 Yeah, no, I'm happy to jump in right now again. Yeah. And just to let you know, there is a town council meeting that I'm not central to, but I am, I do want to see that meeting. So if there's anything, any questions you, you, the commission has about the conservation restriction on nine 10 Southeast street, I'm happy to jump back into the meeting. Aaron could just text me. That would be good. Okay. Okay. Yeah, thank you. And a little bit, but very quickly. A couple of updates for the commission. As you know, we are looking for an assistant land manager. I think I announced that at your last meeting a couple of weeks ago, Tyler P's is moving on to other professional pursuits. So if you know anybody, the job is open. It's a great introductory presentation. We also have a plan conservation and conservation management. So the job is posted on the town website. We also have a planner position open in our planning department. So if you know anybody, recent graduates included, please send them our way. So absolutely. Let's see a couple of other updates. I am anxious. I know you all have been busy and Aaron has been busy. He's been busy. He's busy. He's busy. He's busy. He's busy. He's busy. Just everywhere it seems these past couple of weeks, but I am anxious to get going on the. You know, the land management work and the subcommittee that. You all formed and I'm looking forward to that. I don't know if we have a first meeting time for that group there and yet, or that's something you're working on with a couple of the commission members. Yeah, we, it's not set yet. But, um, yeah, I'd say in the next two weeks, I'd like to have a date set and things a little bit better organized to get rolling. A good note for myself about that. Yeah, that'd be great. I will say that, um, it's always about this time of year. Um, there, there are, uh, and again, this is somewhat is related to the land management policy and, and work we're going to be talking about, but we do have a couple of, um, uh, instances out there in the field where, uh, people have, uh, licenses or leases on town conservation land. And it's really time to kind of revisit those. It's been a long time since we've looked at those carefully. And we've got such a great commission right now. It, it might be good to look at those this summer and really see where we are, which ones have expired, which ones we want to continue. So, um, we've got a lot of practices at, at Amethyst Brook, um, station road farms, uh, some things going on at Atkins flats with, with farming and equestrian, um, uh, activities. So, um, you know, we're, we're a little behind on, on taking a fresh look at those. So, um, for those of you interested, we can kind of, uh, uh, pull those out for you and get, get cracking on that. Um, let's see. Oh, I'm sorry. That would also include Mount Pollux. Um, Pollux has a lot of interest in, um, you know, the conservation plan and the management plan for Mount Pollux. So, um, I have certainly made some promises to the, the butters and, and people who love Mount Pollux. And I feel as though it's been too long through the pandemic that we haven't, uh, active on some of those, uh, those management objectives in that, in that plan. So things, even simple things like getting new kiosks up, populating kiosks around town with new information, new maps. It's just one of these time consuming things that, um, uh, Aaron and I have not and Brad have not had time to get to. So I'd like to do some catch up this summer. Um, let's see. We're also hiring summer staff. So if you know any folks who would like to work with the conservation department, I'll respond on trails. Um, Brad is going to be a one person show for a little while. We're going to try to keep Tyler on. Um, he's, he's willing to, to help us a little bit throughout May and June, maybe into July. So we'll do the best we can with that. But, um, we do need to hire some, some summer crew to work on the trails. So by all means, if you didn't know anybody, again, it's on the website and they could apply. And we're starting interviews for those positions next week. They're anywhere from 20 to 40 hours flexible. Weekends are great because we can get Puffer spawn, uh, coverage. We're also going to be working a little bit with the crest team. Uh, this is our new alternative, uh, police response, response and community response, uh, department. And they're interested in helping us with kind of meeting and greeting at Puffer spawn. Um, so, uh, that could not, it won't be seven days a week, but it might be some Saturdays during the summer, some Sundays during the summer. And we'll do our, our tent, kind of meet and greet tent there at the main part of the beach. And I think the only other last update I'll share with you is. I did have a rather last minute, uh, at least for your process request. Um, and I want to get the name of the group right here. Um, um, the Western mass technical rescue team, which is based out of North Hampton, uh, contacted me in the last 24 hours or so. Um, requesting, um, um, Um, permission to use Puffer spawn on the 16th. They would like to set up on the North beach and do basically some simulated rescue. And this is something that we do through the Amherst fire department. Uh, as you may know, the Amherst fire department does ice rescue there during the winter. Um, and given that this kind of materials materialized rather quickly. Um, um, I gave them at least the, uh, the green light to proceed. I hope you, uh, are okay with that. Um, they will be there just for about two and a half, two and a half, three hours on the 16th, uh, in the morning. And they're going to, they're not going to displace any, um, um, fishermen, they're, um, um, people fishing. They're going to, um, work with them. And, and, you know, there'll be, uh, a few trucks there and, and maybe a dozen staff going in and out of the water. And again, simulating rescue of people who, uh, have had trouble swimming or, or on the bottom, et cetera. And also, uh, you know, retrieving, uh, people as well as, you know, they do everything. They do cars and property as well as people who are in need, uh, around water bodies. So, so I think I'll stop there. Dave, what was the name of the group you said, uh, just for the minutes. Western Massachusetts technical rescue team. And they're out of North Hampton. Um, they're coming through the Amherst fire department. I would not be surprised if some Amherst fire department staff are there as well. And you said that was May 16th. Yes. Okay. That's why it kind of materials materialized quickly. Um, and, uh, we want to try to cooperate because they're the folks, they and Amherst fire and Amherst police are the folks we call. And when 911 calls go out about offers or any of our conservation land, we want these people to be very familiar with water bodies as well as the trail system in Amherst and Mount Hoyok range. Seems all right with me. Do we. Do you want to motion or do you want to. I, I don't feel the need for a formal motion unless other commission members do. It's. I'm comfortable. I've worked with those folks in, uh, at the, uh, range before. And they're, they're good and they're people that, uh, we need to. Have trained. In fact, I've talked to them about maybe practicing in future years down at, um, Plum Brook pond near the Kestrel Trust office just to get a familiarity with that water body as well. And they could do Owens pond sometime. Um, because, you know, all of these places are used on the dusk 365 days a year. And you know, even in the winter for ice rescue and such. So it's good to have them be familiar with all of our, our assets in town. Do they do rescue in the, in the river? They do. Yes. They're the main group that does rescue in the Connecticut river as well. And Fort River. I'm sorry. If somebody had a problem. And in the, in the river in town. It would, it would be to be able to get a kayak or for example, tips over and gets been on a log. I think the first response in the Fort River would be Amherst fire. They have members who are trained in the same kind of techniques as this group. Uh, the difference I think is these folks actually go in the water with scuba gear. Um, and you know, sometimes it is. If a rescue has now moved to a recovery, it is this group that does the recovery. So it's a combination of both, but if it was a Fort River situation, I think Amherst fire could be there within minutes. This team actually has to assemble and then get somewhere as quickly as they can. They do climbing type stuff and, uh, um, you know, uh, high, high-angle, uh, rescues and all that. Um, I think I'll stop there. Aaron may have some updates for you. Um, Aaron may want to give a Hickory Ridge update, um, as well. Um, yeah, so I've been, uh, There's multiple things going on at Hickory. I've, I've been working with a consultant who's doing the design work for the. Two grants, uh, the part grant and the CDBG grant. Um, so they're doing design work right now for trail system out there. Um, so that's, that's ongoing and hopefully going to be, um, Nearing the designs will be nearing completion pretty soon. Um, And then as far as the Hickory Ridge solar project, um, They are in the process right now of putting up security fencing around the location, um, of the Eastern array and the Western array. Um, they're kind of in a holding pattern right now if they're building permit. And the reason for that is because there was some discrepancies between the original approved, um, Plan set as part of the order of conditions and their final, like, I guess they call it an IFC set. Um, so there was some discrepancies for particularly what was missing was the, um, Flood mitigation that was required as part of the original order of conditions and that flood mitigation was left off the final plan set. So they're in the process of adding that back in. And then, uh, the containment for the battery storage facility, um, Is also being added in. So, um, they're in the final stages of, um, Finalizing their plans and getting us the, the final plan set. And once those are submitted to us, then, um, Basically we'll be moving towards a building permit, um, For that project so that they can really get underway with, uh, With the work on site. Um, yeah, I know this was a while ago and you said they're currently putting up the security fence. I was just wondering if it's wildlife friendly fence, like. At least six foot, you know, there's lots of critters moving through that. River land. Yeah. No, it's a good question, Michelle. Um, so. I may defer to Dave or members who were on the board when that fencing was approved. I think that they're, this is my understanding. And this is based on the, because there's, um, endangered species on the site. That their aim was to keep or natural heritage is natural heritage and endangered species program. I believe their intention was to keep the endangered species out of those areas. And so. I don't think that it is. And the reason for that is because they don't want endangered species wandering into the, um, Solar arrays and getting trapped in there. So, um, But if anybody else knows differently, please let me know, but that that was my understanding. Makes sense. Laura. Yeah, no, I was just going to comment that, um, that actually is frequently true. So the wildlife fencing is really important, especially with. Like really large solar farms. Um, but in fact, um, You know, depending upon what's there, sometimes you want to, you know, leave room for like snakes, for example, they go in and out, but you actually don't want to have enough room for like a raccoon to come in and chew up all the wires or, you know, porcupine or things like that. So it just, it's really site specific. Um, so. Yeah, isn't there a situation too? You get limited on how high the bottom can be off the ground in terms of certain legality issues. I guess you were just, yeah, you can't have anyone have a raccoon. Yeah, or like, you can't have it be large enough for a person to be able to climb under it. It's a major liability because it is a power generation facility. So. So I think we talked about that one on the Mitchell farm. When we did the solar and the Mitchell farm. And they said that we can only go. Six inches. But it also makes sense about specifically Hickory Ridge, not allowing. The animals and especially during construction. So just to confirm Aaron, when you say security fence, this is the permanent fence. Construction fence. This is permanent fence. Just, just to be clear, I was there this morning. Yeah. So this is the permanent perimeter fence. That will provide security to the degree of fence does, you know, so people don't enter the site and yeah, I'm, I'm quite sure we didn't. Natural heritage and the commission did not require a, you know, six inch or eight inch raise. Fence, I think it does go to the ground because there are certain readers out there that we don't want to get particularly some that are state listed that we don't want to get into those arrays and then either get hit by a piece of equipment or never make their way out. But that is a good point. We do have that sometimes. And I know on other solar arrays in town, we've had that. We've required it actually. I think I'm sure college ones that might have been required. Have a, you know, I think, I think it was eight inch. I can't remember exactly. But by and large it's going very well. Again, kudos to Aaron for being on top of things both in the field and on the plan sets. And she and I talk. And share information and, and a dynamic in their team, you know, flowing through hemp, if you will, has been very responsive. And we continue to be impressed with the project manager on site and being very responsive and, and transparent. So that's how we want it to be. This is going to be a longer construction period than we bought originally. And part of that is just delays due to getting, getting equipment, getting, getting. Components of the arrays and then weather. But I think, you know, their hope is to be wrapped up in the fall date to be determined at this point. So it'll be all summer. They'll be under construction for sure. It's seven 19, our first year is at seven 30. We want to try to get. Anything else? Unless anyone else had any comments. Say. Other business. Yeah, so I can give you guys a couple updates. The first is that. Several. Town boards and committees. Received. A notification from the New England central railroad. That they would be doing. That they would begin spraying in June. And so I. Sent the consultant for new England central railroad, a. Correspondence just. Outlining the fact that. They still don't have a valid determination of applicability from the conservation commission and until they do, they shouldn't be doing any spraying in town. So just if people. You know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. My eyes and ears out there, just making sure that. That's not happening. I don't think that their intention is to spray, but it's, I'm suspected. I suspect that it was just sort of a standard boiler plate. That went out to all of the towns. But. Just so that folks are aware, I did send a letter to them, basically saying, you guys don't have a valid determination. That we need in order to reschedule their hearing. And also. They never did a butter notifications for their application. They didn't really want to. Do the butter notifications. So. So anyways, I'll keep you posted if anything changes with that. But right now there's, there's no. Movement on the, the application. We're a couple of years on into this one. Yeah. It's gosh, it was, I think. Two or three years ago that the. Determination was. Was denied basically they, the commission didn't confirm the boundaries because the. Information submitted to us wasn't, wasn't entirely accurate. And then. They did resubmit in an attempt to try to comply with the regulations, but then they didn't want to do the above notifications. And there was also still issues with. The delineation itself, it appeared that basically there was no field based delineation that was ever completed. And so. That was the concern was, you know, they need to do some due diligence in the field to verify resource areas. And I was able to basically point out multiple resources that were missed in their sort of desktop analysis. So anyways, so that, that's that. I just. Pop the letter I think in your folder to let you guys know that I sent the letter. The other item is the memorandum of understanding with the DPW for operation and maintenance of stormwater. Structures in town and. We have it's, it's not a very long document and it's, it's by no means like a final document. It's more or less just to get a dialogue started on making because, because we don't want to tie DPW's hands in terms of operation and maintenance. We want it to be clear to them. We want the DPW to be doing annual maintenance on structures and to be. You know, feel comfortable doing so that they're not committing a violation, but at the same time, there needs to be some parameters set that basically like if it's a, an abandoned outfall or something that kind of exceeds the threshold of annual maintenance or regular maintenance that they may need to file a permit. So I did pop that into your correspondence folder. We've, it's been drafted since February. And I know we keep picking it forward because we've had so many quorum issues, but I'd really love if we could maybe dive into that and, and take a quick look and again, I'm not asking for any approval, but maybe we could just take a quick look at it and, and I really like to share it with the DPW and just say, this is a starting point for discussions and, you know, it's, we can mark it up with track changes or adjust it and, and make it so that everybody's happy with it. I think that's kind of the intent just to get something on paper. I think that's a great, I like that approach. I read it. It's really straightforward. You know, I appreciate it being concise and short, but I, you know, obviously commission other commission members want to hear your opinions on it, but it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. So I think that's a part of like, you know, tying their hands. I just, I guess. Having their understanding of what the commission is. Looking forward, but I really do like the idea. This just being a draft and then working with us and then working with them on, okay. How can we change it so everybody's happy without. Making one side angry or the other side. Happy. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. However, you guys would like to handle it if you want to go through it. I have it up on the screen right now, but if you want to go through it, if you, if anyone has specific comments. Very flexible on. Approach. So Aaron, how about it's Alex. I think I'm. Not on mute. Yep. I can hear you. Okay. It's coming up on, was it seven 25. I think it's the same time we meet. Everybody will have read it. And have provided comments and you can check it off your list. Okay. Would you mind just doing a separate email with all of us. Aaron for that. Like a separate notification. Like an email reminder kind of thing. Yeah. Like, Hey, here's the draft. Look at it. Give us some, give some feedback. Yeah. And, you know, and put in there that you want comments back to you. Yeah. I'm not necessarily. I don't need to see everybody's comments. Okay. Sure. You want to attract changes. Comments or track changes are fine with me. Whatever you want, put it in the reminder. Okay. Yeah. You've been very nice and patient and put this in front of us for. A good long time and we're tardy in getting it done. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's not urgent. I just, I just want the DPW to feel empowered to do their regular maintenance. And I don't want to certainly stand in the way of their maintenance. But, you know, I also want to make sure that we're. Yeah. Because it's, it has been confusing for everybody. Like when is it okay. And when is it not okay. And what do we have to communicate and not communicate. And so it just gets us all on the same page. I hope. Um, the other just quick update for anybody who's. On the call who might be attending from the public. Yeah, go ahead. Um, the. Um, the, let me see what's the time was it scheduled for. It's the, the 46 fairing street project. I've been working with Tom Reedy and. I've been working with Steve Riberty, the consultant from Goddard consulting who's helping. Um, for the 46 fairing street single family home project. Um, I had recommended to them that. Basically, I didn't think that the plan that they had put together was. I felt like there was additional mitigation that would be necessary for the commission to even consider the, the project. And so, um, I just wanted to, um, I just wanted to talk about that. And then, um, they, they did request a continuance to the meeting on, um, May 24th. Um, so a butters where we notified legal ad was reposted. And of course we'll handle that when we come to it in the agenda proceedings, but just to let anybody who's in attendance know that they're, they are working on additional revisions at my request. Um, so. I do sort of apologize for this, but at the same time, I feel like it's very important that staff vet the. Project with the, the applicant to make sure that what's coming before the commission, um, addresses some of the concerns that have been raised, um, at least to the maximum extent for the commission to consider it. Thanks Aaron. So we're going to continue. Well, obviously we'll have to make a motion for it when it comes time to that, but just for everybody else, just repeat that. Um, and there won't be it. Everybody should have gotten a butters notice, but you're not going to get another butters notice for the 24th. Correct. We've all been down this road before. So. Yeah. And we did get some last minute comments in from a butters, um, like in the last hour, I got two comments in. So I'll make sure to, um, get those in your meeting packets for the next meeting so you can sort of have a, um, for folks who can't attend the meeting so that you have their comments and can kind of see what their concerns are. Um, and sometimes it's tough when those come in last minute. So. Appreciate your due diligence on it. Aaron. All right. Well, it is seven 30. So I say we proceed to the next hearing. I cheat sheet here. So this is a notice of intent. So, um, All right. This public hearing is now called to order. This hearing is being held as required by the provisions of chapter 131 section 40 of the general laws of the Commonwealth and act relative to the protection of wetlands as most recently amended in article 3.31 wetlands protection under the town of Amherst general law laws. This application states that the same time copies are open. I think I'm good. Hearing is now open. And some quick round rules, everyone, um, we're going to try to do this in 20 minutes. We always try a five minute presentation by the applicant or the representative. Try to get five minutes for the staff, five minutes for public comment. And then we try to bring it back to the conservation commission again. Um, so again, when the presentation of the applicant and the representative, um, does come to us, please state your name. We representing. And that same goes with anyone with public comment. We want to hear your name in your address. And then you have two minutes for public comment. That's within our jurisdiction. Okay. So do we have anybody from our Wendell wetland services? You are raise your hand. We'll get you in here. Well, I'm going to pull in Ward Smith. And I see one. I'm going to put them on one. I think those will probably be our two. Folks, if anybody else needs to be pulled into the meeting, feel free to raise your hand. Let me see one here. Great. And Ward, we've got you there. So whoever wants to speak, I'm going to put it on there. Thank you. Um, I'm going to ask you to unmute yourselves and give us a little bit of. Presentation of what we're here for. You're a fletcher. Excuse me. As you go forward. If you could leave your lift, lift your mic when you talk, it would be helpful. Gotcha. Yeah. These things are so good. I can't hear my volume of voice. So I'm starting to whisper, because I think I'm talking too loud. I don't know if the applicant is planning on presenting or if Ward is planning on presenting but feel free to jump in. I don't know. Let me just check. I think I think want to enjoy or muted. Yeah, you guys were trying to mute. Sorry. This is my first such application so I don't know. I don't know what to expect whether Ward should be presenting or not I assumed he was but I can. Well, we can try to give him a second here he's clearly on so that's good so we're just there's a muted just muted so if you yeah we can give him another. I'm here. Gotcha. I'm here. I mean I think I can present or perhaps the applicant person can present. We go for it. Okay, I don't have the display prepared for for the for the meeting. A quick, you know who you are and then why you know why why you're filing the permit and so the intent behind it. So one of my pieces on behalf of myself. At 910 Southeast Street, not 90 Southeast Street. We would like to own ground so above ground pool. I'm told the definition of that depends on whether I'm talking to conservation or building inspector, but it's it's located on top of the ground on helical piles and with stairs leading to it. I would have proposed a location that should should minimize environmental impact from in the sense that it's the sun is warm by itself there's less need to use energy to to heat the pool or or make it usable. I'm sure I wasn't pretending I wasn't intending to present but so I'm not sure was actually how to go. So it's an eight by 20 recycled shipping container pool and then there's working we've been working with the building inspectors to get the permit. We're building the stairs and a platform at the top to make sure it's up to code for above ground swimming pools. So location is next to the garage on an existing lawn, but it is within that 50 foot buffer zone to the wetland line so it's at 35 feet with the proposed location that we would like to put it in. The other caveat here is that it does overlap with the CR which we know is an issue. So we've looked at a second option with orienting it at an angle degree so the back of it would actually be just on that line. As you can see from the drawing here we have a very difficult exclusion zone. So it's not overlapping into the CR. The slight challenge with that option is that it would go over the sewage line so we'd have to do extra work to make sure that putting in those helical piles wouldn't over wouldn't disrupt the sewage line. So that second option also gets it about two feet or so closer to that wetland line but it's still so it'd be about 3332 feet with to that wetland line so still within that 50 to 25, but it would be slightly closer. We've spent literally months looking at all the alternatives. So once we put it it's blocking view it's blocking windows. It's an above ground pool so it sticks up. So anywhere else it just we've looked at the north side, which is could work, but as one said it has more shade so it's going to require more energy to heat it. So we're farther from the driveway. So we've been looking at how to get a water truck to provide water for it. We reached out to four different water trucks suppliers today. One responded instead they have long hoses. We don't know how long, and they will not put a water truck on the lawn, they said they will not do that because it's too heavy. We're waiting to hear back from other folks about just how long of a hose they would have that north side location would be about 120 feet roughly to get a hose to the pool. And it's a low low drainage area so any trucks that would come onto the lawn would create damage on the lawn there. So those are the three locations, trying to figure out the optimal way to make this happen to just bring bring some pool into our life in our kids. Oh, and we've actually in the last year have planted over 1000 square feet of of habitat so we've planted for fruit trees which are on the map, we've planned to serve it or 14 service very plants to river birch and a red maple. The biggest owners had actually removed trees, and we're trying to put them back in. We also have a landscaping plan to go around the pool to again provide additional habitat and just for aesthetics to make sure that it looks nice and seamless with the natural landscape that we have around the house. We've also opened other suggestions for mitigation. It was spotted that there's some invasive plants in the field and we're happy to work on getting those removed. We've been working with whirlwind landscaping garden design on all the landscaping plants and prioritizing native plants and pollinator pollinating attractors so that we can again kind of keep the habitat going here. Oh, and we get the conservation restricted area the field paid by someone local that again was disrupted before we purchased the house two years ago and we're reenacting that so last year was the first year that they cleared it they weren't able to actually bail the hey but they were able to just bushwhack it all and could by clearing a mean mode. Yeah, yeah, mode. Yeah, and then this year hopefully they can they can properly bail that think it covered everything. I think you did. Thank you. Thank you. A lot more coherent than I would ever be. No problem. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Okay, so. All right, we're hearing a few things we got conservation restriction we've dealt with this property in the past, due to this conservation restriction. We got some buffer issues, we have a pool in the buffer on the CR line. Aaron, do you have you want to give me photos. Yes, I'll pull and pulling those up right now. Thank you. So, this is basically if you're on the opposite side of the house of the driveway and facing west, and you can see in the background here that there's a stake right here and this is a survey notation of where the extent of the exclusion area is so that's basically the, this is the point of the house where everything within that extent is outside of the conservation restriction. Everything that's outside of that area is part of the conservation restriction. So if I just turn around in the opposite direction and look out toward the east. This is looking in that direction actually this is looking sort of south as well southeast and you can see that there's the other exclusion zone post there. So again, this is the extent of the conservation restriction on the property. And then, okay. This thing clicks really quickly hold on bear with me one second while I go back. So, this is facing this is moving to the opposite side of the property so like the southern side of the property the southern side of the house. And the exclusion zone. I'm looking at this I, I think it's this post right here is one of the corners and then the other one is like up in this vicinity on the other side of the lawn. These other stakes that are shown here are basically the configuration of the various options that they staked out in the field. So I tried to get a good view of these for the photos. And basically there's there were ones that had so I believe these are the ones with the black steak on them can you guys see my cursor. Okay, these are stakes for the pool. Yes, for the location so there was two proposed pool locations. The first option was their preferred option and that's the one that has a section of the pool hanging over the CR area and that's represented by these three stakes here that have a string tied around them so this shows you basically their preferred location where the pool would extend over the CR boundary. And then there's an alternative option that they came up with on this side of the house which it's the black states. And so alternatively to the preferred location. And I'm going to try to identify the preferred location. First, believe it's here, here. I want to say here. And here, the square of the pool in that location, like kind of like that. And then the, the secondary or second option is, I believe it's hard to see the ones is on the other side, I believe something like this, where the pool would go in this configuration. And that would be within the exclusion zone, but that that option to puts it, I want to say it's like seven or eight feet closer to the wetland boundary. And then turning toward that wetland boundaries within the 30 or within 50. Yeah, so the pool in either instance the proposed location for where they're putting it on this site is within the 50 foot node, no disturb zone. These are photos of the flagging so that the flagging is. It's basically there's a swale that runs through the center of this field and then there are flags which basically represent a wet meadow that borders on that swale or intermittent stream on either side. So that's, that's what the resource area is in this, in this case. And then this is looking back in the opposite direction picking up the, the extent of the exclusion zone so you can see the stake looking back the lawns part of the exclusion. Yeah, that's the east side of the house. Right, so the, the lawn extends beyond the exclusion area. And from, you know, talking with the applicant that seems to have been a historic when they purchased the property the lawn had already been extended beyond the exclusion area. So, Dave, go ahead. Yeah, I got some more information Dave. Yeah, is that okay Fletcher if I jump in here. Yeah, before you get too far into the weeds. So, yeah, I guess I wanted to start by saying, you know, one I really appreciate one and joy and you know them, the, the way they've articulated kind of taking over the property. This is a property that has been before the commission before, and I really they are coming to us coming to you and the staff with a, you know, kind of a complex, a complex property here that they have fairly recently purchased. So this CR predates all of us, certainly working for the town and all of you as commission members and, and they had nothing to do with putting the CR on. It's quite a, it's, it's, it's not that old, but it's not. And Michelle can probably would agree with me on this it's not a very complex CR. I mean today I told I told the owners that this would probably be a 25 page document if it was a CR done today. And it is, it is pretty clear the purpose of the, it's, it's simple yet well written, I think, and to the point, you know its purpose is to keep the 10 plus or minus acres in agriculture to preserve the view shed to preserve a wildlife habitat. There's a lot of resources in Lawrence swamp, etc. What makes it a little more complicated I think is the orientation the box that the house is in the so called exclusion area, and then, you know, the, the orientation of that, that exclusion. You have all the kind of you have the driveway and you had some historic creep on the lawn into the CR area so setting that all aside for a second I think they're in my opinion they're approaching it, you know, creatively and openly. And who kind of has read CRs through the years I mean my, my challenge when we went out on a site visit Aaron and myself and we met with the owners. The challenge I see for the commission is the town is the holder you are the holder of the CR. I don't see that we have any flexibility with with intruding on the CR. I'd love to hear if they're alternative, you know, if I'm wrong on that I just don't see how a pool, a pool, pools tennis courts, etc. are expressly called out, not being allowed outside the exclusion area so even though it's three feet even though it's five feet. I don't see as we have any flexibility to intrude or go beyond the exclusion area. So that kind of puts them in a tough situation to change that orientation and I think they've, you know, they've come up with one option which does put the pool, again an above ground pool with very little. There's no hardscape or any other, you know, there's there's steps up and down to this four or five foot high pool. But I think they've done a pretty good job at working with warden and their designers whirlwind and others to orient that in such a way so that it's minimal impact on, you know, the slope to the east. So, I just kind of wanted to put that out there that they're they're boxed in here a little bit both by the CR and by that wet meadow wetland that is part of the agricultural CR. What's interesting is, there's no restriction on them essentially farming that meadow I mean the CR intended them to hey that entire wet meadow. So, it's kind of a conundrum here of, of purposes in that CR, but anyway, I don't want to open that can a worm necessarily but I'm just putting it all out there. So I will defer to you all if you have thoughts or questions on on balancing this interest of the CR with the interest of the act and the bylaw and your local regs. It is a tricky situation because we're now, we can't let you get, you know, we're as they've just said, we're bound by the CR. We're also bound by the trying to within our own town bylaw. Right, so the buffers here. So we have some things to try to hash out. But I ask, you know, Michelle, do you know Michelle is is this is the work she does with CRs. Do you agree that, you know that CR just does not present any flexibility for the, for the commission. Yeah, Dave, absolutely. I read the CR, I agree it's kind of a strange CR that, but it is very clear about the restriction itself and it, you know, it's in perpetuity it's a town's legal responsibility to uphold that. And it runs with the deed so you know that was available upon the purchase of the property. So, yeah, and I'm actually concerned about putting those helical piles you said on the boundary because you mentioned there might have to be something done about the sewage line so yeah I think that staying absolutely within that exclusion is is critical and we should just take that one off the table about going there are other things in the CR. You know now that we're on the topic and it does you know that we discussed those service berry trees and I was there for that but you mentioned there's been like 2000 square feet of planting and that didn't come before the commission so I think that's actually, you know a violation of the CE because all plantings outside of it are required to have approval by the commission so even if you are planting what you think is native habitat. It still needs to come before us. So we probably need to actually talk about that because the town has legal responsibility to keep that in compliance. So let's get back to the pool. I just wanted to mention that and then, and wasn't there a third option to this that was also outside of our 50 foot setback and outside of the exclusion area. Not outside of the 50 foot setback I'll share the, the alternatives that were provided to us with the application. Can you all see my screen. Okay, so this is the preferred option which puts the corner outside of the CR exclusion zone. Blow it up. Oh yeah of course sorry about that. This is I, my understanding is this is all alternative option to excuse me I'll turn option to option to is outside of the CR option to Exclusion option to is is right on the exclusion zone line on and it puts so if you look at me go back to the first one so this one keeps it outside of 35 foot. Okay, so their preferred option keeps it 35 feet away from the wetland option to which shifts it and keeps it inside the exclusion zone kicks it closer so it's like approximately 32 feet to the wetland. And then this is a third option that was put on the proposal this one wasn't staked out in the field, but this is stairs. Come again, it's just less stairs it's just looking at a different different stair configuration. Part of the footprint was mandated by the building inspectors who required a landing and so we were creatively trying to find a situation where we could reduce the footprint, but we never stick that out. We might as well disregard it. And also, so this wouldn't have a deck, like this is above ground pool and no decking, like once you put it on it to hang drawing maybe Aaron could bring up the drawing there's a picture of it. Actually, can I. Okay, so you just gave us three options in the same place in the buffer. Every time you all mentioned, you will not you cannot put the pool in a different location within the exclusion because it's too far away from the driveway. So how come, how come we're dealing. Why not just put the pool outside the buffer. That's what I was thinking too. So we, we did not include that in the, in the original filing, but with it's been in discussion. It's been in discussion to we've been asked by by Aaron by. We did not put it in, in other locations. Right. Yeah, so this is a, this is a drawing of what we hope to to build. The pools about it's just like a. They call it a wedding cake staircase. I see. Yeah, so that's essentially the. Every location has some advantages and disadvantages the, the problem of the north area, besides the, it being a cooler area, which affects us as users of course but also affects the environmental impact of the pool which we would love to keep low. We just had solar panels installed. We also put in heat pumps to have a more sustainable way of feeding the house. And we didn't even like, we had suggestions and on to do it like a ground. Ground based heat pump, geothermal pool. Sorry, geothermal heat pumps, but we said no, no, we don't want to touch to the field. It's, it's, you know, goes against what we believe in, which, you know, we want to maintain the field. So we didn't even come to the commission for that. So you're just saying, so the pool, so the pool to the location. So this is really easy for me to see because. Yeah, the white paper, putting the pool to the north side. I mean, so this is we're here because you're in our jurisdiction. Obviously, there's a CR, which is tough too, but we're, our concern is impacting the resource that we have here. Wetland buffer within our, we have a bylaw that says 50 foot touch. So how can we find a middle ground here. And so that's why I was saying, what's wrong with north side and you're saying that it would take more, it would keep the pool cooler. It will take more energy to keep it at a usable temperature. It has a heating elements that wouldn't be used as much if it was on the sunny side, which is the south side. The drainage on that side part of the land is very poor. In general, it's a general in this whole area. The driveway is further away. So I guess it's not a fully developed answer yet whether or not that would really impact us but what's clear is that nobody who brings water or takes the water out will drive on grass. And so we, we don't want to want to, to need to extend the driveway. It's unclear whether or not we would really need to, but it would require long closes at the very least. And there's windows. So everything on that side where you just someone had just drawn those are, it's all windows that open from the house. So we can't put it smack dab right in front of it because it's all windows. You know, those are. Those are basement windows, I think. Because the pools are front. It's a hat. It's a, it's, it's an office space and a living space. It's a family room. So it's, it's not base. Well, it's half basement. I don't know what the proper term is. But it's, it's living space. It's used every day. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Sounds. All right. Michelle, do you have a comment? Oh, just quickly, like I appreciate the energy efficient consideration, but that's, you know, we're here to consider the Whitland buffer. And the CR. So while it's, you know, a good consideration, it's not, I don't think it should be factored into what we're putting on the table right here. Okay. Thanks, Michelle. Laura. I was going to say the same thing to I think, you know, in a perfect world. You know, we would put it where you're suggesting to maximize sunlight and minimize any sort of external heating. But I actually think there's actually this firm limitations in terms of what we can can't approve here. So it's going to be a cooler, it's going to be a colder pool. But, you know, I think we got to look at alternative plans. Any other commission. Yeah, Alex. So if we could think a little bit about our own regulations and the 35 and the 450 foot buffer. I think both designs are across the 50 foot line. And one third of the house is within the 100 foot buffer. The 100 foot buffer has already been impacted by the house. And putting the pool inside the 100 foot buffer just compounds that. And not only that, but it, it goes across the 50 foot buffer. And I believe our town regulations speak. When, when we were there today. We did look at. I can't, you can't see me pointing, but we did look for that. The area that they're discussing now on the. What would that be? corner. Yeah, right. One second, Alex. Hey, word. Could you mute yourself? Please. I'm sorry. Thank you. No, thank you. Go ahead, Alex. And I understand, I understand their issues. I don't think that. The, the site where the, where the circle is. As. I mean, they made four calls to people that haul water today. It doesn't seem like that area is, is fleshed out yet. So perhaps they could do some more homework on, on that North site. Or the, where the circle is. And get it out of the 100 foot buffer, get it out of the 50 foot buffer. Thanks, Alex. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. I do have some, some comments, but I'm wondering if the public, if there's anyone from the public who has any commentary. Okay. Well, I was going to just keep it up for us. And I was going to go to public, but if anyone else from the commission has anything to say, I'll bring it up to the public. I had a couple of other points. Go for it. Okay. Okay. So. The, the where the conservation easement boundaries are. We're staked. But the mowing of the lawn confuses where the conservation easement is. This is not a discussion about the wetlands. It's a discussion about the conservation easement. And it might be handy if, if the corners of the conservation easement. The conservation easement. Does not allow, it allows mowing. For agricultural purposes. But not for a lawn. And you might consider. Stopping mowing. In the conservation easement. Because it's not agricultural. Right. They said this was something they had already previously happening. When they. Well, why continue that. Why continue it. Why continue it. Why continue it. Point taken. Can I respond to that briefly? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So very briefly, please. Yes. So we, we, I mean, this was the state that the lawn was when we purchased it, but we were concerned about ticks being that much closer to where our kids are playing. If we get the, the lawn. If we get the kids that are out there quite often and I, I don't know that I want to risk. We're not doing anything else in that mode area. It is what we bought the house as we haven't done anything else to it. So my concern would be about bringing the ticks. Okay. Thank you. Michelle. And then we'll probably go. Yeah. So just Alex reminded me that. Yeah, because it was mowed by the previous landowners does not mean that it should still be mowed as far as ticks. I have little kids and a woods and a lawn. So I think that's a good point. And what could happen is that those boundaries are more permanently marked like they should have been prior and. Like. To a two foot gravel barrier between you and the lawn would be enough to desiccate ticks. And there's, you know, data about how to make tick barriers. And I'm wondering if there is a baseline for this property. So. Can I just make a comment real quick? Yep. I want to stay on topic. Well, I'm a little, well, it's unfortunate because we have jurisdiction with wetlands, but this is we hold the CR. So that, do you remember when we had the last owners came in? It wasn't even just, it was barely just, well, they were in the hundred foot buffer. So we're, I am having, I am having a hard time with that. So thank you for bringing that up. Because I'm focusing on the jurisdiction, but this is the CR that we hold. Dave, you have a very quick 30 seconds and we'll bring it to you. No, I didn't, I, I hear you all on the CR, but I don't want to lose sight of the fact that we have two. Relatively new landowners in this location who are here. They're well aware of the CR. They're working with us on the CR. And I hear from them both in the visit I did last week and then tonight that they're willing to work with us. Part of this discussion I see as, as education for them and for us about this complex property. So I, I think we can, we can work. I know we can work with, with both of them on the CR issues moving forward. I think what I've heard from the commission is you made it clear that the pool cannot be outside of the exclusion parcel, which I think is the right direction. But you know, I just, I know they're related, but, but I, I guess I would encourage you to, to really give more direction about the pool relative to the wetlands. If we, if we've established, if you've established that the pool, no part of the pool can go outside the exclusion area. Then I would encourage you to focus on the wetland piece. And, and if one or Joy or Ward has any more input on. Creative solutions on where that, that pool could go. So that's, that's my, my advice. We haven't heard much at all from Ward and I understand he's raised raised his hand. Thanks. Okay, let's, let me get a couple. We have a few people from the public. I'd like to take in again folks in the public. Your name, address, you got two minutes. And let's keep this. In the jurisdiction of the wetlands. Please, with your comments. So if you're somebody from the public and you raise your hand, we'll get you in here. Ward, we'll get to you. Can you put his hand down? No. Nobody from the public. I'll just pull Ward in as a panelist for right now. And then if anybody else has comments, I don't know if he just lost internet connectivity or something. So if there's anybody from the public, raise your hand. Again, name, address, you got two minutes. Okay. Excellent. So let's try to get Ward back in here. And, but, you know, seems that there's everybody at least on the commission here is saying no pool in the buffer because that's. When I'm gathering. It's just current. Those three addition or. Proposals of the pool location don't seem to be. Diving. Or if you'd like to say a few things, please do. In terms of the jurisdiction of the school. It looks like we lost Ward. It might be a connectivity. Let's see if he jumps back in. Yeah, he's back. He's here. He's just muted. Yeah, he was having an issue with his mute earlier when he first joined. Can you hear me? I got you. Thank you. Okay. So Mark Stinson was questioning whether or not. The wetland that I donated was actually a wetland because it didn't show up on the maps. It is a wetland, but it's a. You know, marginal wetland. And where they want to put the pool is in a moan lawn. So I understand that the commission has a setback and I. I fully respect that, but they're in, they would be putting a pool. In a moan lawn. Within the buffer to a. Wetland that's a wet meadow. That's a moan wet meadow. So I just think that commission should take that under consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Well, commission. Here we are. Andre. I just like to second the, some of the comments. From before we're essentially the three options that. We're seeing one of them. Within the CR. And the other two are still within the. Within the what the. 50, 50 feet. We did during our visit earlier, discuss other options that came out here during our meeting. Tonight. And. As far as I can see, I think those are viable options for, for a pool. Are you saying to the north? To the northeast. Yes. There's enough space there to put the pool without actually putting it right up against the, the windows. If you see the map, you can, you can. See that there is space there. And the reasons for not putting it there. That the. That the landowners have given us are that it. Blocks their view and that the. That it would be difficult for the water to be developed delivered. But at the time that we were speaking this morning, they hadn't checked with any water delivery services about whether that water could be delivered or not. Which. So I, to me, I think they, they're, there's. I don't know. I, I, I'm not quite seeing things that the same way that the landowners are seeing it. And I just wanted to put my opinions out there. Thank you, Andre. Laura. I was going to say, first, I just want to say thank you guys for coming in front of the commission and being reasonable and talking with us. So I think that's the first thing. I think a lot of people do things in this town without even bringing it in front of the commission. So I want to just say thanks for that. I tend to agree with. Andre that. You know, I'm certain you'll find a water delivery service with a long hose. And while I hear words point that it's. I don't know if there's something as a lesser wetland. But, you know, according to the map, it's a wetland and there is this restriction. And we definitely cannot grant you permission. So I think it's a little bit more reasonable. And that. You know, that restricted area. So I think my suggestion would be Fletcher to go back to the drawing board with plans for a new location. So that's, that's my thinking. Thank you, Laura. I think you heard it folks. We would. We would not like to see that buffer area disturbed. But it does seem to be alternatives. We hope. But it's true. We're here to try to protect those resources. And windows and heating elements for pools is. A tough cell for us. Doesn't mean we'll like to work with you. And there's other issues with, you know, but I think. I think we heard it from the concom here. Okay. That's a good question. Is there anything else you need from us? That's a good question. So, I mean, I think that. I guess that the next step would be to determine, you know. If you're going to come back with a revision. That sort of takes everybody's comments into consideration. And if that's the case, we would continue to the next meeting so that the commission could. See if there was one that we could come to. Maybe a. Some sort of a. You know, cooperative agreement on a different location that was a little further away from the wetland and. Yeah. So my suggestion would be to continue to allow the applicant a little time to take the comments into consideration and. You know, come up with possible alternative. Yeah, we've spent a lot of. A lot of energy on this. So I don't, I don't think we'll keep pushing it. I think we'll look for in the exclusion zone at whatever angle we can get it. So it's an exclusion. And outside of that hundred buffer, because this has been honestly really draining and not a clear process. And. I know there's other conversation about the CR later, but we're trying our darndest and the town GIS, which we're using earlier to reference for planning was off. And I know that's not an issue, but we didn't know that the town GIS was off. And we're trying our hardest and I actually work with conservation org. So it's hard to hear that you guys are criticizing the things that we've done in the CR. So we've only been here a year and a half. And this is just unsettling. So I just feel like I need to state a few things. And I appreciate the support that some of you have given, but it's been very difficult. And we are probably one of the more pro conservation families that you'll encounter. So I know there's a lot here, but we're doing our damnedest. So anyway, I can let you go on to the next topic, but I was just surprised by some of the other comments that came up tonight outside of the pool. So I guess the question is, what would your preference be? I mean, if we put it in exclusion zone and outside of that hundred buffer, we don't need to proceed with you, correct? If it's within the exclusion zone and outside of the 100 foot buffer, then it wouldn't require the concom approval at that point. Right. Right. So just, I guess, that means that's dry. We've been, we've spent months on this. Yeah. We've been trying this since January. And we've got a lot. I'm also working with the building inspectors. And so this is a whole different story, but we're going to take the easiest path that we can find to. So you'd like us to make a determination and not withdraw. What's the difference? So with a withdrawal, it would basically mean that you're just withdrawing the application without prejudice and kind of moving forward on a different path with a decision or basically asking us to close the public hearing tonight. What that would mean is that we can't then. Take other considerations into consideration. For example, like, let's say in a week, you come up with an option where you keep it outside of 50 feet. We wouldn't be able to consider it at that point. So if you, if you'd like to continue it to the 24th, just to give it some additional thought and see if you could come up with something outside of, say, 50 feet outside of the notice stirb zone, just to give it a little more thought. It's an option that keeps it on the table for us to be able to still consider those. And so it really, it's up to you. If you'd like to keep it open so we can talk more, or if you'd, if you'd prefer to withdraw it. It's, I think the only option to do that outside of the 50 feet and inside exclusion zone would involve removing it. I think the only option to do that outside of the 50 feet and inside exclusion zone would involve removing it. I think the only option would involve removing a tree that we're not willing to remove because you would be against conservation. So I'm sorry if my frustration is showing. That's fine. We're just trying to help. I mean, we're trying to give you a little bit wiggle room. Unless word recommends differently. I think we'll withdraw without. Yeah. I think that's a. Okay. So we'll withdraw the application. I think we have to close the hearing. Yeah, we, we would formally close the public hearing. And if it's withdrawn, then we would just, the permit application would just be withdrawn from there. So there'd be no further action needed. That would be the motion. Question. If they. Aaron talked about outside the 50 foot buffer, but if they have a proposal that's inside the 100 foot buffer. It's still has to come before the commission, correct? So. We won't put anything in that zone. I, because that's right smack them in the middle of the view. It's yeah. We, I promise you, we won't put it in that 100 to 50 foot zone. So we'll only look outside of 100. If Farron wants to put the map back up. We can just. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's why we're offering you if you want to withdraw, you withdraw. We could continue. You can still think about, you know, if you want to withdraw, you can still think about it. But if you want to withdraw, you can still think about it. It's not that we have time. The permits, not it's just there. So we're just trying to. Do you want more time to think about it? Or do you want to just withdraw? Or the other option is that we make a determination. Therefore you can't. I don't know that we have time to. Discuss the area in the north. The side of the house is. The only other option is the only other option that we can think of. It's outside of the 100 buffer. Line. So I think. I think that's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll stick with the withdrawal and Alex, do you have your questions? You're, you're. Filled there. Great. Okay. Yeah. It's still with regard to the CR. I think it might be useful for them to consider. Putting markers in the ground where those boundaries are. So that they or. Sorry to interrupt. We have paid for them to be permanently marked. Yes. Yeah. When we serve it, we had the pins put in. I didn't hear that today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, um, I think we're, we're going to withdraw the application for this one. Um, so we'll take it. Make a motion. Yeah. So just be a motion to close the public hearing. Um, and we can just note that the application was withdrawn without prejudice. Okay. Thank you. Do they need to come in for, uh, to deal with the trees? Yeah. Yeah. Let's stick with it. Let's. If, if I could, maybe I will talk to joy and one. Separately on that track, having anything to do with any of your concerns about trees or what happens on the CR. And I can report back to you. You know, in a month or something like that. Yeah. I just want to make a comment for the record. I just want to make a comment for the community members to come to this committee. For one particular issue. And then get attacked. Which it feels like sometimes for, with a lot of other. Issues. Uh, and I think. What we, what I, what I have historically liked is. Community members feeling, um, Like comfortable presenting their ideas and having discussions, and to not feeling like they're going to be criticized. Or, um, For other things that they're doing on their property. So. And I say that because it's like cautionary. I think that. The more. The more we appear that way. With based on the feedback I'm hearing tonight. Um, the less likely it is people are going to come to us. And we want people to come to us. Um, with what they're doing on their land. So that's my, I just want to get that comment on the record. Thank you, Laura. Are you ready for a motion? I'm motion to close a hearing on. 910 Southeast street. Um, swimming pool. I second that. Okay. Andre, the first, um, Laura, the second voice vote. Michelle. Hi. Laura. Hi. Alex. Hi. Andre. Hi. Cameron. Hi. And I for Fletcher. Okay. Juan. Take care. Have a good evening. Hey, Dave, can I just ask a real quick question? Cause it's really relevant to what this was about. Um, one thing our organization does is when a deed changes hands, if there's a conservation restriction on that deed, someone reaches out to a land owner. So they know upfront what the. Restrictions are. And there is no surprises where they might be coming to us out of compliance. Um, but you know, we, we are legally obligated to maintain the conservation easement as it was written, even though we may not. 20 years down the road think that that's the best use of land, but it just may be a good practice to avoid sort of unsettled things like this in the future. Yeah. No, I totally agree. And I kind of alluded to that earlier in my comments about. You know, some of the other work we're doing is we need to do a better job. Um, on annual annual visits to CR properties and communication with landowners who own CR properties, just like we get a visit from DCR because they hold a CR on some of our land and likewise Kestrel does too. So, um, yeah. We still get the same thing with order conditions. Yeah. Landowner swap. It's a great idea, Michelle. I mean, it's just, I think would avoid so much. It's just, it's just hard feelings. So, yeah. This one's tricky. I know. It is. I do want to say, I will, yeah. And I will, Aaron and I will follow up with them and talk about the CR. I don't think anything. Mention tonight is. Tremendously detrimental. Nothing has been built on the CR. There's, there's a few plantings of small trees and maybe some mowing issues, but everything is now marked in the field, which is good, the exclusion. But yeah. And again, everything is in, you know, everything is in someone's deed. And the plans are right there, but sometimes, you know, there may not be an awareness of everything you're purchasing. So I agree, Michelle, and we'll, we'll work on that. All right. Well, thanks for them. And I appreciate you guys following up with them. And also, I just want to, before we move on. I want to mention to anybody in the public, we are continuing the 46 fearing street hearing. We had asked for additional supporting materials that we're going to continue that meeting to May 24th. So again, 46 fearing street is a continued again, but to May 24th, Alex, you have something. Yeah, I just want to talk about the benefit of a site visit. Today, there were two members of the commission that showed up with a site visit. You see a lot of things when you're on the site visit that you can't get from the drawings during the commission meeting. At the same time, the commission members can't talk to each other unless we're in the, in the sunshine. The only time to bring up issues that are seen during the site visit is during this meeting. Sometimes that's hard. So. I encourage people to go inside visits. So that they can see what others see. And. And. I appreciate the difficulty that the previous people are in. They've got money on the line. And they came to the commission. So it's hard having already paid for the pool. So. It's hard. But now's the time also to bring up other issues. So Dave's aware of it. And. So site visits pay off. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to the next hearing 735. I'm ready. No, I'm not. No, I'm ready. This area is being held as required by the provisions chapter 131. Section 40 of the general laws, the Commonwealth and act relatives, the protection of wetlands is most recently amended article 3.31. Well, it's protection on the town of Amherst general bylaws. So, Ward, we got you here. If you could just give us a quick five minute, you know, who you are, what you represent and why you're coming in front of us. You can unmute yourself and you are ready. All it's all yours. Hello, can you hear me? Gotcha. Gotcha. Liam is here from. He may be able to give a better synopsis than I can. But this is a limited project provision that we're filing under. For a. Boardwalk. It's the New England and. New England and Robert Frost trails. And it's a trying to. Make the trails more. Make them more narrow and, and with boardwalks. And. Bog bridges. And. Liam, are you here? Yeah, Liam's right there. You want to let Liam jump. He can probably explain it better than I can. That's fine. Liam, can you introduce yourself and give us a quick synopsis of. What you guys are proposing. Yeah, sure thing. There's actually a map, a few pages down on the PDF. That might be a useful visual as I explain. But essentially. For the record, it's to state who you are and. Oh, yeah. Sorry. My name is Liam Cregan. I'm with the Appalachian mountain club. And the short story is we collaborated with Kestrel land trust to apply for. A grant to improve trail conditions. On both the Robert Frost trail and the New England trail in the Mount Holyoke range state park. So all these projects are to take place on or near mountain erotic. In Amherst. I think if you scroll down another page or two, you'll see all the projects we're proposing. Some of which are in the wetlands, some of which are not. But essentially on the New England trail, we're proposing. A re grading and resurfacing of the trail. Starting adjacent to a wetland that were delineated. And then it ascends up mountain erotic up to the south side trail, and then it goes down to the north. The ground is about 1000 feet up. From the starting point. So. The work area is kind of where that. Yellow orange square is on the right side of the map. And the resurfacing. Will begin down on the New England trail, which is the white and black dash line. That's also the same route as the Robert Frost trail. And then right where you can see the orange and. The white dash line. And then on the north of the New England trail. We're proposing a few water crossings on the existing trail. Essentially, these are wet areas that have. They're retaining water. There's water seeping down either from streams or seeps. And we're proposing installation of. What we call bog bridges. They're essentially small boardwalks. With footings in the ground. And then we're going to. We're going to have to. To two by 10 side by side. And so the finer detailed map kind of shows those locations. But the general idea is to. Concentrate use on this really popular hiking area. And hopefully restore the surrounding wet areas to a natural condition. So this first site is where the, where the gravel is. And then on the north of the city of Portland. The white dash line is the trail. It'll start. Kind of right where the. Text is there's an arrow pointing down to the start point. And then it'll be three foot. Wide gravel crush, which we're going to lay down. There's going to be a professional trail crew. Who we hope to be out there with a mini excavator to expedite the work. And then they'll lay down that gravel crush. So maybe we can go to the next. This is war. The first slide is buffer zone only work. Okay. And then this is the bog bridging areas and this work will take place in wetlands. So the first proposed brought bog bridge area will be 20 feet long. The footings will be two feet wide. It'll be elevated one foot off the ground. And so they'll be altering three square feet of. Wetlands and then restoring for 21 square feet. The second one. This award. This award again, all of these will be. Basically narrowing the trail. So we've got a braided trail through the wetlands. And so they're going to put bog bridges in and restore. More wetland that's going to be altered by the footings of the bog bridges. Yeah. And more, maybe you could continue here with the presentation. Yeah. So these are, these are basically three wetland crossings. They're both, they're all three bordering vegetated wetlands. And the, you know, it's, it's a, it's a trail that mountain bikers and hikers have made, you know, really wide. So the idea is to make a bog bridge and restore the braided trail back to natural conditions. So it's going to be a two feet wide. Liam. Think trail through the, through the wetlands and the, and the braided trail on the, on the sides will be restored to natural conditions. Yeah. The actual bridge surface will be about 20 inches wide. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. You too. And then this, and then there's a, there's another crossing that's going to be a bridge crossing of an intermittent stream. This one. This one here, right? Yeah. And this follows the same concept that the town used as far as. There's sort of standard design concept that we used at the time. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of a, a, I'm a kind of a, um, a sweet Alice conservation area. So just to put that out there and I'll pull up site visit photos while we're, while we're talking. Sorry. I'm toggling back and forth on a. Sorry if I missed those. Who's the landowner. DCR. Yep. And then the John S. Lane is also a land owner. And they've both given permission for the grant. of this review that you're presenting right now, DCR signed off on. Okay. So where everybody's standing in the photo is sort of where the trail work would begin. So you can see there's an existing gravel path there. And this is showing the sort of earthen compacted earthen path that they're hoping to sort of narrow with a gravel and then naturalize the sides a little bit because it's it's widened out quite a bit. Yeah, this is the, this is the first crossing this is just buffer zone only work. Yeah, and those are just photos of the wetland on either side so you can sort of see, there's a, there's a an upland on one side or a wetland on one side and then there's it goes underneath the trail and comes out to a intermittent stream on the other side of the trail, and it's kind of hard to see in the photos because it's, it's actually like a clogged culvert that goes under the, under the trail. So that'll be a bog bridge. Sorry, this will be this will be gravel just on the existing path. So there's no, no wetland impacts at this location. Yeah, it's just buffer zone only trail stabilization. If it helps locate the where this is the M&M trail or the New England trail. It's just after the power lines if you're coming from the visitor center. It's a beautiful hike back there for folks who haven't been. And this is one of the bog bridge crossing locations as you can see it's been really chewed up by foot traffic it's it's I guess more difficult to see and maybe I can try to zoom in a little bit. Yeah, it's beat up in there. Yeah, it's really, really beat up. This is another one of the bog bridge locations again very wide and very chewed up by foot traffic. This is the third view of it. This is the third one. So I mean I see all of these as mitigation projects and then this is the, the bridge location so right now it's dammed up with a bunch of logs that people have just placed in front of the stream and so we put a formal foot bridge crossing across there. Okay, thank you. Alex you have something you want to say. Yeah, Aaron could you go back to slide one. Yes, bear with me while I get there. You meant photo one Alex or photo one. Yeah. I think we got three people working on that. This is where they want to narrow the trail. And I think the work that's going to go on is going to be great. I don't have a problem with it, but I wanted to make a cultural comment that I found out about today. It is that not all cultures like to live walk in single file. And I was told today that the Latin community actually likes to walk exactly like these three people are essentially three abreast almost elbow to elbow as they chat. And widening the trail for a length of the trail for a long part of the trail would be counter to those cultural preferences. And in line with perhaps another culture where there wants to walk in single file. So even these stretches that they're talking about are not long. I just wanted to make the comment that a why the trail is wide because people use it that way. And I was not aware of the cultural differences between how people walk in the woods. In an environment like this, this isn't the white mountains. This is something close to, you know, a lot of people. And I thought, now's a good time to sort of put that thought out there. Beyond that, the stabilization work that's going on in some areas as much as six or seven or eight inches of soil has been eroded and huge roots. And this is just a marvelous project. So thank you very much. Any other commission members anything to comment on Aaron you want to say something. I was just going to say that the natural heritage and endangered species comments haven't come in yet and I did reach out to Melanie. She's I'm always afraid I'm going to mess up her last name. And Melanie said that they haven't heard back from the wildlife biologist yet with comments on the application, which they have until 521. I know that there's a tight timeline for this because of the grant application. I, I don't know how the commission, you know, it's in the past, the commission will, you know, commissions won't approve without an HES P comments and I know that's a recommendation of DEP, but I don't know. I wanted to put that out there because it kind of puts us in a tough spot because I know that they're really needing to move with construction to stay in compliance with the grant. What type of timeframe are they talking about for construction compliance. The machine work we're hoping to start at the latest May 29. The rest of the work the bog bridging is scheduled for late July. And there's an opportunity to start higher up on the mountain, but I think in speaking with the folks implementing the work it would be less than ideal. Yeah, rather than work their way up and Aaron you just said that natural heritage has the 21st. Okay. Yeah, they have till till May 21 to issue comments to us and our next meetings on May 24. What I'm sorry. Well, yeah, I was going to first have you guys drop your hands unless you want to say something because you do want you do want to keep it up. All right, go and then we'll give it toward. Okay, yeah, I first just relative to the discussion we're having right now, what about approving it conditionally conditional on on on a thumbs up from natural heritage heritage. Let's get there in a second. Okay, I just want to see if there's any more. Okay, my second comment. Yes, go ahead. My second comment is what I had mentioned during the visit early this morning is if while you're doing that, while you're putting up the bridges and so on. If you can keep in mind that second wheel that outer wheel of the ATVs that need to get through there for for the EMTs and the Rangers and so on. That's all I have. Okay, thank you. Ward, you have something you want on ad. I was just going to read it reiterate what he said I'm asking you to approve it contingent on natural heritage comments. Okay. Sounds good. Anybody else from the commission have anything to say before I open up to the public. If anybody in the public has any questions or comments, please raise your hand. And we'll get you on here state your name address, and you got two minutes. Do you want me to pull people in Fletcher or would you prefer to prefer you do please. Okay, so I'm going to pull in somebody who's listed as Freddie Manning to public comment. Excellent so Freddie when you get on on mute and just state your name and your address. This takes a few minutes for people to come into the room. Sorry. I don't know why there seems to be a delay. I'm just going to try to allow to talk and see if that works because for some reason, the, it doesn't seem to be working to pull them into the room so or pull them into the room excuse me. There we go. Okay. Yeah, it's interesting I had I just stayed with this conversation because I'm interested I didn't know it was going to go on tonight but one of the things that I'm an 87 year old hiker. One of the things that bothers me is the width of the, when we have boards is the width of the two together. Sometimes, you know when it's going over something like rushing water, or a really wet thing on the side. It just doesn't feel like quite enough space to put one foot in front of the other comfortably. I just hope you make those wide enough so that you really, you know, if someone is hiking with a pole, there's room to put the pole down and move their feet past it. So I just thought that would, I would add that because I know there's a couple of places that I know in the surrounding area where we like, you know, kind of have to kind of follow each other behind and put a hand on a back. Hi, Freddie. Yep. Anyone else from the public. Okay, sounds good. It sounds like so far everyone the commission is in favor of this. Aaron, could you help guide us here. We don't have natural heritage obviously we usually always continue a hearing until we get natural heritage comments so. Yeah, how can we. Yeah, yeah, I mean it, it's not really recommended by DEP to do it, but you know, it's up to you and I understand the applicant has a tight timeline so as long as we stipulate in the conditions that any and all approvals of NHSP are, I mean the approval of the order of conditions is contingent on the approval of natural heritage and that any conditions that are imposed on the project by natural heritage must be followed. I guess, you know, I think that the commission would be safe saying that I did draft the order of conditions I drafted in your folders for this project there's an attachment one and attachment to that were taken those boiler plates were taken from the Robert Frost trail project that was done two years ago. I did also suggest two additional conditions. One is that the proposed. So there there is a in one of the areas where Bob bridging was proposed. There was, there's like a small groundwater seep that flows along the side of the trail and there was discussion about basically sort of formalizing that swale so that water could flow a little more freely right now it's been completely damaged by foot traffic. And so the condition was basically that in that proposed swale that it be lined once it's once it's constructed or or once it's been excavated or, you know, I think it's going to be done by hand, but that it be lined with landscaping fabric and stabilized with some sort of a stone that's large enough that it's not just going to wash out in the rainstorm. And to prevent that from, you know, scouring out and causing additional erosion and sedimentation into the wetland. And then the second comment was relative to the comment that Andre Andre made which would allow additional hardening along the side of the bog bridging, which I would recommend a landscape fabric and stone at maybe one to two foot strip along the side of the bog bridging and that's basically because there there was observed significant amount of mountain bike activity back there which is permitted on the site and it's going to continue on the site and what will likely happen is that as soon as those bog bridges are put in the mountain bikes are just going to go to the side of the bog bridging and so it would give them a stabilized surface along the side of the bog bridging that they could actually traverse that isn't going to further damage rut and destroy the wetland further. So that was recommended as a as a mitigation measure and and secondary to that if the if and when DTR is using the trail for a rescue operation which they frequently do when people are lost or injured. They're either taking a gator or an ATV out and they're basically straddling over that bog bridging. They have a stable surface for their tires to basically get over that area without causing damage so that's that's just a recommendation you guys can take it or leave it, realizing that it's it's something that that we observed in the field and I thought it might provide some stabilization and protection for the well and I think lamb, there's some extra mitigation things in there with the extra stone and what are you. Yeah, especially for that swale. It seemed reasonable and I think adding some strip of gravel along the bog bridges would certainly reduce any potential damage that any TV or a side by side might inflict on the resource if a rescue happened to happen so I think it would likely, you know, reduce impacts even further be a little bit more work on the trail cruise but I think we could make it work. Cool. Anyone else in the commission have anything to protect that terms of the parents recommendation for mitigation. I think it's going to happen right here because we're going to get a motion. Okay, we can, we can still make a motion, even with these contingent upon natural. Okay, yeah, would it be. Okay, where's my motion. All right. It goes it goes it comes. All right, so I'm going to move the move to approve trail improvements east of 1500 West Street with the noted conditions, including that natural heritage needs to have approved all, you know, all conditions. That was not well said but we got it. Laura first. Michelle second voice vote Cameron. Hi, Alex. Hi, Andre. I recuse I'm a DCR employee there. Copy Laura. And Michelle. And I for Fletcher. Okay, I'm just getting this from my notes. Okay, make sure you get that. Hey, thanks, Liam. Thanks Ward. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. All right, Freddie we're all set here right. We're going to move on to our request for termination. That was a 745 item. So we're ready to teach you. This public, this public media is now called to order this meeting is being held as required for the visions of chapter 131 section 40 of the general laws that Commonwealth and accurate to the protection of wetlands as most really amended in article 3.31 wetlands protection of the town of Amherst general bylaws. Okay, Beth you are here crossbrook. Five minutes. Absolutely. I'm Beth Wilson. I'm the environmental scientists with the Department of Public Works here in Amherst. I'm back again I was at the last meeting and presented to you guys a project that we want to do on crossbrook lane. It's a small water treatment system that we want to put into a manhole. That's part of the project. I'll just a little summary, I know, okay, five minutes, five minutes. We need to install a new manhole as part of the project, and then we need to do trenching to put an electrical conduit to the manhole and then this little water treatment system is going to sit inside the manhole. So, last meeting I think the things that the concom brought up was one moving the trenching from the north side of crossbrook to the south side of crossbrook. And that's to protect some of the trees because there was some big trees on the north side and a lot of roots that would have gone by that trench line went and that that is fine. I can bring up the new plan I think Aaron did you share it with. Yes. Yeah, and I can, I can put it on the screen I'm just sizing it right now so. Oh, thanks. Yeah, so we basically just removed the entire lease area to the south side of crossbrook road and move the trench line, so that it comes along. It's basically next to to the south side of the road and that works out a lot better there's a lot and barely any roots along that whole stretch there it goes through a little gravel parking area. But I think as I said at the last meeting, all ground surfaces will be restored to their original my cat. So the areas that are grass will be receded. If the gravel parking area we will resurface that with gravel. So it's back the way it was and all paved areas will get repaved to. So that was one of your comments. Last time and the other was to provide a de watering plan. And I think, you know, I doubt we're going to need to do watering. Because they're only going to be about 18 inches deep but I think with with the manhole is where it would be a good idea to have a de watering plan. So the schematic just shows, basically, we would be putting a pump, a simple pump down into the excavation for the manhole, we have housing that goes to what I call like a de watering bladder. Which I think down below there's a quote for one that we've bought before. And then hose coming out of that which then we would kind of set up a little hay bale with a tarp for just water to come out of there just to slow the water so there isn't any erosion for the discharge. And I think we're looking to put this sort of southeast of where the manhole is. I went out to the site and looked and I think there'll be plenty of room in that grass area for the excavation and for our stockpile storage area and then also sort of to the southeast. There'll be room for this whole de watering area. That's option two over there. I'm thinking, see, there's the manhole and kind of to the south of the manhole. The manhole will be done before the trenching. In this area, there's like a kind of a grassy area in this vicinity. Yeah, even where the trenches itself, sort of right in there is it's been, there's plenty of room. And, and I think I propose that if well it's going on if there isn't enough room we could move it across the street to that first area that you already put some circles. But so that is the de watering plan. And just I just wanted to note that the reason for the requested change was because the originally that the line was proposed to go along, I guess it's the north side of the crossbrook. And there's dozens of mature, very large trees that are right up against the road and we were concerned that that would basically the trenching would basically kill all the root system so moving it to the south side protects those trees. And there wasn't a whole lot of vegetation there. And then the de watering is just because there's likely a high ground water table there so just trying to, you know, once they're doing the trenching if they need to do water the trench or the area for the manhole that would provide. It's, it's a, you know, contingency in case and, you know, it's filled up with water and they need to pump the water out to function for the installation. Great. Thank you to anything from the commission on the new revisions. No, open up to the public if anybody has any questions or comments about this project within our jurisdiction. Two minutes, please state your name and your address, raise your hand. So I'm pulling in Sarah Matthews who raised your hand. Yep. There we go Sarah you're muted. I'm sorry, hopefully I joined properly. Thanks I'm Sarah Matthews I live on 95 cross brick and first I just want to publicly thank Beth for how much she's listened to then our, our association and neighbors and been responsive so thank you very much Beth. I just have a question about that. I can't really tell from the plan. But is the trenching still going to run on the outside of crossbrook versus within it. And is it going to be on the ice pond wood side. Yes. Yeah. Yes to both those things where we're going to try to avoid the pavement. So go to the south side of crossbook not affect the actual pavement or crossbook and it's all on ice pond woods property. Great thanks I just couldn't help. That was all thank you very much. Okay you got it. Thanks Sarah. I have nothing else from the commission of the public. I did draft a standard orders of conditions for the request for determination of applicability. And those are in your packets as attachments one and two I don't know if you guys want to go through all of the conditions or just reference the attachments. It's sort of a standard boilerplate for for example, erosion control inspections, and making sure that vehicles aren't crossing through wetlands during construction, you know, it's, it's, it's all sort of our standard language that we use for permits but I didn't have any other specific project specific conditions beyond that I don't believe. The, if you want to pull up the attachments we can. I could ask, Beth, do you want to see the are the order conditions for this motion or would you mind if we just reference the attachments. But if you want to hear them, we can do that. It sounds like if there aren't any sort of project specific ones then then I'm good because I know the general conditions. And I know you guys know each other so it's going to be communication back and forth anyway. Yeah, sure, well. Okay, so I think commission members if you wanted to make a motion to reference the attachments for the standard boilerplate or conditions. I moved to issue a positive determination under the tab Amherst wetlands protection by a lot checking box five negative determination under wetlands protection checking box three with attachments with conditions specified attachments one and two. First, Cameron second voice vote Andre. Hi, Alex. Hi, Laura. Laura. Michelle. Hi. I got him. I got Laura. Got Michelle Cameron. Hi, and I for Fletcher. Great. Thank you very much, Beth. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Okay. That's we did the business so Aaron, you don't apologize again, but thanks for please send us a reminder to the MOU with the DPW for everyone to have comments for you by the next meeting. What's that? That's right. Microphone. Microphone. Yes. Get your comments in for the MOU for DPW by next meeting everybody. So the only thing we didn't do was a motion to continue the SWCA hearing. So it's very simple, but that's the last item we need to do. I'm going to continue to public hearing for 46 fairing street to May 24, 2023 at 730 PM. Second. Michelle and Andre with a second voice vote Cameron. Hi, Alex. Hi, Laura. Michelle. Hi. Andre. Hi, Fletcher. Hi. Yes, you're Fletcher. That was great. I can't believe we got through all that by nine o'clock. That was really good. Yeah, well, help that we drop this one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay, thanks. And you want me to say you want to open up to the public for the last. If there's any public comment. Yeah, we have to for every hearing we have to just make sure there's no public comment. Excellent. Thank you very much, everyone. Powering through. It was a little difficult there. We got one. Barbara, if you want to, we'll get you in here and raise your hand and just state who you are and where you live. We watch Friday night lights. All right, Barbara, you're here. Just need unmute. Yep. So, um, I just wanted to ask, I was at the tank. I set in for the tan brook. Was that the one you're continuing? Yes. Sorry, we had to continue because we requested more information. I apologize, you must have missed the, we made it a number of announcements. Yes, it is being continued to the next meeting may 24th for 730. I'm sorry. And the reason was because you, you people asked for more information. Well, I specifically asked for additional mitigation measures on the site to be incorporated into the plan set. So it's, it's, it's going to be heard at the next meeting. That's, that's, they just needed additional time. They put something in it wasn't quite satisfactory yet. And so you asked for it to continue. It's not they who asked for it to be continued. Correct. Correct. I just wanted to understand a little bit better. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Thank you. All right. Have a good night. I think we did all other business too. Yes. And I just say something real quick. Sorry. One minute. I was just noting that there's like two things that came up with accessibility of trails and I just want to keep it in the mind of commissioners like how people use trails maybe near more like population centers or older people or people with less stability may need a lot of bog bridging, but those are big users of Amherst trail. So I guess when we can incorporate that into the Amherst trail system, maybe we should just keep it in mind. That's all. There's two good points raised today. Yeah. Yep. Totally. For all set, which kind of need a month. I move to adjourn at 903. Second. Right. Voice for Andre. Hi, Alex. Hi, Laura. Hi. Thank you, Michelle. Hi, Cameron. Hi. And I for Fletcher. Great job guys. Yeah. Well, thanks. I'm not sweating. Everybody. Yeah. See you the next week. Enjoy Raiders of the galaxy. Thanks everyone. Yeah. Bye.