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MIDDLESEX CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Thursday, February 2, 2006
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Middlesex Town Offices
Middlesex, VT
MINUTES
Commissioners Present
John Austin
Barry Goodman
Duncan Nichols
Rick Paradis
Dave Shepard
Administrative Operations
Call to Order 7:10
Minutes
Minutes from the Commission’s meeting in January were not available so their review and approval was deferred until the next monthly meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
Rick reported the accounts had the following balances:
Special Projects Fund $941.97 (change due to printing brochure)
Conservation Fund $10,070.10
Selectboard Operations Appropriation $975.00
Correspondences
No correspondences were received.
Commission members were reminded of the AVCC writing contest. Dave offered to remind Gary who may be interested in participating.
Guests
Middlesex residents Jane Dudley and Scott Gurley joined the meeting.
Committee Reports
Conservation Fund Committee
• The conservation fund will be a warned item for town meeting. Someone from the Commission will need to be prepared to speak on behalf of the fund.
• Heather offered to mail all the fund brochures. This is now complete. A HUGE THANKS to Heather for her efforts on this!!
Village Action Committee
• Barry discussed the recent plans for traffic calming and pedestrian access to the town.
• The plan is to present the new information on the village traffic plan to the Select Board after town meeting.
• The plan is designed to be implemented in phases.
• Barry indicated that the focus needs to be on actually constructing some of the recommended measures at this point rather than working on more project planning.
Recreation Trails
• A status report was provided by Barry and Dave on this project. No major changes to report. The Commissioners who serve on the recreation trails committee include: Bill, Duncan, Barry, and Dave. The grant has two components, 1) town plan update, which will be overseen by the Planning Commission. This includes work on digital parcel data that will be overseen by the Town Listers, 2) Recreation chapter, that will be overseen by the Conservation Commission and Rec. Trails committee. This chapter will hopefully lay the foundation for a town-wide Recreations Trails Plan (included update from December minutes by Heather Furman).
Zoning and Planning Committee
• Dave indicated that the town won’t be voting on new zoning until November instead of at town meeting. Apparently, there were a great many questions and concerns expressed at the public meeting. Based on that meeting, it was decided that more time would be given to try and resolve outstanding issues.
• One big concern focused on the acreage thresholds for lot sizes in the conservation and rural residential districts.
Wildlife Monitoring Committee
• Katie Feldman and her father joined the meeting to discuss coordination of the Middlesex spring salamander migration rescue efforts. Katie’s salamander website can be accessed at: www.savethesalamanders.org
• Katie has secured a grant from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources to develop a CD of information to raise awareness on the ecology and values of salamanders in Vermont.
• Katie requested assistance from the Commission on scouting for new salamander crossing sites and coordinating people during the spring road crossing events. The current list of crossing sites includes:
o Bolduc/East Hill Road
o Molly Supple Road (2 sites?)
o Shady Rill (traffic is too dangerous to post people at this site)
o Brook Road, near cow pond
• The Commission agreed to provide Katie with the current list of interested persons that may participate in the road crossing assistance project. However, we need to identify someone who is willing to serve as the central contact person for coordinating people on the night of migration events.
• Katie requested assistance in contacting the town road department for use of safety cones and to determine whether it is permissible to place signs warning drivers to slow down at the crossing sites. The Commission agreed to contact Gary Lamel to discuss this.
• The Commission offered to purchase reflective safety vests for people that participate in this work. Katie will let us know how many vests to purchase.
• The Commission agreed that another article should appear in the February or March issue of the Middlesex Monthly. An article as published in the February issue of the Monthly.
• The Commission will investigate the extent to which the north branch nature center is coordinating salamander rescue efforts to try and take advantage of any work they are doing.
• Katie’s father announced that Katie was recently recognized with a presidential scholar award! Congratulations Katie!!
Ott-Snead Property
• The current owners of the Ott-Snead property are interested in selling the land. This is a large 443 acre parcel valued at $275,000 located near Middlesex notch. This is an important piece of land for conservation for many reasons, particularly because it would connect Putnam State Forest to the Middlesex Notch Wildlife Management Area.
• The Commission reviewed the parcel maps for the area and all agreed that we should investigate moving forward with some measure of conservation by speaking with the Select Board.
• This parcel may be eligible as a forest legacy project.
• Conservation options that were discussed included having the land become a town forest, conveying the land to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, or the Vermont Land Trust.
• The Commission agreed to present this matter to the Select Board at its meeting on February 28th and request their authorization to look into this matter further.
Town and Community Forestry Committee
• Town Forest – Duncan had a list of parcels that are owned by the town that could be potential for the Town Forest Program (NFA). We agreed that looking at the maps at next meeting and perhaps conducting a site walk would be a good idea.
• December 3rd. 9-12 is the pruning work session at Rumney School. Wear your gloves!
Other Business
• Annual report is due soon.
• John will contact Farley Brown from Vermont Coverts to discuss the best strategy for making a presentation to the Commission, and perhaps some Middlesex landowners at our meeting in April.
Adjournment
Duncan made a motion to adjourn, John seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 9:10pm.
Respectfully Submitted
John M. Austin
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