MIDDLESEX CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Thursday, May 5, 2005
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Middlesex Town Offices
Middlesex, VT

MINUTES

 
Commissioners Present
Barry Goodman
Heather Furman
Rick Paradis
Bill Rossmassler
Dave Shepard
 

Administrative Operations
Call to Order 7:18
Note: A quorum was not present at the beginning of the meeting.
Rick joined the meeting at 7:45 to make quorum and allow for voting to take place.

Green-Up Day! May 7th, 2005
Those with trucks (Heather and Bill) should come to the Town Shed at 1:30 on Saturday May 7th. A Boy Scout Troop will be there and will have identified locations where large objects need to get picked up. Most of the Commissioner have volunteered times to be at the Town Shed and monitor the rubbish coming in.

Minutes
Heather made a motion to approve the January minutes, Bill seconded. Minutes were approved with suggested changes.

Treasurer’s Report
Rick reported the accounts had the following balances:
Special Projects Fund $2006.99
Conservation Fund $5,025.00
Selectboard Operations Appropriation $672.39

  Dave would like Treasurer to check on the interest of the CF account.
  Keeping Track: money has been officially incorporated into the Special Project Fund
  Reimbursements: Bill submitted on behalf of John Austin for the remote sensing camera. $243.94. This amount was approved at a prior meeting. John Austin will set up the camera at the Annual Meeting.

Correspondences
  AVCC Seedling, Winter 2004.

Annual Meeting
  MCC Annual Meeting is held in June of every year. Dave proposed moving it to June 9th because several Commissioners have a conflict. The meeting will be held at Rumney School to observe the nature trail. Everyone agreed that we could move the Annual Meeting to June 9th. The business end of the meeting will start at 6:00 and will last 30 minutes. At 6:30 pm we will open the meeting to the public. There was a discussion about the natural trail project. This meeting will be a potluck for dinner. Everyone should bring a dish!
  We will be selecting officers. If anyone would like to run for office or remain an officer, they should contact Dave. Rick and Duncan are up for renewal as Commissioners. Dave will contact the Selectboard to see if they have any objections to Rick and Duncan renewing their terms. We decided that we this would be a good practice from here on out.
  Annual meeting is a good time to review bylaws.
Action Item: Review bylaws and make recommendations for any changes.
  We will also be discussing next years’ work plan.
  The Conservationist of the Year Award was discussed and a recipient was decided upon. This will go in the Middlesex Monthly. Dave and Bill will coordinate.

Committee Reports

Conservation Fund Committee
  Brochure – The brochure is off to the graphic designer. Once we get a proof from Brian, we will send it to the Selectboard for final review. Dave called National Life about printing, we should hear back soon.

Friends of the Worcester Range
  A couple from Middlesex met with Kate Willard on Friday, and Rick went with them. They will be considering the Legacy Program but have concerns regarding public access, especially since they have so much road frontage. There was also a landowner from Waterbury at the meeting.
  Tomorrow’s meeting is cancelled, but two have been rescheduled for May 20th and perhaps May 18th.

Village TE Grant
  Barry spoke to Amy Bell this week and she is still trying to track down the C.A. We are still unable to move forward until that CA has been executed. Steve could be preparing the RFP if he wants to.
  Heather will coordinate a village Green-Up for the month of June.

Wildlife Monitoring Committee
  Amphibian crossings were a success! The Commission recommended that we get a report from Katie and do an article for the paper. There were a lot of new crossing locations discovered and should be noted and monitored next year.
  Barry reported that he had a small black bear hanging around his house.

Recreation Trails Committee
  Bill handed out a Phase I and Phase II scope of work outline for the Recreation Trails Committee. See handout for details (attached). Dave noted that Jane Dudley, Mike Levine and others are interested in this Committee. Once the Commissioners review the outline, a final draft will be send to all interested parties.
  It was suggested that the Committee meet again and with Tom. The Planning Commission may be interested in doing a joint application to MPG to update the Town Plan. This could dovetail nicely with our Recreation Plan. 

Other Business
Dave and Bill went to the last Planning Commission meeting. They have a schedule from now until fall to discuss zoning issues with specific topics. Interim zoning expires for Village at the end of this year, and they can’t extend it again because they extended once already. They are interested in finalizing the interim zoning for the Village and telecom by putting it to a vote in November.

Water Quality update: Mike Kline will be in touch with us regarding restoration projects this summer.

Adjournment: 8:48pm

Respectfully Submitted


Heather M. Furman
Secretary