##VIDEO ID:RN-obFGCdds## this is the uh November 12th meeting of the Westport Conservation Commission we'll Begin by Sting the flag pledge aliance to the flag in the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good no one pull them Michael straight hand good thank you okay so like we just discussed we'll start with our continuances in case our first applicant comes in a little bit late so got um continuance for John piver John piver is continued again Mr chairman I'm sorry okay he's continued uh to the 26 we invertedly put him on this meeting so we are continuing for the motion to November 26 all right so can we have a motion to continue till the 26th motion to the 26th second all right that's Jak Kevin all those in favor opposed all right that's unanimous um guess we can skip right on to our certificates of compliance we've got uh Gabby R Ry ROM five Bluebird Lane Ramy okay this is Gabby Romy he is the owner of the lot at five Bluebird Lane he received a notice of intent to construct a single family residence um he has filed requesting a certificate of compliance for the work to construct this single family home well septic and grading the St stabilized with grass growing in all Disturbed areas the work has been completed in compliance with the plan of record this is file number se80 2710 recommendations Westport conserv commission should vote to approve a certificate compliance as all work has been completed according to the plan of record for Gabby Ramy file number SE 82710 all right any discussion if not looking for a motion Mo approve Jake second Jake and Kevin those in favor opposed all right ask unanimous if uh Gabby Ronney is watching sorry for gaffing the name um Stanley Sylvia continuance I mean I'm sorry certific of compliance Mr chairman member Stanley Sylvia 282nd Street this is certificate of compliance report is dated November 6 2024 the file number is SE 8026 669 for this project the applicant has filed with a letter from design engineer supporting all the work has been completed according to the plan of record the elevated home has been completed above the existing flood elevation the work has been completed in accordance to the design plan a record as well recommendations Westport Conservation Commission should approve the issuance of a certificate compliance as all work has been completed according to the plan record for file number SE 8026 69 and in the record I do have an asilt drawing for the file of that finished Flor elevation of 22 feet above um flood elevation all right um on our it's actually Stanley and Joanne syia that yeah so it'll be recorded as Stanley and Joan syia right yeah that's fine Stanley and Joanne Sylvia any uh any questions comments anything if not looking for a motion motion second all right that's Jake and Bert Leon those in favor opposed okay that's unanimous uh certificate of compliance for Christy Souza 169 Robert Street Mr chairman and members chrisy suel 169 Robert Street file number number SE 82789 uh dat of the report is November 6 2024 the appc has filed to request a certific compliance for the sew Disposal system repair the engineer record has provided a letter in support of the installation is in substantial compliance with the planner record um the applicant also had some activity along the shoreline the saudy pond um inadvertently did some disturbance all that area had has been stabilized the site is uh reestablished um everything is in compliance recommendations Westport Conservation Commission should issue a full certific compliance for the septic repair for chrisy soua 169 Robert Street file number se80 2789 all right questions comments all right that's Jake and Kevin those in favor opposed all right that's yours oil so the one hearing should we um continue I keep hearing someone creaking out there yeah I to yeah let me just check oh you're right they are here on Tuesday okay thank you excuse me they don't cllean can't say that on record it could be M Mr chairman the first hearing scheduled carry cor Brookwood Drive uh it does require us to have the green cards provided if the applicant is not here with those I cannot open that hearing and I suggest we continue that hearing to the November 26th meeting yeah all we have left are a couple of bills so we'll be out this pretty quickly okay so looking for a motion to continue car carp and rad until the 26th you said Chris yes motion to continue to November 26 right Kevin and BT B it was it was a tie it was a photo finish and bir had it by a nose for my name [Laughter] there Dar it we are going to issue trophies for um all those in favor oppos all right that's continued all right so any uh any unanticipated anyone have anything the only thing I want to bring up for a discussion and and a potential motion tonight Mr chairman we have or we are working for an open space renewal our open space plan is expired and in order for some funding grant funding to be allowed we need an active open space plan um serid on the Southeast Regional planning entity has agreed to work with us um there is a contract or a draft contract that I have here so I'm not going to ask you to sign it but basically there is 25,000 in grants available for this $30,000 project so we have 25,000 covered through these um Grant applications so what I'm asking the commission again tonight is to uh make a motion to use $55,000 from our Wetlands fund to cover the remaining cost it could be maybe less than that but at at all cost it's not going to be more than 5,000 and also I want in that motion include a letter to be sent to the board of Selectmen notifying us notifying them of the update and um there's going to be some subsequent things we need from the select and in electing a committee so I just want want to make that letter just warming it up so that we can have that on record so we eventually can move forward and uh get this plan renewed as fast as possible so this is an obligation to Ser to work with us through 2024 into 2025 um with these grants in a total of 25,000 uh so we would pick up the remaining cost of 5,000 um and cover that for for the purpose of this renewal so I was asking for a motion so then weling for a motion for $5,000 to the use from the Wetland fund up to 5,000 5,000 use from the Wetland fund to subsidize the remaining balance and also in that motion to include a letter to be submitted to The Bard selectman notifying them of our open space uh plan as as well as them needing to maybe be appointing some members to an open space committee there to approve second all right Jake and bur those in favor opposed all right thank you I just had one little anticipated thing I was up in telling you guys I was up in main deer hunting and I was hunting some power lines and a guy came walking down the track Trail at dusk wearing a white hat so I would just caution people that you know it's hunting season and wear orange especially on some of the public Trails like some of the land conservation properties just wear orange white tail de but I I I said to him I I said I said buddy I had you in my scope at 400 yards and I saw your head bopping up and down like it was not good yes so don't wear white in the woods nope Chris how do we do with the the over by elephant rock we open up the water oh yes they that that went very well actually thank you kin I didn't give you guys a followup but yes the Richmond Pond was opened to allow the breach to well it usually breaches but it didn't this year cuz it's been so dry so we basically allowed it to flush there some Herring came out that was basically young of the year and some mummy chugs and stuff but so far because the wind been Cooperative it hasn't closed itself in per se so it it did flow out as best it could because we not draining the pond so once it makes its equilibrium it kind of slows down so the area that you thought could have filled in is it staying open or so far it's staying over yeah but if we get a couple good storm we got a moon tide coming and we get a good wind you're going to you're going to see that entrance area maybe get filled in so North Wind North Wind would help that too right it would kind of kind to push it out absolutely yeah does the high tide come up high enough so it flows in from the ocean yes right y yes yes so they just move the channels slightly towards the West Y and again the water wants to meander so it never likes a straight shot so so far that's been maintaining itself but cool but thank you for that update you also know we've had a hump back buried on elephant rock um and also recently I believe a minky's on Gooseberry right now so to your point Chris this evening was the first meeting of the offshore wind committee uh as a representative for conservation I sit on that uh committee and was appointed chair of the offshore wind uh this evening so hopefully we have a good open and honest discussion over the next couple of months uh as to you know what really is out there we want to try to invite the companies in to give a presentation uh to the advisory committee to see really what's going on out there um as many people in the public have voiced opposition because they are seeing a lot of these this Wildlife wash up on the shores that they had never seen before um but we want to see you know so the public knows there has not been a proposal set forth before the town on any Landing um and we'll continue to monitor this and hopefully move forward with uh useful information as you saw that up toate information I just forwarded yeah and environmental impact it just basically yeah said yeah went through it a little bit Yeah so basically said that there's no link right yeah matter the I mean I think the concern and I think the purview that Conservation Commission has is obviously a lot of The Crossings and everyone's very concerned is how would that Crossing occur at the Westport River um which would probably fall into our perview one way or the other but yeah and the last part of that is apparently there is a truth to the fact that this pipe or this conduit is very heated as well correct so in some cases they put it in concrete to try to dissipate that heat but any concentration and change in in some of these areas could be critical so I would be truly concerned that they need to look at this again we have some cold water Fisheries that they have to cross all of them go across 88 and every one of them could be affected by this long-term thermal heat that we would not really necessarily see the impacts in the very beginning so you just need to take a look right now of those streams right now and with the drought we've had over the past 40 Days A lot of them are dropped down or pretty much dried up just from a lack of rain let alone any other outside forces on that so no that's interesting thank you is there are they doing the Gooseberry do you know if they're doing the CR the cropsy right are they going to be doing one on that is I think it's a Micky right it's the one they always come in was it I ifw yeah they always come in and do some sort of review in the crops is that is that a state or a federal it's a federal entity I believe and and do we if it falls on our in Westport do we get can we review the results after are they shared with the local community would I I think truthfully I know in some of the other incidences they did provide the information the one on E speech or for instance uh last year or something actually had smashed it was smashed in the skull area like it had a collision with something so they did have some ability to tell that right away so the crops if it died of other means would be you know swallowed or ingested caused but I think again I don't know how you could say the pounding of the of the windmills could not be and how do you detect that in in a and it's such an animal I don't think it would show any signs of of distress well it show signs of distress if there's elevated levels in there you know whatever blood samples they take maybe they can determine that it was into some sort of stress or so yes I think you probably could and maybe the wind committee now could be formally asking just to have a dialogue or actual um have cases so you can have some ammunition and know what's going on and the the only issue I see with that is um the wind companies have basically been given take that's the other thing so they are essentially saying that that is the cost of doing business they they've already a lot a certain amount of that's I did read the yeah there is something within this permit that allows them to have a certain amount of impact yes right right up to or whatever so who who decides or who decided to bury that whale on alant Rock Beach I think it goes mostly with the their consideration that the easiest thing to do is to immediately get it buried rather than allow it track in the environment or float away so for all the ones I am aware of they try to find a favorable area very close and and bury it but I mean I think I make the argument that um a mechanic would say the easiest way to dispose of old oil is to dump it out back the easiest way to dispose of anything you don't want is to dump it out back if we ever found out that there was a farmer burying dead cows or parts of dead cows adjacent to a wetland protected area that would be a big problem I just I wouldn't want that dead whale buried on my beach well it it decomposes very quickly I mean that's how that's how a lot of how a lot of the skeletal remains gets preserved is through that natural processes on the insects do all the work and I know he did some at the the whaling museum as well as the Lloyd Center that's what the pilot wh was buried and then they re-excavated it and they they cleaned all the parts and they put it together in a so skel all the ones that have washed up on our Shoreline have been buried in that location like okay no have they been taken away in some instances some of them are towed or they try to pull them but for the case of the East Beach one they wanted to bury it right there in front of all the trailer lots the people were flipped out so they actually tried in in a method to to drag it but because of its Decay it was getting so they able to get it to the town beach on East Beach and they buried it right there in the C oh down towards the basine towards exactly yes so if there's Town owned or in this case the private elephant rock owners must have been notified and allowed them to do it it was done y so the minky there a n washed up over near Little Beach between the end of East Beach and they never did anything with that one is it still there it was there as of at the end of August September I mean I think as a we're back to the fact that our Shoreline is a tourist attraction whether it's this town beach the State Beach or the private beach and we're going to continue to probably see these wash out and I know many people are not happy over rock with what they had to do with that I mean is there a way the highway department can take it away uh they're very difficult because of what condition they're in and then they become you've never seen the one in Japan when they tried to move it I've seen it and it became explosive and it actually the gas buildt up and it exploded yeah because of the bloat and the gas build up and it actually it literally well in that case it was not quite but can you do other things yes I'm sure you is the town limited yes they don't have like an 18 y they don't have the equipment to lift it so again my opinion it drag it back out to the ocean but maybe that can cause damage to someone's problem go somewhere else and somebody's going to say it's another no they years ago I mean you know years ago if a whale died it was a big story on the news a big deal very very rare and they used to um they drag them offshore Y and they would actually they' machine gun them and they' shoot them full holes so they could vent the gas and they' sink sink otherwise they float around for weeks you know and it's a hazard so they would just just poke it full holes again just for offshore wind there may be component to that permit that allows maybe some question to be answered is there a way for them to be responsible if that's the case then they come and pay the cost right right correct but then again we all realized that we may be paying for the cost so it might be cheaper just to bury it just like the to did it I went down and saw that whale and saw I'm digging the hole beside it mhm I got a picture where my phone's in the car but I got a picture of it there it was pretty big they said it was a juvenile and I looked it up and nor don't whales about 49 ft long this one this one look maybe a little less than that but not too much less than that yeah I think they said this thing was pushing 40 ft 38 40t Yeahs or something yeah 30 40 it's yeah well I big big I was never notified until I got a call from Ross Moran but I found it funny that the highway department didn't call and advise me and but they kind of have the authority to bury the Animal by way of the the international entity or the Feds that are there doing inoc cropsy so so that and they get a they got a per they they spray paint the animal it all gets recorded okay good yes the again Jake can remember the one that washed up on bers it had the big writing on it kept moving down the beach so truthfully in some cases it would be beneficial just to bury it but is the minky that's new that's a new minky that's not an old minky that's all to stare right now correct correct that's a new one as two days two days okay so there was one over the summer yes this one yes so there was at least three this year on our beaches including open Rock would that be four yeah that might be four okay so four okay okay all right in a year that you've never seen in 40 years so okay just just trying to get it right for when people ask because they do they think somehow it's on conservation kind of I just think when they bury it and it you know and it's consistently cold I just don't know how much de competition goes on it's full of salt water anyway and it's going to be cold and that thing is going to be stinking like yeah it's going to be April or May and that thing's not going to be decomposed yet and when it does decompose it's going to have a big hole right I wonder how much cover they get over it how deep it was yeah again I you hope that over time that the water kind of brings some back but where they dug it it's probably too far in Shore to getting any sand till like you're saying later in the year cuz you have the winter summer beach the summer beach is tranquil the winter beach is more steep so you don't get sand accumulation usually in the winter they du it up and we did it yeah the dredging project is well underway and I've been out there a half a dozen times just kind of watching them take their Scoops and it is a painfully slow process in what they're doing they're doing it with a with a scoop it just kind of yeah just goes down slow yeah clamps it brings it all I mean it is so it's not pumping they not that's a clamshell doing it oh yeah exactly aam all right let's move the meeting for we get over okay sounds good all right uh we have um bills bills bills we have um WB Mason wait no no we have a negative $277 83 turn that okay so we have a credit so we don't have to vote on that okay that never happens in government uh all right East East Bay Media Group uh $37.50 motion to pay second all right that's Jake and Kevin those in favor opposed all right um I forget do we sign sign this right vot on oh there's no cover there's no cover yeah the chair it's okay it's all right I'll set chair sign um all right oh I'm sorry I got the receipt and not the um not your form oh okay okay so we have another Eastbay media for $61.50 we need a motion Mo that's Jake and BT those in favor opposed that's just a chair that send that one all right so we'll just need to maybe what the cover sheet for this one I can use them together okay yeah we'll use that one sheet we'll just add the other Okay so we've got the meetings from 1020 two present were Jake Tom B can't do that nope and I wasn't here so can't do that one um meetings from meeting from 917 uh can't do that one either and Kevin was absent yep okay get quick with that I'm just looking here cuz you're looking at the names as I read it so that you can jump ahead of me that's why I was only looking at who was absent so uh let me see uh 611 going back to June we had um Paul me Jake can't do that one either okay June that's GNA go on forever comination yeah right yeah all right so those are all together um we've got our 2025 schedule here pass these around um anything else if not I have nothing Mr chairman okay uh confir a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn it's Kevin and Bert second those in favor poos all right