Middlesex Conservation Commission
Minutes of Meeting, December 11, 2003
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Middlesex Town Hall

Attendees
Duncan Nichols
Bill Rossmassler
Judy Keyes
Barry Goodman
Dave Shepard
John Austin
Rick Paradis
Heather Furman

Guests
Ella Abrams and Peter Scherer of the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District. Phone 229-9383

Call to Order
7:11 pm

Community Incentives Program (CIP): CVSWMD
Ms. Abrams and Mr. Scherer presented an overview of the CIP, which is currently in the pilot phase in Montpelier. Several pages of information were handed out to all Commissioners. The aim of the program is to help meet mandatory recycling in municipalities. The program provides a link between waste management and the towns’ office buildings, public works buildings, and town garages. There is a $1000 incentive for towns to attain Level I. 

The next step would be for MCC to present the concept to the Selectboard and find an interested coordinator in town.

Housekeeping
 • Minutes for October were unanimously approved after review and discussion. The November meeting was cancelled in lieu of the Middlesex Village Design Workshop.
 • Correspondences: There were several correspondences from over past several months. 

Treasures Report
 • Discretionary budget currently stands at $1067.30. This money must be spent by June 30, 2004. The MCC budget stands at $1949.59: $1741.99 is MCC budget $207.60 belongs to Keeping Track. The mid-fiscal report for Middlesex was presented to Rick. It was confirmed by Duncan that Heather had been reimbursed for her expenses from September. Bill submitted expenses for Friends of the Worchester Range Celebration in the amount of $125.42.
 
 • Rick and Bill drafted a budget for FY’04, which will be presented to the Selecboard on December 16th. There was considerable discussion concerning the budget, and a request for a $0.01 allocation to be used to build a conservation fund for the MCC.  The Commission decided to request $1000.00 for operations from the Selectboard and to request a consideration of $0.01 which would give MCC approximately $9000 for conservation. That would come to approximately $5.00 per $100,000 of property value. There was also discussion on developing a policy for the use of the Conservation Fund, and formally designating the $1741.99 as seed money for that fund. There was no resolution on who would draft the policy or whether the existing budget would become the base for the Conservation Fund. Dave, Bill and Duncan will probably attend the December 16th Selectboard meeting.

Discussion

Design Workshop
The Middlesex Village Design Workshop was a great success. Bill had copies of the final report which he gave to Heather in paper and digital format and to Judy in paper format. This will be reviewed for recommendation and follow-up.

MCC Assistance to MPC on Zoning Update
Bill compiled the work of the consultant into a legible spreadsheet. The Commission agreed to review the spreadsheet and have comments ready for next months meeting.

Great Brook
Everyone received copies of Mike Klein’s Great Brook Recommendations to the Selectboard.

Website
The Middlesex Solutions Committee has launched the new town website: www.middlesex-vt.org. Dave requested that we visit the site and provide comments. There was also an article about the website in the Middlesex Monthly.

Friends of Worchester
Bill reported that the Town of Elmore is interested in hosting the next meeting in January and that they have a lot of momentum for getting a Conservation Commission off the ground.

Next Meeting
The next MCC meeting is schedule for Thursday January 8th, due to the New Year’s day holiday which falls on our regularly scheduled meeting date.

Respectfully Submitted


Heather M. Furman, Secretary