Middlesex Conservation Commission
Minutes of Meeting, September 4, 2003
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Rumney Memorial School*

Attendees
Duncan Nichols
Bill Rossmassler
Barry Goodman
Dave Shepard
Rick Paradis
Heather Hibbard

Call to Order
7:08 pm

Housekeeping
 • Minutes for May, June and August meetings were unanimously approved after discussion and review. The July meeting was cancelled, thus no minutes were recorded.
 • A change of venue was discussed for MCC meetings. *It was unanimously decided that to change the meeting location to Town Hall, beginning with the October meeting.
 • The appointment of officers was discussed, and voted upon. Officer appointments are as follows: Co-chair will be held by Dave Shepard and Bill Rossmassler, Rick Paradis will remain Treasurer, Heather Hibbard to become Secretary.
 • Bill handed out copies of our Bylaws and general information on Conservation Commissions. We discussed term limits and the open meeting law.
 • Correspondences: There was an extensive list of correspondences from over the summer. Noteworthy was an offer from the CVSWD to give a presentation on recycling grants. It was agreed that a CVSWD presentation would be put on the December agenda.

Treasures Report
 • Total budget remains at $1944.01. Several bills were presented for approval including a reimbursement to H. Hibbard for fund expended for Design Workshop ($32.16). Hibbard could no verify that the bill had been paid.  Duncan will follow up with June to confirm if bill has been paid. Rumney School also submitted a bill for materials in the amount of $225.54, and Middlesex Monthly bill totaled $200.00 for calendar year 2003.
 • A budget will need to be drafted for FY’04. Rick will begin work on this and send to the Committee for review.

 
Discussion

MCC to Provide Assistance to MPC on Zoning Update
There was considerable discussion led by Bill, on what role the MCC should play in the Zoning Update process for the Town. Bill has been attending Planning Commission meetings to provide input and support.

Bill provided 4 scenarios for the MCC to consider, 1) Respond collectively to the survey that MPC send out at the beginning of the summer; 2) Review a “position statement” letter that was submitted to the MPC by the MCC in response to the Town Plan in February, 2002, and update as necessary; 3) Review Interim Zoning and provide comment on proposed Zoning as outlined in the Aug Draft by Burnt Rock; 4) Review district boundaries and mapping.

Heather suggested that #’s 3 and 4 may be time-consuming and are subject to change, and that a more efficient use of time might be to use the survey to guide to comment on specific natural resource-related points.

There was agreement to review questions # 12 and #13 in the survey concerning natural resources and tele-communications. This led to a revisit of the letter that was submitted to the Planning Commission in Feb ’02. There was agreement that we develop an addendum to this letter with regard to streamside buffers, deer wintering area buffers, wetland buffers, and particularly the ridgeline-hillside overlay. 

Heather advocated that we reference the Town of Stowe’s RH overlay and Bill suggested that Elmore district would provide a good starting point. Bill offered to write a position statement, in cooperation with Heather.

Great Brook
Barry commented that he had a very interesting visit to the field with Mike Kline to complete the assessment of Great Brook. The Brook is experiencing many problems that will need to be dealt with delicately.

Design Workshop
November 6th has been set for the Village Design Workshop. We discussed briefly the agenda for the day, and brainstormed outreach strategies. Heather will book Town Hall and send notice to the Steering Committee. We are looking forward to a successful event!!


Respectfully Submitted


Heather M. Hibbard, Secretary