemed to me that it would be pretty much the same project. They're no closer to the wetland. the wetlands behind it. Well, actually, you see the line. I guess I'm mistaken. It is the ones are 40s, aren't
they? What's that? So, the ones that are there are 40 footers. That's what they were supposed to be. And doesn't it say 40 on your Oh, it says the gravel is uh 10 by 50. Yeah. Yeah. The containers are 8 by 40. Yeah. They're not 10 x 50. It's
a B. Yes. So, it's the gravel. And um so anyways, they just want to put another container right there. They're going to take down the fence, put it in, and then replace the fence uh as soon as possible. And so,
so they're still outside the 35 foot buffer. They're outside the 35 foot buffer. They're getting a little bit closer, but it's on existing ground. The other thing that's uh needs to be known is that they still haven't done the work
on the the electrical work or the trenching. that still is kind of waiting for a time when they are not so busy. And the other thing worth mentioning is where it will be is actually further away from the more sensitive area that
we're more concerned with where the salamanders cross and everything. So it's one storage unit further away from that even though there's weapons behind it. And I just want to point out this is not lack of planning on the DPW's far part.
This is lack of paying attention on the residents part. They announced a million times if you don't want a big container, you can get a small one. Huge, right? Yeah. A big mess, right? But when they throw them down, they explode. But then
people got their car and said, "That's too big. I want a smaller one." They're still going to need those to replace the ones that break. So yeah. Yeah, they'll use them eventually. Yeah, seems like that's why they need the third bin. It's not They didn't count. It's old ones
that they're picking up on July 12th. Recycle. They get just thrown out. Yeah, those go to hard plastic recycle. Yeah. And just just July 12th. Each pickup day has Well, that's what I get. Yeah, I have August. It seems like that a lot of
people may not have jumped on this idea and they have been requested to leave the um leave the list open to request these and and right now and I'm assuming this is going to get uh more but there's
488 people on the list so they'll need at least another 488 correct barrels or something like that. So yeah, I mean it's when you add it to what's there, it's it's not a problem. You know, hopefully
it's something that goes away at some point down the road. Maybe after we all leave. Been there a number of times since they started. Seen no sign of unusual usage or anything like that. So
it does seem that they're adhering to what we have. So the request is to say yes to Mike Kesman and let him uh proceed with this as a uh addition to the existing permit that we gave them as
administrative. So not coming back to the commission not know about a notification just administrative approval. So, do we have to uh you have to vote vote to give you I propose that we allow
administrative approval of this addition to the existing permit. You make a motion for that. Yeah, I moved that. Sorry. I second. Walter Talbert in favor in favor. Michelle in favor. Martha
Moore in favor. Ryan in favor. Okay. Oh. Okay. Uh, I just looked. I thought there might be someone who wanted to talk, but uh, it's just it's just Walter online at this point. We don't usually say just
Walter and RC RCTV. Okay. In that case, any last topics before we adjourn? You might go. What' you say? Anyone want to talk? Um, so I asked I need to ask Chuck a
question. That should be offline. No, go ahead. Go ahead, Walter. Oh, Chuck, you saw the email from Town Forest about the Yeah. Oh, yeah. What am I going to do with those cages?
They don't want to be I and I was just wondering I would take them but what would we use them for? The big issue they had was where do we store them because the next time somebody wants to plant trees they're
going to have to go out and buy cages. Well, store them inside the barrels in the containers in the town forest. Yeah. So, I don't uh So, we don't I mean, it sounds like a good idea, but
I'm hoping to put a school at Material Cabin and the and the Trails Committee uses the other half of the Material Cabin. So, that's not available. Um maybe we can ask DBW to put up a fifth container or fourth container.
No, no. Why can't they leave them around the trees for a little bit longer and then as the trees as they plant more trees, move them from one tree to another? How how about this before we go crazy? How much room would it take up? I mean, what are we talking about? A
55gallon drum or are they all going to be put back inside each other and you know, or is it just loose material and it's going to be like the back of a fullsize pickup truck? Well, the my biggest concern was who the hell's going to take it off and rip the the the
growing plants apart. That's a different concern. Yeah. I I just think I need to I someone So, one of the emails had a phone number. I didn't recognize the name, but it seemed like that person was from DPW. I could give them a call and ask some questions,
but he's the he he's the new uh TF uh chair. Oh, okay. No, that wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't Lamson. It was someone else. Pretty sure. Oh, hold on. No, he he he
volunteered at the meeting to take care of it. So, the concern I would have is it's one issue if they're all in good shape still and they stack neatly. I would expect a lot of them are going to be bent and
twisted either from the placing in the ground or what what they got in the meantime. I don't expect it to be, you know, a bunch of neat piles. I don't know how many they have in the first place. Well, if I remember correctly, you people have seen them more than I have, but if I remember
correctly, they were straight stretches that were twisted together to make a cylinder, right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So, can they be flattened? Doesn't sound easy to me when I've worked with hardware cloth. It doesn't
flatten easily once you've bent it. No, it's going to stay curved. Yeah. To one extent. I'm still wondering why they're so anxious to take them off because you're you planted trees. You want to protect the bark at the bottom of the
trees from getting chewed on. I think because the trees didn't make it, so they're cleaning up. But I I would also agree, leave them in place if you plant new trees or whatever, transfer to new to new plantings.
But they put all those new trees up in area seven. Maybe take them off of the trees that didn't survive and put them in area seven. So what's the question for us? Whether they can use mater. Well, what if we wanted all these? That's that's what it
was. Um, if we wanted all and I'm trying to find the email. I don't I don't even know the subject line. So trees. I tried trees. I tried Walter. I don't know. Walter, were you on that email? Yes,
you were copied. See the Montasauri school. Um, yes, it was sent on July. Oh, here we go. Dave July Dave Flynn.
Dave Flynn is a reading uh Dave Flynn reading at you know gives his email address. So I I don't know if Dave Dave's not the chair. No no he's not. He was a vol he's one of the volunteers.
Sorry I misled you. I don't have the email about Dave Flynn. I just have the report B Walter sent about the town forest meeting on June 23rd and he sent it on June 24th. I would say and I don't think I have ever
asked for these so I don't know how my name got into that. I I would I would have said something more practical like we don't deal with a lot of trees. We have four out at Bare Meadow right now. I could use four, but um
I would think forestry would if they didn't want them and if it wasn't something that was, you know, attractive to to them to hang on to and use, that would be the only, you know, the only department I think would would have any input on this. Do you see Jeff Lamson's
in the waiting room? That might be useful. I don't see him in the waiting room. Oh, well, it says so. Is he inside RCTV Studio Square? It says he's entered the waiting room. Should we Should we let him in? Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Yeah, let's let Jeff in. See what's going on. There we go. Jeff, can to join us? Yep. Hey, everybody. You put up the bad signal I was watching on RCTV, so I figured I'd join. says
inside RCTV Studio Square at Cessna. I think you're listening to us also. Feedback. No, I was watching on RCTV, but I heard my name, so I figured I'd dial in and help answer this. Great. Great. Can you help answer it then?
Yeah. So, if you don't know, I'm the new chair of the town forest committee. We did have a meeting on Monday night um in the town forest um which was a first for us. We wanted to do a sitewalk to see some of the invasive progress removal. We have a tremendous number of new
members on our committee who are all quite energetic and uh very interested in doing more sort of hands-on work both with um you know activities in the forest education etc. One of the observations, one of our agenda items
about all the plantings that have occurred over the last number of years is that the cages, and there are a couple different styles that were put out there by a couple of different groups, professionals, scouts, volunteers,
um, did their job, but the the plants that have survived are now outgrowing the cages, and the plants that did not survive are just dead. So now we have all this metal out in the forest in both cases. Um so
the thought is to remove them. We obviously have no storage in the town forest itself. Um Chuck, I believe we had a conversation once about potentially um repurposing these. So we'd love to offer them up for uh anybody really who
would like them. conservation. You garden club was mentioned and uh uh worst case scenario, the DPW does have a scrap metal recycling container that um we were told we could put them in. I
think there's a number of them that are not reusable. specifically the ones that are made out of like chicken coupe, you know, cloth type material, not really hardware cloth because they just get trampled by whatever, you know, falling limbs, animals. Um, they don't they're
not conducive to taking off and transporting and putting somewhere else. And then there's the good hardware cloth ones that that could totally be reused. So, I think there's kind of a mixture of what can happen to these. Dave Flynn is a new member. Um, I am all about democratizing the town forest committee
and uh letting people run with what they volunteer to do and he's coordinating the physical removal of them and we'd love to have a good disposition of all of these things from there. Over. Were you actually uh listening when Chuck asked about whether the forestry
division might have a use for him? Um Chris Cole was physically at the meeting. Mike Kesman was dialed in. Um okay. I don't want to speak for them. They didn't express any interest in giving that to their direct reports, the forest forestry division. But from the town forest committee's perspective, um,
you know, we'd like them out. We think they did their job. Um, you know, I would also just add to that, I should have said this before, but um, in the most recent Arbor Day planting when we kind of did a costbenefit analysis, um, the the cages themselves are on the
order of several dollars each versus a sapling is like in the pennies, right? So it was felt in that conversation that it's better to spend the money on saturating the environment with potential new plants versus trying to protect plants that you know given
mother nature and the way she operates may or may not be vi uh viable anyway. Um so again anybody that wants them from our perspective the conversation was is welcome to have them but we do want them out of the town forest. Okay. All right. Can I just ask a
question? Sure. Um, so Jeff, you just planted like 500 trees in area seven, and if these wire cages are a couple of dollars a piece, I understand not buying more wire cages, but is there any reason
not to put the wire cages around the some of the 500 trees you just planted? Is it just labor? I I think it's just labor. Um but I I don't know how amendable they are to being remmanipulated like that. Um we don't
have, you know, that strong of a volunteer workforce. I'm not saying it couldn't exist. Um but that was the conversation in all those planning meetings that we had um at the library. Yeah. Yeah. At at those library planning meetings, I didn't realize that the
cages that were already there were nearing the end of their use for those plants and they were just talking about how it would be so expensive to buy more cages, right? And I think there's a difference between trees and shrubs, too. I'm not
an expert on this, but you know, it's really the shrubs, they're more bushy, right? And they grow out sort of more horizontally than trees. Um, we saturated 500 um saplings um and you know there was
there was no funding nor did we think the manpower would be there on the day and I would agree with that retrospectively as well to actually install all those cages and the long-term management of keeping these trees up. So honestly from my perspective
um another way of saying it what we've done is we've put a tremendous amount of man-made materials in the form of metal in the town forest including the sometimes plastic stakes that hold them down and metal stakes that hold them down. They're rusting and I wouldn't do it again personally from my perspective.
I don't think it's cost-effective. It's not the way um trees or any shrubs grow naturally anyway. Um and uh I think our focus on the town forest committee perspective I can't I guess I can cannot speak for the entire committee but the
con I can represent the conversation right um the the chapter is turning to a mode of sustaining and pulling invasives rather than replanting. We've had a lot of expert opinions foresters say you know the the seed bank that's out there
already is just waiting for that sunlight. That sunlight is there. Uh the game now is to make sure that um the invasive species like glossy buckthornne I was out there earlier a nice walk with my wife. I'm very concerned today about
and this is my new passion. Uh there's a lot of tree of heaven starting to gain in multiple different places in the forest. And I think our our real um priority moving forward is going to be on preventing invasives over planting. So give an edge up to that seed bank that already exists in the form of
native plants and not so much try to place native plants especially not place native plants and man-made materials like metal to protect them. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Thanks Jeeoff. I think we got it.
Sorry. I'm known for being long-winded. Over. Believe me, you're in the right environment for that. So, um, but I think I think we do get the picture now on what you're asking for. So, I don't think we particularly need them. I don't
think so either. And, you know, maybe maybe Chuck said he could use a few like four, but certainly not anything on a large order. Nope. Yeah, I know. I I Yeah, Jeff, I appreciate it. Um, and it's it's too bad
they they couldn't be set aside. somewhere in case they could be used again. But if that's if that's not the case and that's not your uh the way you're going to manage the pro the forest now um for what the conservation commission does
right now we the the youngest trees in our inventory were just planted and they have gator bags around them. So there's and and on top of that there's actually a bunny fence uh in the perimeter of the uh of the entire garden. So, we've
protected it that way. Um, like I said, I appreciate the uh the offer. I'm I might look into it, but right now I'm I'm I'm good. Okay. So, sorry we can't help but maybe put it on writings reduce, reuse,
recycle. I mean, yeah, there was definitely there was conversation about putting it out on social media for anybody who might like them. Absolutely. Okay. Okay, I think we're good. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. I'll be back on
RCV. I hope you enjoyed the meeting. And I had a comment I wanted to make before we're done. Sure. Um I think I have put on my calendar that I'm going to do a site visit for the next meeting and I'm going to do it this Friday the 27th
um for 692 Pearl Street. Yes. 692 Pearl Street. Oh, right. Um, so I know we usually go the Monday before, but I have plans. Let me reach out and make sure that um,
Rick's still here. Yeah, Rick. He was here on the meeting, but not anymore. So, let me reach out to Rick and get back to you guys. I know that one of his requests was that he was there. Okay. So, let's we got to make sure everything works. Yeah. So, if anybody else wants to come at the same time, what time was
it? I have 8:30 on Friday the 27th in my calendar. It's on my calendar, too. And it just I won't be able to make the site visit. That is um whatever it is. All right.
Yeah. The seventh I won't be able to. So, can I have a motion to adjourn at 923? I'll move to adjourn at 9:23. I second. All in favor? Great. Thank you. Good night, Walter. I
hope you're feeling better. Thank you. Just address the trees that he's marked or I've been there once before. So, yeah. Um, are we off, Chuck? We're still recording.
The meeting's over. There's going to be uh it's going to come to the next meeting. Um so I want to do a site visit just to see what he's proposing at the next meeting. I saw the letter from the neighbor. So that's okay.