MIDDLESEX CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Thursday January 5, 2006
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Middlesex Town Offices
Middlesex, VT

MINUTES

 
Commissioners Present
Heather Furman
Judy Keyes
Rick Paradis
Bill Rossmassler
Dave Shepard
Gary Miller


Administrative Operations
Call to Order 7:00

Minutes
Dave made a motion to approve the December minutes Gary seconded. Minutes approve without changes.

Treasurer’s Report
Rick reported the accounts had the following balances:
Special Projects Fund $1777.97
Conservation Fund $10,045.12
Selectboard Operations Appropriation $975.00

Rick will call to get the interest.
Invoices were submitted for the brochure printing from Buy Monthly for $861.00. RSG also submitted invoices for the Enhancement Grant.

Correspondences
 • Seedling (AVCC). RFP came from DEC’s River Management Program. Dave would like to talk with Mike about the Grant Brook project status and see what work might be accomplished this year. Planning Zoning series on January 19th, at VIT sites, Interval Foundation has trees for reasonable prices, TNC Oak Log, VLCT sent a questionnaire asking what we need help with as a town and showing services they provide.

Recreation Trails
 • Special Guest - Tom Jackman. Tom brought in a copy of the RFP for the Town Plan Update and Recreation Trails Mapping project. He said the purpose is to update the town plan and focus on a recreation portion of the town maps. He said a component will also take tax parcel maps and digitize these for town plan maps. Next steps: proposals are due on the 20th of January, 2006. At least two consultants have expressed interest and will be submitting. Tom requested that a committee be formed to review the proposals: Barry is nominated. Heather volunteers. Brian Cotterill and Sandy Levine. Tom will contact Brian Cotterill. Conservation Commission will take the lead on Recreation Trails Plan portion. Tom budgeted very little for the public outreach survey, so the survey could focus solely on the recreation component.

Committee Reports
Conservation Fund Committee
 • Brochure: COMPLETE! We labeled all of the brochures. Bill volunteered to send a brochure and a thank you letter to the people who served on the Conservation Fund review committee. Heather and Dave will coordinate with June on getting the bulk mailing out before town meeting.
 • Dave will check with SB on whether the Conservation Fund will be warned or if we will be part of the budget.

Village Action Committee
 • RSG is moving forward with the conceptual plans for the village and will be presenting them soon.

Zoning and Planning Committee
 • Zoning hearings are coming up and a poster session will be held on January 18th at Town Hall at 7:00. Public hearing will be held on January 11th 7:30 in conjunctions with the Planning Commission. Tuesday January 24th is Selectboard public hearing. There will be a series of articles from the Town Solutions committee.

Town and Community Forestry Committee
 • Pruning workshop was held last weekend. It was a very cold day, but the group got a lot of work done. Judy is interested in doing another grant application for tree planting near the school. She will coordinate on setting up Green Up Day – May 6th.

Friends of Worcester Range
 • Thursday January 26th will be the next meeting. Bill will contact Diana about presenting the Putman State Forest re-write kick-off.

Wildlife Monitoring Committee
VT Coverts will attend our April meeting. We could contact landowners who might be interested in monitoring and invite them to the April meeting. 

Other Business
Town Website MCC Homepage
 • Heather introduced a menu that she drafted up for the website. She will send it over to the Town Solutions Committee and Greg Whitchurch.

Upcoming Topics
Katie Feldman and the salamander migration
Jeff Koonz re: the Boy Scouts and Green Up Day.
Strategizing for March Town Meeting – poster of brochure, salamanders, great brook, village planning.

Rick mentioned opportunities to collaborate with the North Branch Nature Center.

Adjournment 
Judy made a motion to adjourn, Bill seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 9:09pm.

Respectfully Submitted

Heather M. Furman 
Secretary