Condensed from Approved Minutes
Present: Nan Kaplan, Jerry Hersey, Tina Cotton, Derek Mansell, Jesse Schust, and guests Harvey Pine and Gerry Gold.
Minutes: Tina made a motion to approve the July minutes with small corrections/additions, Nan seconded, and all were in favor.
Tina made a motion to approve the August minutes with small corrections/additions, Jesse seconded, and all were in favor.
Correspondence:
DES – Forestry Notification, August 8, 2017, and August 14, 2017, for lot 6/540 388.
DES correspondence, August 23, 2017, and September 2017, regarding Chaplin property, 28 377-028.
New Hampshire Association of Conservation Commissions, notification of annual meeting on November 4, 2017.
ASLPT: A new Ausbon Sargent conservation easement has been completed, near several other easements including Old College Road Preserve and McLeod Preserve. This easement is known as the Roby easement.
Co-occurrence Maps – Harvey Pine: Co-occurrence maps of Andover were created by Laura Alexander at Colby Sawyer College in 2010 by superimposing individual layers showing water resources, farms, etc. from GRANIT and local personal knowledge. Harvey Pine discussed updating the co-occurrence maps (and the work that had been previously done). He explained that these GIS overlays can be accessed through computer programs such as ARC and that the files can now be converted to .kml and .kmz files, which allows viewing of this work easily using a variety of other mapping tools, e.g. Google Earth, handheld GPS devices, etc. He proposed that shape files could be stored on Google Drive and this would allow access for the Conservation Commission and updating of centralized files. The CC would like to update the layers of special places, forests and farms, and especially wetlands in anticipation of a possible warrant article on zoning. Harvey will return in November. Jesse will send Harvey the prime wetlands map from the 1980s report.
Monitoring: Derek reported that he had conducted conservation easement and town-owned parcel monitoring and there were no major issues to report. He said it would be useful to re-blaze the Newman boundary.
Sunapee Ragged Kearsarge Greenway – Gerry Gold: The SRKG is currently in the process of replacing a bridge on the side of Ragged Mountain. Gerry explained the project and other trail maintenance the SRKG is doing. Removal of the old bridge went well with just three volunteers in one day.
Mary Anne Broshek updates: Mary Anne sent the following update, since she could not make it to the meeting:
“Culverts- Stacy Luke reports that training to identify culverts will take place soon. She will contact Vicky Mishcon to update her on progress and to invite John Thompson to training. Mary Anne called Vicky to let her know Stacy would be contacting her.”
“Beaver Deceivers – Stacy has had no luck getting responses from DOT. Mary Anne called Vicky to discuss having an educational site visit for DOT. Mary Anne will contact Sandy Crystall re permits required for beaver deceivers. Vicky agrees that an educational site visit with the road agent and DOT is the way to go.”
Bog Pond: Jesse has been to the site of nearby excavation by the town. The highway department has removed large piles of material near to the wetland boundary, as agreed. The snowmobile trail can now be routed across the area.
Review of Bradley Lake issues: Residents report that work is continuing. No additional issues have been raised.
Wetlands: Jesse is looking into possible wetlands ordinance that might be appropriate for Andover to adopt.
Cell tower: The meeting for the public to consider a proposed Verizon cell tower adjacent to the transfer station will be held on Tuesday September 26th.
Jerry made a motion to adjourn, Nan seconded and all were in favor. The meeting adjourned at 9.30 pm.