##VIDEO ID:6xaniuxEiXI## e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon welcome to the uh October 29th meeting of the landing Commission we will start as we do with the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands one nation indivisible liy andice for all thank you all with me we have Brenda commissioner Brenda figorito commissioner Wendy Henderson and select board member dick Brew Brewer who is our liaison to the select board as I always do I want to remind the public that we are an elected commission and we are one person short and if someone wants to try out what is to be a commissioner you can apply ER membership on this fund commission to the select board and they would potentially appoint you if they deem you appropriate and your term would end in April when you could run for a reelection if you had as much fun as we do so please consider that uh next item on our agenda is thinking about how much does the head Landing need to be mowed and do we want to and thinking about all this we need to think about Rec Contracting next year we probably don't make need to make a decision about that but this has been a different year for us because the highway department is short staffed we had to contract out and pay a vendor to moow and I did just go by the head Landing and he has ended up mowing more of it recently than I've seen him in the past which I expect means that he's been there at very low tide because it's just Dr yeah could be some combination of tide and rain and all um I don't know if anyone else has had time to take a look we had talked last meeting about you thinking about what happens if we just let the grass grow on the west east side potentially in spotted places where it's just too damn wet I mean we would be both on the east side below the constructed Wetland but also there's some parts of the other side that are pretty spongy at almost all times right near the the slip I call it right near the the the second slipway there's oh no it's not it's across from the second slipway but on the way Way South there's some spots that we not getting mowed because there's just these low spots and and the Tide's higher than has been yeah um I did notice that they had been mowing more but I think that's the way it should be treated is when they can they can and I don't think they need to necessarily schedule their mowing around low tide periods but so you don't at the moment like I don't know what the species are in terms of what it would be like if it just grew up high I don't know how high it would get depending on how much is it going to that's a fairly for w that's a goodz park already we just let it grow little it may turn into Marsh which we need more Marsh CU we're losing so much Marsh it's one of those partic one of those swamp Yan let's do one person at a time here yes I said they don't call a swamp Yankees for nothing we like our mhm so it might be worth speaking with a Botanical expert about what happens if we just let it go yeah or are the two of you expertise enough in that no I'm not expertise enough I don't I am not a professional I think it would be a very positive thing to do you'll notice that the yard next to it is almost all natur's no La at all on on this beautiful piece of the yard next to the Head the ston house the ston house yeah they have some lawn but then some of it is was planted as Hayfield right yeah yep and I think that I mean that's a good example of M if you can do it MH all right so what did it cost us this year for mowing not much not much no I mean like uh the less my taxes uh it was like three most likely I don't know we'll have we'll have a report on that in a moment but I think it was like 100 bucks to do Hicks Bridge our side of hicks east side of hicks Bridge West whole season no every time 100 bucks for that $515 for a time they mot for both for both for the head and they mow every other week or it it's pretty inconsistent but it seemed okay I haven't the total number of bills but uh I haven't heard anyone saying was too scruffy um they did not they were not contracted to do any weed whacking they were contracted to sort of go in and out of the rocks with a push lawn mower so people could get in there but a big part of any commercial lawn mowing project is weed whacking around the Rocks around the things and we were very clear we're not paying for that and that the people of Westport are going to have to get used to Scruffy we're not we're not paying taxes for fancy so get used to Scruffy because the highway department used to spend three days mowing that and this guy's done with weed whacking and they were doing up the hill towards hours yeah that's the other thing on the side Hill right so I think there was a volunteer that that showed up and weed whacked the powder house and so if somebody cares about the powderhouse looking pretty that person may need to show up again but we'll see and we don't have to make a decision I again want maybe if you could find some Botanical experts between the two of you they could take a look and make some recommendations about would we need to seat it what we need what would we need to do I think you would just let it be yeah I would too and the reason I say this is because when you down you'll notice the um most westerly side of it where the house the little houses are in a r i don't know it's called that is all wild that's just it's not mowed they don't mow that well it was mode it used to be by the town yeah but it's not anymore yeah so and it looks you know it's something that again we should get used to a farm yeah it's it's dry there so it's I know the part on the East Side the under the lower flat section which is a lot of square footage uh along the river that um went unmowed for about a month as we were going to this transition and it seemed to grow to about 12 to 14 in and then just stopped um and maybe that's okay I don't know but it would be nice to maybe the Watershed has a contact or something because they have some they have some science people there yep what can we expect and is there anything we should do Google it well so anyhow that's what I know about that just ask AI next item on our agenda if we can move ahead is our treasurer's report here we go nice haven't had one of these in a few years [Laughter] because I haven't asked for one so what I did I wasn't really sure what you were looking for but our beginning balance for fiscal 24 was $91,500 36 we received lease payments mhm we received a donation from the yoga people and also there was interest earned on the account totaling receipts of $1 15,26 2016 we had our expenses which of course is Campbell environmental Comm of mass um Fray for the uh Pon and Point Landing last year we had some expenses involved with the um repaving of the Terminus there and so forth that we sh shared in the additional Paving there so that the total of expenses for the year was $ 8447909195 62 so in projecting for fiscal 25 because I know you had said how are we doing and how's things in general going I estimated receipts based on last year the WWA lease agreement is from their contract so that's what we will be receiving from them Mercer's payment for fisal 24 and if you notice on the lease payments here um I put the year that it was for but it was received in FIS for 23 was actually received in fiscal 24 for Mercer 24 was received in fiscal 25 we usually get those out a little bit late it's in June or something so if it comes in July 1st or July 2nd it's in the next fiscal year so it's not really that it's late it's just it's build at the towards the end of the fiscal year so sometimes it shows up in the following fiscal year so I would ex estimated these other payments based I just used last year's figures to estimate payments um we did receive as a matter of fact this week a donation already for $500 from the yoga um company for their use so that's already been deposited and interest I'm being conservative rates are going down a little bit so I estimated less than last year but based on that we're still should estimate receipts around almost $113,000 for this year and again estimating expenses based on last year so we did have we and a couple of these are very current on the freid and Tim's lawn care for the mowing is Fred um Fred is the John yep and for some reason I was looking and looking and looking all year long I only received most recently two bills from fra I would anticipate we may get a request from another department to transfer that over to an expense for us because I'm suspicious that went to the uh one of the other departments paid our bill M Unown ly and stuff so right now I've only expended $400 for freid but I would anticipate that it's going to be we might get a request from another department to transfer that expense to us um probably another 600 Campbell environmental Comm of mass that bill just came in and again it's 980 so and Tim's lawn care I don't know whether we've finished with mowing for the year whether they're going to do any more whether what they're what their agreement is whether they so I looked at it myself and actually looked okay but within the fiscal year if we have a mow again before July 1 we may have an expense for them oh yeah we'll probably have them done at least once before July ju so it's I'm looking at the fiscal year so most likely we will have an additional expense for them towards the end of the fiscal year so our expenses around $7,100 so our income is exceeding our expenses which is always a plus and historically we've always maintained a balance as just if we needed to do major reconstruction or repairs or whatever so I'm not surprised it just was important to see and we used to have higher monthly expenses when we had a Administrative Assistant who came to all our meeting meetings and did minutes and kept the file cabinets updated and all that stuff so that's part of why it's grown more and we'll also see an expense next year or when the signs finally yeah I was to say the signage what's what's our estimate on that uh like a month ago no but what price oh I don't remember but it'll be like a couple thousand or something because there's four or five of them or four of them yeah Mr chairman yes is this is not an Enterprise fund right this is it's actually a trust it's well it is a separate fund it's a trust or something I believe okay that's why it's set up it looks like almost like an Enterprise fund because if it weren't you're just a town Department you wouldn't be thinking about balances and stuff like no these These are funds that are um I don't believe it's officially an Enterprise I believe it's in a TR it's a trust fund because of the way the commission was set up oh so it behaves like a Enterprise yeah yeah because you got you're keeping a surplus there it's fine I have no question about that I was just wondering what it was and we have I have remember from the previous chairperson that the funds received from the leases because that's where the money comes from I don't know if it's by law regulation or bylaw need to be expended on The Landings uh or legal expenses related to the ls we had some high legal expenses uh and we had a we had a legal settlement yes a few years ago was that is that in here we we got uh we got a section of that we get a right well we had a good size settlement but we also had a good size expense expense against it right right that Adamsville Adamsville y y y good well that is helpful to know thank you for doing the research appreciate it no problem moving right along to overnight parking um in our bylaws there's a regulation that says no overnight parking uh at the Landing and at some Landings there used to be signage that said no overnight parking uh it has in my time here never been uh enforced the signage is not adequate if we wanted to enforce it and it seems to me that it would need to we need particularly about the about Westport Point Landing given that some of the people that park there are fishermen who go out overnight uh the issue would need to be figured out from Landing to Landing um I do think it's at minimum worth increasing the fine it's actually a dollar so what do you mean we're going from five to six no I think it I think actually I was wrong about it being five I think it might be one when I actually went and read through some old documents like that book there uh so uh in speaking with the parking clerk in town the fine for overnight parking at Cherry and web Beach if somebody gets locked in there is 50 bucks and there is some complexity about how you print the tickets that the police because they have these little check boxes so to me it's seem simplest if we do decide to start enforcing we would need mean making signs and then getting the police to take notice uh or the neighbors of the people who are encouraging us as was the case this past year with the head Landing people were parking there overnight the issue was really on drift Road people were parking overnight and then putting a tent up and sleeping living in a van basically a few days a week at on drift Road right there and so we basically want to become should any of this become a larger problem we want to be tooled up for it um yeah I thought just I was just thinking about security I mean you know to have people just pull up in the parking lot you know at at the at point there and you don't know who they are you don't know what kind of guns they're carrying you know what's going on there I mean it's one thing the fishermen I know all you know you could even they could even have you know like tickets that go with their boat you know but I don't think it would be very comfortable to have people parking any willy-nilly in front of your house or anywhere you know well not like you can call a cop and say hey could you check on this or that they're going to do a round and you know in in conversation with the Town Administrator about this there is parking in the road layout which is basically the side of the road in front of my home and almost every house in Westport except if you're on a really tiny lot really close to the road that at the moment there is no way to enforce no parking on the streets because they are state roads and the town could consider something like that if there was a reason to it's not a small deal and basically you kind of so it's something we could think about um and again it would probably have to be researched and it might be on a landing by Landing basis so I think it's it's part of the issue is is is there a problem well here's another thing to think about so if people are staying out overnight MH and they're not fishing I mean they're not fishing so what happens when the fishermen get there and the people get there in the morning and there's like three vans there you realize there a websites where people who have Vans go online and they find places to park their Vans some of those are free and some of those people you know you you you go to somebody's yard you pay them $50 park your car there or you park your van there you can park it there for a week overnight three 3 months whatever so there are sites for these people it's just you know so you're competing in the real world here so somebody says oh look I can go to the Head landing and I'll pay it's not posted yeah it's it's not doesn't say you can't park there I'm just going to go there and what if you what if you had 25 people show up then I there's a lot of that happening then I expect we would get more rigorous about enforcement but I just want us to consider developing the tools yeah so we can become more rigorous dollar if the fine is a dollar and the number of people that park at the head Landing it would take us about two decades to pay for the signs probably to put them up so dollar isn't enough than you right so I guess my sense we'll cross this bridge when we come to it is to just to make it easy to get started down this road so to speak uh that we try to mirror what is already the case for the town beaches I was going to say the town website under parking Clark has these are the signs that are on town the town beach and then they have a list of areas that are no parking and Tow zones listed for Town and a lot of those are near that are listed are near the beaches and so forth but I don't know if I can catch them if you hold it up I can looking at the Hicks Bridge Landing sign work I would definitely challenge that if I ever got a ticket there I have a p i have a a parking sticker but it says parking sticker only resident parking sticker only if I had a beach pass I have a resident parking sticker right so I would challenge that if I got a ticket there this this is an old photo it says town prier this is what's on the town website right but this is it does yeah does right and I this is an old photo I'm pretty sure that sign doesn't exist I don't think it does I was going to say I haven't seen that one in a long time and again a couple of them do reference um Beach Clos 9900 p.m. Gates lock vehicle subject to toe another one cherry and web says no parking 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. that type of thing so and it will vary because it has been pointed out to me that people fish and eel at night yes so again enforcement by a regular patrolling policeman would be tricky uh so I think again we want to have the tools so that should there be arise a real problem we at least have the tools to begin to deal with it uh because it would mean it would mean a lot of signs I mean I don't think you can just put one sign on drift Road sometimes it means that has to be a signed every 20 ft yeah so it wouldn't be pretty so I hate to say you know a good camera that went to the police station would be good enough to but you still have to have well that's an expense that's relatively High I know because when I was on the beach committee we have one but that still isn't enforceable as far as a ticket you have to have all the signs and and there's really a regulation that says the signs have to be every 20 or 40 feet or something or I I have heard that it is hearsay but I'm not sure what the rule well for hunting to post your property for hunting or something no hunting you've got to have them this is about parking that with especially since it's dirt and it's not striped say long drift Road and so so I would at least like a motion to move ahead mgl chapter 90 section 28 parking regulations violations notice to appear failure to appear and adjudication by mail um oh boy yeah so if we could at least have a motion tonight this afternoon to kind of move ahead I'm not sure whether this will need to go to town meeting I have to get somebody who understands bylaws to look at if it's a it's not clear if it's a landing commission bylaw whether just the landing commission can change it but then does that mean that only the land commission can write tickets because the landing commission used to enforce things they had badges like real badges and uh but do you want to be down there at 2 o'cl in the morning checking The Landings to write the tickets no that's what I'm saying so may need to go through through the select board we've got to figure out the legality of this and whether it needs to go to town meeting or who does it so we're not going to put that on your um requirements as the landing commissioner that the nearest Landing is yours to patrol all night long no we will maybe we'll we'll hire a parking enforcement official yeah right so I yeah I think you know I have a feeling it's going to be something that we're going to have to do jointly with the board of Selectmen or something as the um as the Parking Clerk is under your jurisdiction yep y got money can hire own I'm here to get a preview of all this coming down the pipe could I I I will entertain a motion as they say to move to to proceed and potentially move to $50 an infraction I motion that we proceed to um raise the ticket price the price of a violation for no parking on our Landings two two at least 50 even that's a pretty you can't you can't rent a mo a silly ball in the ocean for $50 anymore so I think that I understand Paving the roads and things at least 50 okay thank you all in favor I show that as unanimous thank you very much item six hixbridge Landing update I have been in touch with the Masons and they had a major meeting last week and I have not heard back from them about that so I have very little information about that but while geographically unless people have questions about the exiting issue I doesn't seem as though there have been any accidents doing what we're currently doing but I don't think it can can continue uh and we we did instruct the engineering company to get going with the redesign of the actual boat ramp and that whole region which is unaffected by where the exit is so uh because we need to expend some of the state funds soon so that's moving ahead are there any questions about that moving ahead means they're just going to look at design or they're going to actually start with the permitting and they're doing drawings and stuff what what whatever Engineers do spending money well we haven't money we haven't had any permit fees yet so we're not applying for permit yet and those are actually not paid from here those are paid from our grant oh good [Applause] which will be pursuing a lot more should we ever be able to rebuild the hibridge landing I think I'm going to skip for a moment to item eight parking since we're close hibridge parking on the west side of hicks Bridge uh I did test Park I I drove in and pretended that all the rocks along the road had actually been taken away and been replaced by cement heads headstones or wheel stops close to the road uh maybe a foot and a half back diagonal maybe painted with little orange ends so people don't hit them uh and I tried parking facing the road so I kind of pulled in and then turned that way and I I was in and that seemed much safer and that and that seems like that would would be potentially satisfied the police's safety officer about a way to exit safely because that was his concern and that's why our idea of parking along the road was sort of people weren't too excited about that so I'm going to try to get the highway department over there at some point to move a few rocks so it's easier to kind of drive in and do do that and then get the safety officer there and say what do you think about this and then move ahead that's the update on that and I left my phone in the car so I have a photograph of my car parked that way but it does seem like that would work well you know where the the trees are at the very East End and there's some dead trees there yes that's where the entrance and exit would be mhm and the idea would be just to but it it's pretty firm I I drove back and forth and tried to abuse the grass a little bit and it stood up pretty well so I think that we could do it for a year and see does it become muddy to be does it become a mess we need to put some Crush stone or shells there but it may be that for however much it gets used people can just drive in the grass and park in the grass how many cars would that accommodate to you mus think well I always push the envelope on that one so you know I would probably say eight and get Trimm back to six pretty quickly uh one of them being a handicap spot and probably fewer is better because then there would be less traffic traffic would that need planning board approval or when I've talked to them about this a little bit already they thought not but this is sort of a new idea so right right because you know you get into the sizes and lengths and everything and takes up space yeah but again it wouldn't be striped it'll it would just be headstones or wheel stops so backing up now sign installation update they said they'd be done soon six weeks ago I'm not good at pushing pushing and and all so I have no update I'm just noticing here there's you get a ticket if you park in front of 111 Forge Road but 141 is fine that's pretty weird what's it 111 for I don't know I just know my son was at 141 at one point and yeah it may be that there's no Road layout there so you're basically blocking the road might be a tree or something I don't know yeah is that south or north of um TI of 177 it's probably near it's probably near it would be titum brothers nope I don't think so cuz they park in front of that there's multiple parking spaces there but that's on their land may be on their land yeah yeah and maybe that you couldn't block you can't block them in I'd like to keep going with the agenda okay just a little little aside thank you never parked in front of 111 Forge Road or you might have a $5 fine ah pass minutes approval you all may have a copy of the minutes um we missed number seven or did we discuss oh you're going to wait on the sign installation field trip or was I right I said that we know nothing I just said we know nothing because I haven't heard from okay I will try to let you know sounds good to me I motion that we approve the minutes uh September 24th second uh uh those who can vote all in favor of approving the minutes of that day I I what you weren't here you can't vote your hand down that's in the line these little rookies rookie rookie commissioner over there all right oh uh business not anticipated a time of posting I spoke with the Boy Scout Troop 100 they do not have anyone of an appropriate age who's about to become an eagle scout that would take on the project of helping with clearing the Wetland I have yet to speak to troop three to see if they've got anybody coming up um it's not clear legally who's responsible for the constructed Wetland I've heard in the past different discussions about that somehow it's in the original document from 20 years ago um I I know we can get some cooperation from The Watershed where they would go in and tag the invasive species and it's occurred to me after if if I fail with the Boy Scouts to approach the land trust because I know they have a team of volunteers and they might rah rah go in there with loppers and cut stuff and then leave it leave a big pile in the parking lot yes so some of those some of Figo sir chairman sir um the land the the Council on Aging has gotten a group of guys together or not just guys um that that used to do things for the Conservation Commission and they kind of they've aged out of that but they're willing very willing to come in you know if you ask them you know if you can get three guys to come over on sometime and do this they they'd probably be happy to do it are these aged people they're not so aged that they can't do they're like my aged or your aged oh young yeah you know we can still jump up and down and right but I I would mention that they would be working on a relatively steep bank I don't so they would have to look at it and they could do what they could would you like to pursue that commissioner Figo I would be happy to pursue that that would be great um because this would be a great time of year to do it cuz the leaves are off and uh so yeah if you could do that and then either you or I can be in touch with uh do you want to also be in touch with the science director at wora and ask her to go take some orange tape and start tagging things now because it may become hard to tell once all the leaves have fallen off I I don't know I don't know what because I know they have a particular interest in that because they were calling the highway department and pressing them hard about it and the highway department called me and said Jeff we can't do this and we're not sure it's really our job even though they did do it a year or two ago when they had 14 guys for the summer and now they have four guys so they can't do it no this is this that would be perfect project for yeah and I expect we can coordinate with the highway department and they could pile it up and that would be fine good well why don't you find that out I will still chase the Boy Scouts because I still think it might be kind of a good ongoing project but but see what you find out first okay I was going to say yeah the Boy Scouts also it's not necessarily a pro uh Eagle Scout project but they do service St service yeah community service project that like you say is an ongoing project would be good and if they did it every year it would be pretty easy job you know probably a Saturday the kid 10 kids could get it done I think the kids are like over they're like 12 and 13 that's the age they should be working they should yes they should they need to learn how to do it they need to learn how to do it in concentration uhhuh okay I only have granddaughters I have an e what do you mean you only have well they probably wouldn't be interested is there any other business not anticipated at time of posting I have [Music] nothing could we have a next meeting date from someone who actually has a calendar with that would be me okay well we run into Thanksgiving Thanksgiving we' be looking at the 19th or the 26th by November the 26th is the week of Thanksgiving how about the 33rd that sounds good let's schedule that I mean December December yeah we don't have anything that's going to need urgent action and that would sort of take care of November and de the December meeting too yeah because December the end of December you run into Yeah Christmas and Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are both Tuesdays right so December 3rd sounds good to me December oh it actually that's a Tuesday yes it is yes 4:00 here as always and now I would entertain a motion got have the rookie needs practice a motion to adjourn I um motion that we adjourn second all in favor of adjournment I could vote I'd vote for that by the way did he vote no no he's a non-vote e