MIDDLESEX CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Thursday, November 3, 2005
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Middlesex Town Offices
Middlesex, VT

MINUTES

 
Commissioners Present
Barry Goodman
Heather Furman
Judy Keyes
Duncan Nichols
Rick Paradis
Bill Rossmassler
Dave Shepard
Gary Miller
 

Administrative Operations
Call to Order 7:08

Minutes
Barry made a motion to approve the October minutes, Gary seconded. Minutes approved without changes.

Treasurer’s Report
Rick reported the accounts had the following balances:
Special Projects Fund $1767.97
Conservation Fund $10,045.12
Selectboard Operations Appropriation $975.00

 • We received a $10 donation from the pruning workshop.
 • The town budget request is due by November 17th, 2005. Rick presented the budget request in memo format for fiscal 2007. The total budget request will be $1000, same as in previous years. This is to cover our annual operating expenses. Duncan moved to approve the budget, Barry seconded. Budget was approved.
 • Dave wrote a cover letter to accompany the budget. Cover letter will deal with two other funding items. 1) Town Conservation Funding – there is not a need for us to do a petition, however there was some discussion about whether or not to do a separate warned item OR request that it be included as a line item in the regular town budget. Dave added the Town Solutions Committee might like to see a separate article in order to stimulate discussion. He suggested that it might not be well-received if it is buried in the budget. It was decided to leave it up to the Selectboard to make the final decision.     2) Dave indicted that the cover letter will touch on the Tree Warden appropriation. Judy and Gary suggested that we add some examples of the work that needs to be done with the Tree Warden budget. Bill will send around the Tree Resources Plan, since it contains much of the information and projects that were identified as part of the Tree Grant application. It was decided to contact Mike Patterson to let him know that we would like to move ahead with the request.
 • Dave will make a change to the letter and send it around for review. 


Correspondences
  RSG invoice – needs to be signed off by a Commissioner and left for June.
  VT Community Forestry assessment from FRP
  Bill had a correspondence from VLT.

 
Committee Reports
Conservation Fund Committee
 • Brochure: Gary spoke with Buy Monthly about the mailing labels and plastic stickers (tabs). Total cost for just these two services will be: $140 above their original quote of $821.00 which was for printing. The Grand Total for the printing, folding, labeling and tabbing will be $ 961.00. The post office will bill us separately for the bulk mailing.

 • We are ready to go with the printer. It was restated that the bulk-mailing postage will come out of operations appropriation budget, and the remainder of the printing costs ($821.00), plus labeling and stickers ($140) will come from the Special Projects Fund. Heather made a motion to approve the expense stating that Gary is authorized to go ahead and get the file from Brian over to Buy Monthly., Duncan seconded. All were in favor. Heather and Gary will make arrangements to check the final proof before it is printed.

Friends of the Worcester Range
 • The FWR meeting was a success. There was some discussion that there is a group within Friends who is interested in moving forward more quickly with the Legacy process. Heather relayed that she is inclined to let the process play out to see if other folks are interested in signing on before trying to do a separate deal.

Village Action Committee
 • There will be a public meeting on Tuesday November 8th, 2005 for the Village pedestrian mobility and traffic calming project. Everyone expressed how pleased they were with RSG to date.

Zoning and Planning Committee
 • Next meeting is the final planning commission meeting before the final vote on final Village zoning. The vote will be held on November 29, 2005. Polls will be open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm

 • There will be a series of articles in the Middlesex Monthly to inform town residents about the new town-wide zoning. It will be a “WE LISTENED” campaign. There will also be a poster meeting focused on neighborhood concerns in early January.

Community Forestry Committee
 • FPR pruning workshop was held at the Rumney School on October 22, 2005. Dave reported that the workshop went well, but was sparsely attended. He suggested that we do a workday at Rumney school to help with pruning on Saturday December 3rd.

Town Forest Initiative
Northern Forest Alliance – has launched an initiative to help towns create town forests or help maintain town forests. Middlesex does not have a town forest and could serve as a pilot program. Right now it is in a proposal stage and NFA is looking for financial support. 

Adjournment 8:41pm
Heather made a motion to adjourn, Duncan seconded and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted

Heather M. Furman
Secretary