 There's a new park there. I know that the new playground there. So I know that's not our land, but it's still pretty exciting to see that. And so I know some people have a question about what the hell they're doing there. But it's a new playground. And so that's great. Okay, so Dave, do you want to go next? Sure. I'm just, yeah, I know you've got a pretty full agenda and Aaron always has her, her PowerPoint. Yeah, just a quick, a couple of updates. I know that Beth is Beth Wilson from DPW is going to join us later. Is that correct, Aaron? I'm just going to talk about the faring brook project and their upcoming or our, the town's up anticipated notice of intent for the floodplain restoration project along the faring brook. So that's really, really pretty exciting that that is getting going. And I'm sure Beth will have more information for us tonight is, is just really an informal discussion. But that's exciting to, to anticipate the work. And I think we would be, the town would be putting that out to bid in the late spring, hopefully with construction starting in the early fall of 21 of later this year. So that's exciting. Probably at your next meeting, I will be giving you an overview of Pete West over the former conservation director for Amherst has been working with a couple of landowners in North Amherst up near Akins Reservoir off of like the Toulouse road that area on a couple of conservation restrictions that some, some residents are willing to donate to the town. So these, these dovetail nicely with some of the land that we've purchased up there for conservation purposes, it would come at the conservation restrictions would come at no cost to the town. So I will provide you with those maps and will work And we'll work probably at that point through Stephanie and we'll get to those maps prior to your next meeting. The other thing that is is on our agenda tonight. In your packet is the assignment of conservation restriction and I'm not sure if any of you had a chance. This is a fairly simple administrative matter. The long and short of it is the we are a co-holder the town through the conservation commission is a co-holder of conservation conservation restriction in the town of Amherst. Those conservation restrictions were formally held by the Valley Land Fund and the town of Amherst. The Valley Land Fund no longer exists. They were purchased excuse me they were merged with the Kestrel trust. So, in essence, they are asking for a signature from Brett to basically formalize that process that Kestrel would now be the co-holder of that conservation restriction. It's fairly simple administrative matter. The conservation restriction does not change in any way shape or form. It simply is transferred formally legally over to the Kestrel trust. So perhaps we can when we have a break in the action later we can talk a little bit more about that and and if you have any questions we can we can go into more detail but I think those are the only updates I have. We are continuing to do field work out there. If you've been out hiking as I have been, at least prior to the snow, there is a tremendous still a tremendous amount of activity out on the trails I was at Wentworth farm the other day on Sunday, and I was just blown away by the the foot traffic people running, walking dogs, family groups, social distance groups, skating, ice fishing. It's really impressive. I mean, I don't think in my career with the town I've ever seen our trails used more than in this pandemic year so that's a real positive that people have all of this space to explore and be safe in. So that's really exciting. Brad continues to do. He has been brush hogging as much as he can right up until this last snowstorm yesterday so he's actually kind of getting caught up in some areas that we could never brush hog before because they're so wet and the ground is solid. That's actually a good thing. You know, in terms of reptiles and amphibians they're all hibernating for the winter so it's kind of nice to get some of these this old group early successional habitat in good shape for the for the spring. Hey Dave I have a question for you. As we go forward into the spring, anticipating that that traffic is not going to slow down and will in fact speed increase. Is there a way that we can kind of be a little bit more proactive around information with responsible trail use as we go into mud season and as we get into kind of the the times when the trails might be a little bit more sensitive to more use than they're used to word use was said a lot. But I'm curious if there's like, I don't know. And I'm coming to you are the problem and not a solution which isn't what I love to do but I'm wondering if there's a way about signage of, you know, you know, Yeah, yeah, working with Brianna, who does most of our social media. Yeah, no that's a good idea because we certainly still are going to be messaging social distancing. I'm anticipating the town manager will want to talk about Puffer spawned again this year we had such a, I think, successful year doing outreach and and safety outreach at Puffer spawned I think that'll probably be in place again this year. So yeah, that's a that's a good idea. One of the things that one of the downsides of all this uses I am finding a tremendous amount of waste along the trails. Plastic waste masks, things of that sort so a Brad's got his work cut out for him there. I will also say that Stephanie, speaking of Brad and our field staff. I'm one of the members of the search committee for the assistant land manager position. And we had a tremendous response this year almost 50 applicants that probably doesn't surprise most people given the economy and the, you know, employment rates, but almost 50 applicants and the search process is well underway and interviews are beginning and so we, we hope to have I would say, probably by the end of February my goal would be to have hired an assistant land manager and get some help for Brad out there. Lots of trees still down you've probably seen them all over. Brad has done a nice job trying to clean some of those up at large hill and some of the other spots but there's still my guess is there's still probably 5050 to 65 down trees over trails all over town so we'll get caught up on those as some additional help. And feeding off what Anna was saying the other place that there's obviously a lot of consternation just related to parking. But I don't know. That's an ongoing thing. I mean like Amethyst gets disgusting sometimes. Yeah, I was by there the other day and I was just, you could not fit a smart car in that parking lot I mean it was, it was just packed. It's just, it's just wild how many people want to be out there and it's, it's an outlet that they feel is safe and, and we want to encourage them but they do need to be careful I found out on Bay Road some of the access points to our land and the Mount Hoyok range on Bay Road. They're just pulling over by the side of the road and parking where they can so we need to use some care and caution but that could go along with your suggestions on about just being smart about where you park and you don't want to get towed because some of those places are not safe. So thanks. I'll turn it over to Aaron. Thank you Dave. Um, John root is, is going to be presenting like a five minute presentation on a proposal at the Hitchcock Center. So I'm going to go ahead and promote him to panelists. And I believe Felix is also going to be it's John it's Felix right who's presenting with you okay yeah I wanted to make sure okay. And I'll promote him to panelists as well. Right. And then you guys can take it away. So, I think I'd like Felix to start out. He has a, can you share a presentation. Yep, and john if you and Felix can also just introduce yourselves very briefly that'd be great. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good. I started a group called Amherst area friends of pollinators and we've already begun work with the supervision of the, of the town of renovating the, the pollinator gardens at the old Hitchcock Center large area. And there are a couple of different. Planting the building and there's another large tract south of the building that we had started to do some selective clearing from and some planting as well. And, and Felix has been proposing community orchard in that, in that same tract of land. Sure, can, can everyone hear me. Yes. Yep. So, seeing up with john here as part of a area 501 C3 help yourself and we essentially promote implant public access community orchards of varying size from little isolated trees to dozens of trees and the. There's some good potential over at large shell. So we are proposing a, a community access orchard of mixed species. Something like six to six to 10 trees that we'd ideally plant this spring and then as they come to term, folks from the community can harvest from them. We would, you know, maintain them with our volunteer pool and plant them with companion plants and all of these, in addition to the number of pollinator plants that we hope to plant will in addition to supporting us people and humans support pollinators and other wildlife as well. This file has that map in there right. This is the pollinator garden I don't know if this is separate from the other area. Or is this. Here we go. I see planting area one. Right there was a, even a former kind of derelict pollinator garden that right now is would fall under the yellow kind of dotted rectangle and then what we're proposing sort of revamps that had some fruit trees, all in and then if that goes well. It was definitely room to the south that both of us were interested in planting after our pilot project was deemed to be successful. And just to understand where this is this is the, is that the trail on the left coming from the parking area down into the hitch car into large Hill. So if I could jump in here with Felix and john maybe I could jump in here. I've had a couple of meetings with with john and at least one meeting with Felix out there and Brad border week as well. And yeah, I'm very supportive of, you know, kind of a pilot program out there john has been great he's been as he mentioned he's been working to try to bring back some of the lovely gardens that were part of the former Hitchcock Center site around the building. And as we looked at the site, we really kind of zeroed in on planting area one as a logical spot for kind of a first phase of the work that john and Felix proposed. I had, I had recommended that we not do anything in what's called the construction area. And I think in large part because we really don't know what what the fate of the old Hitchcock Center building is going to be. And I really didn't want john and Felix and other volunteers to expend a lot of time energy and perhaps money planting there if that at some point if that building comes down they'll certainly need to be an area around it for demolition etc etc we just don't know the fate of that building yet. It's made sense to try to do something here it's a it's a prominent conservation area. It's an area that has been lawn or open for often on for a long long time. It has recently since john and Felix and I were out there, fairly recently has been impacted by the blowdown of two very large white pines. So it's a little bit. It's a little bit challenging right now I know Brad has a plan for those white pines and I'm supposed to talk with him about that tomorrow afternoon so. It's a spruce and a pine the spruce fell fell towards the building and that's the one that it's in the way that the pine doesn't necessarily needed needed to be dealt with. Now that now that you've cleared the trail. I also wanted to comment in the planting area one. The northern part of that area is where there's an old. Garden bed a fairly fairly sizable garden bed that that's been that was overrun and we did quite a bit of clearing of that you know taking out brambles and there's also a lot of golden rod that kind of takes over there and but there's some there there's really pretty high value pollinator plants already established there. So, I think it makes sense to, to continue with that project as well as the. So I just wanted to suggest that perhaps we could look at planting area as the northern half and the southern half planting area one and even considered planting area to moving into that somewhat with the community orchard, if we want to, if you want to follow my suggestion of maintaining that pollinator garden as a garden and rather than having that be transformed into part of the community orchard. Again, this is an area that has adequate parking. It has a trail right next door. It's fairly central to near downtown, and it gets a fairly, fairly high amount of traffic foot traffic and, and of course dog walking and joggers run through there. And I think it's part of the larger area of Bramble Hill, which over the past 10 years and has really increased in terms of visitor ship there so it seemed like a logical first step and and john and Felix. You know, have presented what I think is a reasonable starting point. So, a couple of comments or questions I mean one of this sounds great. So a lot of good stuff going on here. Are there going to be any negative consequences to native plants that are already established there, or are you going to do your best to maintain and enhance those. We're looking mostly at lawn. That's where the community orchard is going to be. Okay, and that we don't need any more of. So, okay. And in regards so I noticed that you are planning on native pollinator plants which is great. What about the trees that you're planning on. I assume that it looks like some of those are non native Have you thought about concentrating more native trees, or am I missing something. Certainly some of them are the beach poems the Juneberry erronea popper cinnamon and that kind of stuff. We're limited a little bit by space. Though it's though it's generous and thus we as we actually do in our in most of our planning projects focused on semi dwarf size stop tree stock and some of the native fruits are a little bit on the bigger side tree wise and you know, we could only squeeze one or two of them in there. And instead we could do a good dozen or so of these semi dwarf ones and then we'll definitely include what native berry bushes we can, as well as the podcast which I'm quite a fan of. So regarding the, the sort of obviously non native ones the peach, Asian parent apples. Those are not really dispersive if we're thinking about like their impact into the larger ecosystem they feed pollinators native and introduced alike, and are really user friendly, easy to identify easy to get excited about in terms of the public. Sort of. It can be a little challenging to excite people about some of the more obscure and potentially bitter like or sour native berry so it's good to have some crowd pleasers in there and at the same time we've, we, you know, we recognize the importance of native so we definitely like a mix. And we were told that there might be some possibility of having some educational signage. So, should that ever transpire we can. So we're also looking at this site as a teaching space, and including all sorts of fun and power inspiring ecology tidbits that absolutely will touch on the sort of complex issues of native and introduced plants and and food plants and so hopefully the real the real benefits of the cider are I'm imagining the human takeaway and the passers by and the users of the space that the folks who walk the trail walk their dogs, who see this sort of this planting site as as part of a sort of common ecosystem that they're part of and participate in and by harvesting from it and learning about it and maybe volunteering they sort of are nurtured in their sense of connection with the land and maybe inspired to do something in their own backyard or garden or something like that that so hopefully the impacts will be of the site will be beyond this smaller kind of modest geography. Okay, great. Thank you. So, Aaron and Dave, or I should say are there other commissioners who have thoughts or comments on this. So then for Aaron and Dave is this more just for what are we trying to do tonight so I mean this is great. I think there's a lot of positive things here obviously, you know it's going to be a lot of work and to me some monitoring I'm sure things will change. But are you, is this more informational are you looking for a vote tonight. I would like a vote. I think, you know, I think we're staff are supportive of of moving in this direction. I think the logical next step would probably be if the commission is favorable to moving forward is you know as we move into a new area, we could work on kind of an MOU with with john and Felix and whether it's a group or or, or just the two of them we could work on kind of an MOU just a simple MOU that kind of outlines the parameters the area we'd have a map. And any of the, you know, expectations as you just elaborated on Brett, you know the, the preference for as many natives as possible and the general area. And so that's I think what we're looking for and then, you know, as the weather turns a little bit we could also mark out the areas so that if commission members are there. I did commit to john and Felix that I would find some money for signs. So I think I can, I can find some money for some signs somewhere in the budget so I'm committed to doing that. And as far as maintenance of this area is concerned, I assume that it's going to be no chemicals, none of that sort of stuff, I mean obviously this is all for pollinator so you know it's going to be very pollinator friendly so. Okay. Yep. Okay, cool. Is there anybody from the public. So if there's anything from the public who has a comment you can use a little raise hand icon. Okay, if not, I think we are looking for a motion for us to support the public orchard and pollinator garden at Larch Hill. I move that the conservation commission support the pollinator garden and orchard at Larch Hill. I can. Thank you so voice vote and just to be clear, since we only have four commissioners tonight. All four of us have to vote in favor of something otherwise it's not going to pass. I don't think this one's right contentious but who knows where we'll end up later. So Anna. I, Leroy. Hi, Jen. And I for me as well. So we are good Dave and john and Felix good luck sounds great and I look forward to visiting in the future. Thank you. Thank you and thanks Dave. Okay. So Aaron should we move on to our 730. Or do you want to cover something else first. No, I think, I think we should probably just jump jump right into it by the time we get our attendees in to the meeting and plans pulled up it'll probably be 730. Okay, so I'm not a co host so I can't like let people in or out. Let me, let me point you a co host, just in case. So I think Meredith is here, Meredith is or anybody else here with you tonight presenting on this. Hi everybody. Joseph. Everyone might be coming zooming in. Not sure if he. We have a Brian Beck and a Mary Anderson. I don't know those folks. Okay. I just be by myself. But why don't we get moving and so this is a continuation of a notice of intent for 84 East Levitt Road and I know that there's been a little bit of back and forth. And so Meredith, you can just briefly introduce yourself again and then give us an update about where we're at. I'm Meredith Bornstein working for myself under divine wetlands consulting my the applicant is Joseph and we want he's the engineer in contractor on this project it's a single family home on a lot that was created off of 84 East Levitt Road. And we were here a couple weeks ago just going over that. The driveway so it's across the street from Cushman Brook, the driveway is the only area of impact in and that's in the outer 200 foot riverfront area. And we've had some back and forth we had some good feedback from the neighbors and Aaron and we updated the plans with some of your comments. So I can go through those if you'd like. Yeah, share my screen. We now have three sheets and they just got stamped. So now everything I've sent you Aaron you just throw away because we're going to have new sheets so hang on. New sheets that are stamped. Okay, so can everyone see the screen. Yes. Okay, so one thing that came up. The last meeting was there was a question about the location of the riverfront area and was that based off of actual flagging and yes it was we just, we didn't have the mean annual high water flags shown so now see these little green it says mhw that's me mean annual high and those are the flags. That's Cushman Brook. So then you see that the, then those were from the surveyor from when you guys approve the delineation he just brought them into this plan. So these are surveyed and then the lines here indicate the 200 foot riverfront area, and then the 100 foot riverfront area. And then to orient you. So this is the, there's an existing barn house and another house dwelling here. And so north. I should zoom out I'm sorry I jumped right into plan changes. So this is East Leverett Road, and then there's an existing driveway here which we're going to be utilizing. So if you're in construction that's going to be a gravel wash rack. So that trucks going in and out don't track mud into the street. So okay so the stream flags were one thing that we've added. We added a riverfront mitigation area this is this square right here 1300 square feet, and that's to compensate for this, the driveway which is in the riverfront. So, we're proposing to plant 36 shrubs and I just put a list on here because I wasn't sure what was going to be available. So that's Aaron sent me a really nice document of was like pollinators, poly shrubs that are good for pollinators. So these all have flowers. At some point, high bush blueberry New Jersey tea, Shadbush raspberry dogwood and or choke cherry so I was thinking based on availability they would choose a smothering these of these plants. Another comment that came up was, how are they going to make sure they're not going to mow this area so we added boulders to the edge. So that area can be marked permanently. Let's see. Oh yeah okay so a question came up about the driveway. The zoning had to be 12 feet wide because of a zoning bylaw. So, we did update the plan. First we had it 13 feet wide and that was a little too big. Then we made it 10 feet. And it turns out that's too small for zoning so the happy medium is going to be 12 feet wide. So that still gets us under 10% of the riverfront area on this prop on this parcel. So we're still meeting performance standards for riverfront area and the zoning bylaw. We had talked about doing a grass swale and I didn't realize this before but the driveway is going to be a cut. So we have we have a little cross section oh sorry it's on this one. The driveway is going to be a what? It's not going to be a cut. Oh a cut. A cut sorry yeah so there won't be this it's going to be a little bit of a slot a side slope, and then a 12 foot wide drive paved driveway. So we can't have a grass swale adjacent to the driveway. So Meredith I'm just going to jump in here on a couple things that you're mentioning. Just before I forget, because of the change in the driveway with I'm going to need to see a revised application form that has the revised riverfront numbers and proposed alteration numbers, and then the restoration area included in there with as a replacement. And then I guess for this what I'm wondering is so you're just envisioning that this is a sheet flow down this driveway you don't you're not concerned about that becoming. I mean there's no there's no swale on either side of this driveway to capture water. So I think. So it would just be sheet flow from the driveway alone because I forgot to add this other. So all the roof drainage is going to be directed to the north I'm going to change plans. Let me see where which sheet is on here. Oh yeah, this is yeah this is it. Another plan I'm sorry. I'm just going to add it. Here we go. roof drains to take the run off when it rates from the house and direct it over here. So, I guess I'm envisioning clean. Just rainwater going down the driveway. So what's going to happen in the winter with snow storage I mean how. There's no place to push snow on either side of the driveway because it's going to be inside of a like a embankment on either side and there's no swale on either side. To provide any kind of storage of any sort for water or anything like that I just envision this becoming like a. I mean, it's not a conservation issue but I'm just wondering, I mean, yeah, or I guess is the snow going to be taken off site that seems like a plow truck wouldn't do that. I don't know. Well I would envision they would just. I mean I'm not a plow person but they would plow it and plow it up here where it's going to be flat. Is that flat though isn't that a hillside. It's going to be carved into the house will be the. The area up here will be leveled out. Okay. And yeah I should find out what will, I guess now they have. Like what these people do they. It's their driveways flat flush with the. It's not going to be a steep embankment. Let me go back to the profile. So I'm not and it's not like a huge cut. He said I'm imagining it's just a. Yeah, it's a one to one so that just should be a foot on either side. So I would think the snow would be able to. Just go on either side, you know it's not like a six foot wide a six foot tall slope or anything. Sorry this is my first time seeing at like actually being able to look at these plans because they just came in last night so I'm just just. You know, as we're looking at them so. Yeah, I totally understand and if you guys need more time to review that's okay too since we didn't get them until last night. Aaron, could I could I interject. Are you looking at that driveway and the, and the design from a. From a jurisdictional standpoint of the commission, or just hearing standpoint practically, practically speaking. Well, it's really up to the applicant right. Well from a from a water standpoint, I guess it concerns me. You know that it's going to be. I mean, so, so here's what I see like if if there's no way to get the snow off the driveway then what's going to happen it's going to turn into an ice sheet and then what's going to happen. They're going to be out there with ice melt and sand and salt and everything else and then when it washes down it's going to go right into those catch basins at the bottom of the hill and then right into the river so like. From a practicality standpoint yeah I'm like it's it's ringing a bell for me but like it's more so like what the impact of that would be ultimately be the. You know because it's it does go up a slope that driveway and it's you know it's a pretty good pitch down to where the catch basins are so. And we do have conditions in our boilerplate about not using certain types of ice melts and salts and things so I just trying to think about that now. Present. Yeah, I'm glad. Maybe you can pull up some photos of the hill and see I mean it's not a. It's a gradual hill, you know it's not like a vertical slope, but I get that snow storage. Could be an issue. Do you have any thoughts on alternatives. Well I mean I think having a small grassed swale on either side of the. Of the driveway is is always a good idea anyways I mean any any road driveway that you see that doesn't have some kind of country drainage built into it. It turns into an issue with water, because there's nowhere for the water to go other than down the driveway and in the wintertime it's where what's going to happen is it's just ice. And seeing as that's in a riverfront area that's really kind of my big concern. But I mean, we could say snow storage has to be up by the house. You know, in the turnaround area. It does look like on one set of plans that the turnaround is within the 200 foot but on the other set it's outside of the 200 foot that little turnaround pad up at the top. And it did kind of look like there was two separate configurations of that maybe. Yeah, that looks different than the other one. The turnaround looks like it's partially within 200 feet there but on the other plan it's shown differently. Am I seeing that. Yeah I know I mean you're seeing it I just I think he was trying to maybe show something else. But do you but do you see what I mean the driveway footprint there with the turnaround is extending into the 200 foot versus on the other plan it looks different. It's shown outside of the 200 foot on the other plan that you were just toggling. It's shown outside. It's like the riverfront line moved or the pad moved for where the driveway is going. The pad looks a little different between the two of mine. I mean it's, it's, it's a small difference but it's, I mean what's what is the difference I guess I'm wondering there. I mean in terms of snow storage it does, you know, the other driveway is shown as bigger. I mean it's outside of jurisdiction but it's just a different configuration and bigger and this one shows drive way. I think this is showing this like the stairs going up to the second, the second level. Okay, let me see my look at the other. These are all different, and I didn't I didn't do the plan so I don't know why they are. I think we're just trying to show different things in each on each sheet. But nonetheless we would still be under the 10% so 10% of the riverfront area on the property is 1670 feet. So with a 12 foot driveway we had 1200, about 1274. So even if, here where's the other little thing was this little corner was in the riverfront, that's not going to be 400 feet, 400 square feet. But it was my understanding that this was the ultimate. This was the layout because they want to pull into their garage and be able to turn around. And maybe we put on here like snow storage has to go up here. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, you can't use that I mean they're going to have a garage so they don't need to turn around well. It's not going to be covered with snow. I don't know. I think that, but they can always push it off of the pavement to, I guess, so then it's online and doesn't. So it has time to infiltrate. Hopefully don't don't want it right next to their well though, maybe they do. Anyway, yeah, I mean that I think that adding a designated snow storage area would be would be a good solution. And also, as long as we condition the, you know that they're aware that in that area that there's going to be restrictions on the types of things they can use for snow. I mean for ice control on that driveway. Meredith, do you know why a, so I see in the in the plan that there's a cup but do you know why it needs to be a cut and there can't be a swell there as well. I think he's just based on the grades. But to Brett's point, could he grade in a swell. So angle it back and gentle or slope or have that steep cut wider out and then, you know, further out from the driveway and then make room. Yeah, I mean, I think these guys are all making excellent points because what I see happening here is water coming down that driveway going on either side of the driveway washing out gullies on either side of the driveway and then you've got erosion Yeah, I could see it as a water quality concern heading into kushman brook sedimentation, but I mean the degradation of the driveway and this water quality issue go hand in hand so it's probably to the best interest of the applicant to think about controlling erosion and allowing for slowing the velocity of water, heading down that driveway. Even if it was a narrow stone swale on either side or something to capture it. Because I mean I'm assuming it's not going to be perfectly flat it's probably going to be, you know, something like this where there's like a slight peak in the middle of the of the driveway. So water is going to sheet flow off on either side. So I think what we're asking for is if we can get some feedback from the engineer on what is feasible with the road that'd be very helpful. Some alternatives and maybe there's something that we don't understand and it's not feasible but seems like there should be some possibility. I would be surprised if if that's not what the applicant was thinking of doing anyway and that's and the standard the section that they put in for the driveway is just kind of super duper standardized. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if you say really no no swale on the side and he'll say oh yeah, you know, so we just need to see that because I think it would be pretty standard practice. And Meredith you said for the 12 foot wide driveway the alteration was 1274 square feet. Yes, I think that's what I wrote down. Okay. Here's my chart. Here we go. Yeah, 1212 foot driveway 12 foot yeah it's 1274. Okay. Maybe they was thinking he couldn't squeeze it in under the 10% riverfront area but I don't, would that matter because it's a grass swales not being paved. So that wouldn't count right towards being a permanent impact. I mean if it was like a stone on either side I would say it would count but if it's a natural vegetated swale. And what I would recommend is, I mean, what what I think would function the best is something that's not just like a deep swale that somebody's, you know, going to drive into but more like a very low grade, you know, very low grade that kind of runs alongside the driveway that they could just grade in to capture the water. And it would almost act as a water quality swale that they could just mow with their lawn mower if that's all being maintained as grass as you know lawn. It's almost like the driveway needs to be shown as 14 feet, but just a swale on either side. Right. Rather than a slope. What a one foot. No that's not going to work. Well, two foot wide grass whale on either side, added to this cross section, and you would still have a side a little bit of a side slope, but it won't be very so going to be a foot so that's not tall. So that seems like a good solution. I mean, quite frankly, you could even put plantings, you know, if you could do grasses and plantings inside it. That were, you know, Oh, rather than the mitigation area. Well, no, I'm saying. In addition. I mean, yeah, if you're calling it. It's tricky because it's not a stormwater structure. Right. But it's, it's, it's a benefit to the site. It's a benefit to the riverfront area. But, but there are native grasses that are, you know, better than using just like a, like a standard grass seed mix that you could put in there like a conservation mix that would you could still mow, but that would provide some value and then and some stabilization. And I think that would be something I would look at as not being a adverse riverfront impact it would be like a, you know, water quality swale with some potential habitat value. And would still be able to get have a good amount of snow sitting on it throughout the winter. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I get it. Great. I have a good report back. Well, I'll have to get Joseph to update the plan again. Was there anything else? I mean, does anybody have any comments on the planting area that seems in line with what we talked about last time with the addition of the stones. So thank you for that. Oops, I'm zooming in. I'm going to open that mix seems. Yep, anything native and yeah, that's all great. I just want to go to my notes on the from the last meeting. And we will open it up to the public in just a minute. So, the paver issue. I guess there was, there was a concern that that wasn't going to work on the slope. Is that right, Mary? We're getting plowed new plow pavers. I think there was a concern about that. And then maintenance as well. Yeah, and you can't. Can't sand, right. Oh, that's pretty. Sand pavers probably not impervious. Yeah, you do have to use I think a vacuum periodically like the vacuum truck sweeper on them periodically to keep them clean. But yeah, I mean everything I have like, I mean, I could do a little share screen but basically we were talking about downspouts directed on the north side of the house grading of the driveway to sheet flow north away from the property. The properties to the south and and so I mean, my recommendation would be to keep that swale on the north side of the property to catch the flow just to keep the water from being directed down the slope towards the neighbors. But I think the main goal is to keep the water clean and to keep it on your property. And then there was a concern about potentially if a groundwater seep was exposed in the course of construction since there's a cut happening in that hillside that if that comes about that it's something that corrective action would have to be taken to address it. There's a question about the stamp and obviously we've got a stamp on it and it's a it's an engineer stamp or a surveyor stamp. It's an engineer civil engineer. Okay, perfect. Okay, and then top of bank flags were added. Pervious pavers, I guess we're ruled out as an option stones were added to demarcate the restoration area and that there's a note that it's it'll be conditioned that it's undisturbed in perpetuity. And then there's the riverfront flags I think I already mentioned were picked up. So those are the comments and so it sounds like, like most of the comments, or all of the comments were addressed with the exception of that swale issue. Okay. So, do any other commissioners have any comments if not I want to open up to the public real quick. Okay, so there's anybody from the public who would like to comment having thing they'd like to add you can use the raise hand feature. Do you have anything to add to the hearing or sorry. Sure. Okay. I think we're good. I didn't mean to talk. So okay so I'm not seeing anything. So it sounds like Meredith that there is some additional, you know, feedback that we would like particularly related to the swell so if you can get back in touch with with Aaron or with the town. That would be great and then yeah hopefully next time we can move forward on this. Yeah, great. I will update the plan again. So, so the swale and snow storage to just maybe designate that snow storage area. And Meredith if it would be at all possible to get it to get the revised plan by the 5th of February. Okay, just so that we have a chance to review it in advance that way we can be prepared to potentially approve it on the February 10th meeting. Got it. Yep. So that's enough time for you Meredith. Oh yeah, we'll make it enough time. I'm not updating the plans but I will. I'll put the order in. Sounds good so Aaron, can you give us a time and date that we're looking for. Yep, so February 10th at 740pm. Okay, so looking for a motion for continuation. Thanks for sharing to February 10 to 740pm. Second. Thank you so Jen. Hi, Anna. Hi. Roy. Hi. And I for me as well. So we will see you then Meredith. Okay, thank you so much. Have a good night. You too. Bye bye. Thanks. So we are moving on to our 735, which is the Amherst college, but they have a request for continuation. And so are we looking for what time are we looking for that one Aaron. So that would be February 10th at 730pm. I have a point of order question. If I'm abstaining from this because I work for them can we still do the things and abstain still counts. So I can't vote on this one. Correct. But, but I think I think per open meeting law and Dave correct me if I'm wrong but one person could theoretically announce a continuation if there wasn't a quorum. I thought that was continued kind of either way it's just whether or not we vote to do it or not and we can't. So we can't vote to do it so we just automatically do it. I think that we might as well go ahead and vote. Yeah, I mean just kind of administrative thing at this point and not much else that we can do so. I know that we've in the past when like for example if they're, if we didn't have a quorum, and this was like in a, in a open meeting venue like in a town hall that if the con, if we knew there was no quorum and con com members didn't make it I would get there and if anybody showed up I'd say the hearing is continued to this day at this time and that was sufficient but Yeah, it's not like we could vote on anything tonight anyway so Right. Exactly. That'd be even worse. So. Okay, so looking for a motion for kick for a continuation from anybody but Anna. I think you're the second Jen, I can then. Okay, so Jen. I. And I for me as well. So. Okay, so a little funny there, but we're good. Okay, Aaron. So, what would you like to move on to next. So if we could jump to Beth Wilson. I'll make her a promote her to panelists and she'll just do a brief presentation on the faring Brook. On the fairing book project for us. Hello Beth and you just have to hit the unmute button. Hello. Hi. Hi. Okay, can everybody hear me I'm using my kids microphone and I'm not quite sure it's like a handset that you have to hold great. Yeah, you're a little soft but we can hear you. All right, I'll just talk really loud. How is everybody. Good. Good. How are you. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, which is this is just an informal discussion for fearing Brooke. You all are pretty familiar with this project. I know Brett and Jen are not sure about on as much. But yeah, we are hoping to submit it for the hearing on the first meeting in March, if we can get to that point. This is just sort of an informal discussion to get comments from you guys on the plan set so that I can make any changes in the next two weeks before submitting the application. This is going to be submitted as a ecological restoration limited project. You know, a lot of the application is really going to be explaining what that means and meeting the thresholds of being that kind of a limited project. Today, I just wanted to go through the plan set and go through sort of the specifics of the design of the project with you and see if you have any comments on it. So Aaron's got the plan set up. So that's that's the site we can go to the next sheet. So this sheet shows the limit of work. There's a an area on the south side of hearing work and then there's an area on the north side of hearing book where there's going to be work being done. This is the area where there's going to be the floodplain restoration. This is going to be a stormwater drainage improvement. Included in the project. But this is just a good view of where the project is going to be and sort of the extent of the project. This area is about 40 feet by 450 feet. This is I'm not sure the area but this is basically it's an area that doesn't drain very well. This is for elementary school soccer field softball field. Low area that tends to hold a lot of water causing issues, the soccer field. And then what's happened is drainage during storm events has actually caused quite a bit of erosion on the bank of hearing books so we're including that in the project, primarily because preliminary review by DEP. They commented on the erosion of the bank there and wanted to see this included in the project. But anyway, that's about all that that sheet really shows so why don't we go to the next sheet. All right, so this sheet. This is just existing conditions. So there's not too much to really talk about on this sheet either next sheet. All right, so this sheet shows the area that's going to be cleared, which is this hatched area. This sheet shows the erosion control, which is going to come along all the edge here the compost filter to this proposal for that. This sheet shows the stockpile area which we talked about is sort of flexible that's going to be dependent a lot on where community gardens parking and what happens this summer this but there is going to be a stockpile area on the site tracking pad. This may be a good point to sort of talk about the progression of the project. The idea would be that they would clear this area first. They would put down erosion control they would clear the area. The in stream work they have to do which there's some boulder clusters and some core log locations along the bank. That would all get done before they do any excavating of the floodplain area. Because vehicles are going to need to get across here to get in to do the wet work. So that's kind of how the construction sequence is going to go. Then once the wet work is done, erosion control would get closed up again. And then they could start the actual excavating of the floodplain area, removal of soil from the site, comeback grade topsoil, do all the plantings and the seeding. So that's just sort of a sequence and I thought this shows that well. Go to the next sheet. The sheet shows the locations of the boulder clusters and the core logs. And you can see here where the, the trail that we have found at Port River Farm right now is going to get moved a little bit to the south. We're going to get reconstructed, regraded, and then the grading lines for the floodplain project. Like I said, 40 feet wide. And you can look at the lines with the, the, the depths, depending on the location along here is generally zero to three feet of materials going to get removed. 2,000 cubic yards of soil total is going to be removed from the site. The screen is really small on my screen, so I can't quite see. Okay, next sheet. All right, so this sheet shows the work that's going to happen on the North Bank, which is, vegetated swale with a, with a perforated pipe coming through. Again, the swale at its widest is four feet or so. And it's to try to get some of the ponding that's happening in this area to drain, drain down into it's kind of an outfall. And just to improve the drainage over there. Does that have a level spreader at the outlet there, Beth? Yeah. Okay. There's a stone pipe end to it. And it's more of a, of a basin, you know, a vegetated basin. I have about that right now. And this is the planting plan. There's plenty of trees and shrubs I think there's 12. Let's see the numbers. Let me pull it up online. There's 20 or so trees proposed, I believe, a number of shrubs. And then, and then general seeding to really create this floodplain. So, you know, the idea is that to lower the bank, there's still, there will still be a low level bank to keep the channel in place. There will still be a stream channel. But the bank on this side is obviously going to be a lot lower than it is right now. So that during storm events, the water is going to be able to flow into this area and, and slow down and the sediment's going to settle and all the vegetation and soil area are going to be able to really absorb the contaminants that are coming down the sediment itself, but also nutrients and bacteria that are in that storm water. That's the whole idea of the floodplain creation. And so these plantings are very important to the project and you look through the list. It's a nice list of wetland plants. And yeah, we're going right up to the edge of the Fort River. I think I forgot to mention earlier that when they are doing the in stream wet work. There will be erosion control, you know, down at this end protecting the Fort River. We need to talk about that a little bit, but we are going to propose something. You said there's going to be vehicles in the water. I was just asking the same question. Sorry. Are they working in the wet or are you diverting flow bath. They're working in the wet just to place these boulder clusters the proposed boulders are 24 inch diameter boulders so they're so they're, they're big and so I'm assuming that some kind of a vehicle is going to have to get down there, be it just a backhoe or there's rocks down there. So, so I'm going to have the we're going to have them do that before they start excavating in here, just to try to limit, limit erosion and destruction of the area. But it's really just placing those those rock clusters and there's there's three of them, and building up the core logs they have. They have like a rock toe to them the core logs but those boulders are smaller than these boulders are, but there is just a little bit of work in the stream and right on the bank. It should happen, basically before they start doing any of the excavating. So I guess to follow up on Jen's question is there going to be some something actually in fairing brook to like a turbidity curtain or something to prevent sediment that stirred up from getting into the fort. Yeah, I'd like to see something like that right right down at the end closer to the Fort River. And I mean it depends on the time of work right so when they get to do this project if it's a low flow season it might not be an issue but sometimes on project like this. You'll see like a little bit of like a, like a natural stone dam just to divert flow onto the far bank, while they place those boulders. It's pretty unusual that they would just like be on the bank with an excavator and they're going to want to be in the dry to place those boulder clusters I know they are. So it's just a matter of like where how you do redirect flow during that time, I think. Yeah, well we will be doing it. The date is starting September, so September to November ish. So it definitely low flow. Again throughout the, this plan said there's a number of discussions written in about being aware of the weather that's coming up and taking all precautions for for erosion. You know, if the water is high enough, they may just not be able to put the boulder clusters and at that time I, if you go out to Faringbrook there are some days when the flow is pretty low. Yeah, I've seen it, I've seen it roaring, and I've seen it trickling. It really depends. Yeah, very flashy. Yeah, I yeah I'm surprised they don't want to put something on the SNEC plan just showing how they're going to divert the flow. When they're placing the boulder clusters. They probably have thought about it I don't see it on the plans. They're also really hard to get to load on my computer so it's possible it's in one of the notes and I just literally can't see it, but it might be worth mentioning to them I'm sure they thought about it. Yeah, I know it's definitely not in the plan set but it is. Okay, we can talk more about and we can, you know, we can include something about, you know, but obviously we'll be accessing from this side so if, if there is a way. And I'm sure there is that we can you know divert the flow sort of around where the boulder clusters are generally going to be placed centrally in the stream channel, we can divert the water around those, those few areas while we're doing it. The other thing is they might have a note in there that says like they'll, you know, probably the on site engineer is going to make a call about where they put the boulder clusters so maybe they'll be able to work in the dry will be part of that decision to. Yeah, yep. Yeah, those are things. Yeah, just talk talk a little bit more about that and have have that figured out by the time we come to our hearing. Next slide. This slide is really shows all the resource areas. So it's got riverfront on it's got BLSF on it, it's got the buffer zone lines on it and it's got the impact quantities on it to which again it's really see but so these are impact numbers for BLSF and riverfront. And then because it's a limited project, you know, we are we are allowed to hit some of these higher numbers. One thing this reminds me of is that just if you're people are thinking of other permitting that had to be done. We have the MEPA thresholds so we don't have to file with MEPA we're also not impacting over 5000 square feet of land underwater so there's no water quality cert required. We are submitting to the Army Corps. We're in the process of probably getting that done this week. So really the notice of intent and getting the notice of intent to natural heritage is the primary permitting. I don't know if you guys are aware but with the ecological restoration project you actually have to submit to natural heritage before you submit the NOI to the concom for sort of a preliminary review. So part of the NOI application that you guys will get will have that natural heritage preliminary review. Next slide. This slide basically shows the planting plan again but it shows where the cross sections are that are in the upcoming slides that we can look at. Yeah, so these are the cross sections sort of shows you different areas of the stream, what's actually being excavated. The slopes change a little bit. Right here there's still going to be more of a bank even after the project is done there'll be more of a little edge of a bank and the choir logs and the rock toes are also sort of meant to reinforce and create a little bit of a bank. Whereas at this cross section you get more of a slope and the water will more easily flow into the floodplain. Those are all interesting they show the 100 foot floodplain elevation which is that I think it's about 171 and a half or so is that elevation. And so then you can see how that's that's all going to change with the project how that's going to change but how we're going to get good good flow with even like the 10 year storm. Yeah, and then this, this is really just a site access construction slide. We've already talked a bit about how speaking with property owners abutting property owners may change a little bit of how this looks. When the project actually happens I don't this gates not going to be there. And we may be accessing a little bit differently. But there certainly will be a construction pad. And we will tie and limit erosion we're going to harden the road here, most likely, pardon this patch up to where the payment start starts I think it's more of a gravel parking lot there between the gravel parking lot. The limit of work is a grass area that we're going to have to access through and so we're going to harden that up a bit. These are just the specs on the filter tube. So fence will probably go around the stockpile soil stockpile area and the tracking path. And those erosion control blankets would be on the on the bank until the veg gets established is that kind of. Yep. Nice. It gets into the specifics about it's very detailed. It's great. Get into the details on how they're going to lay out the boulder cost clusters so that they're pointing in the right direction with water flowing in this direction of the point toe. All of those details about how those things will be constructed. And this project will get, it's going to get contracted out and we're looking for environmental company similar to Malone and reprogram or somebody to be the oversight for the project. So that's about it. So we're just looking for any comments that you all have. No comments person observation looks like we just lost Jen. So maybe he's coming back on. I'm just actually I do have comments, but that was so I think that's really impressive. Beth, it looks like you guys have thought out a lot of details. And yeah, the overall on the system should be really nice. It's going to be good. Major improvements. A couple of quick comments. One is that I've been in touch with Brian Yellen, who's a professor at UMass. And Brian is actually interested in kind of studying before and after. I don't know if it's specific, but he's considering seeking some grant funding to kind of look at before and after conditions. In this area in the focus area that Beth just described so I'm going to be talking with him in the next couple of days and see, you know, kind of more specifics on that but, you know, any data collection that we can do would be kind of interesting to see. I think that's a focus on water quality. The other thing I was going to mention is Beth where we're still having conversations Stephanie, who is coordinating some of the farming activities that for reform Aaron and Beth and I still having conversations about, you know, aspects of this project which are relate to, for instance, parking at the community gardens so so that's there's still some things to be determined on that path is that accurate. I think so. Right we met the other day about it. Yeah, we need to still figure out you know where that stockpile areas going to go and then, right we had talked about doing something more to the, to the west there. Right along the fence line and having that be the stockpile area and having this project sort of harden that which then that area would convert into the parking area. Once this project's over. And we'll look at. Yeah, we'll look at some of the, the threshold or the challenges really comp storage and this project that have described the fairing group project will create a lot of numbers right because you'll be excavating the bank, the accumulated bank there so we're going to we're going to look at that in the next month or so you said there were you're going to see your target submittal is when Beth middle of February or. Yeah we're shooting for the first meeting in March so now that I know that you have to submit three weeks ahead of time. That's in the next couple weeks. Yep. Okay, great. Just those couple of things and we'll be doing quite a bit of outreach. We're going to have to talk to folks on the school side. We'll be talking to some of the abutting landowners on the way in there's still some access issues that we need to clarify. I think that's exciting and Stephanie is, has been working on the community gardens and we are making progress on those as well in fact some raised bed gardens are being fabricated in the next couple of weeks so exciting stuff happening. Yeah, that's great. I just want to note with Brian yelling Cindy, though Papa so she's with DER and we're partnering with her she actually had reached out to a woman Anna martini who works at Amherst College about just getting college kids involved in the project and Anna responded that she was working with Brian on what you're talking about. And so we're going to Cindy and I are actually going to have a phone conversation with them tomorrow with Brian and Anna about the sampling that they want to do in the Fearing Brook. Yeah, I don't know much about it I'm not sure where along the Fearing Brook they're proposing to do it but I think it's through Anna's hydrogeology class this spring. So that could be great like you said it could provide data before the project and after the project and then also depending on where else along the Brook they want to sample it's just more more data on the Fearing Brook which is really great. Yeah, and as the Commission well knows I mean 2020 was not a good year for a lot of things but it was not a good year for water quality in the Fort River. And you know I would just put an asterisk near that because in my years with the town last summer was the first time we were sampling and and really looking at the Fort River more closely so I say that the water quality was not good in it's funny but I have no idea really what it was like prior to that because we weren't sampling. So, but what we did find is very high bacteria counts at particularly jump bridge at Stanley Street, which is just downstream not not very far from where the Fearing meets the Fort so it's probably not a huge leap to say the Fearing is a major contributor to, you know, some of the, certainly some of the more significant pollution in the fort so anything we can do to clean up the Fearing, I think is a good thing so more data more data, and then we got to figure out how we address some of those issues. So jumping from that comment the only thing a little piece of an ad is. So I think the water quality is, is a really important thing to get a handle on, but to do that really well you also have to monitor flow, like discharge the amount of water that's coming through the system. And what's super relevant here is the velocity of the water so not only how much but how fast is it going, because the compensatory compensatory storage or creating more floodplain storage the idea is it slows down flow, you know and so you have these that are saturated for longer periods of time stronger bank less erosion less sediment in the system, you should have a grading sediments. So I'm happy to help in my capacity as a, you know us DS hydrologist if that makes any sense. Anyway, but that's one thing when you're looking at research plans for monitoring conditions before and after that's one thing I would like it sounds so easy but it's not always easy and sometimes I think it's looked over and then later you're like wait we have these discrete water quality samples but you can't measure the loading, like the total amount because you don't have the total amount of flow. But that's good to know because I don't know what what she's planning for her class I know they're doing it this spring which is a little doesn't match up quite with when we're doing our project. You know, September and November, but still if they can get some background. You know, I don't know what they're sampling for but and actually you know we did do Malona McBroom did a basis of design report for this project where they really did a in depth look at hydrology and flows and all that that's kind of what the sizing of the floodplain project is based on that study but but I hear what you're saying in the next fall when it's happening when we're doing the project or right after the project happens, if we can monitor changes in flow, you know, from the project that was created would would be really great and we can get another class to do more work next fall. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so then I had, I'm sorry I dropped off for a second because my computer battery died so I'm sorry if I like missed when we were talking about feedback on the specs and the plans, but just like two small thoughts if I may. One is the root wads where you guys get did you say where you're going to get the root wads like the big trees with root wads for those those in bank. We're going to try and reuse on site because we're doing so much clearing and yeah big trees so that we're going to try to reuse yeah. Okay yeah so one thing I was thinking about on that is that so like, you know, climate change in New England we're seeing more of both extremes like more intense floods but also more intense droughts. One thing I noticed when I look at those plans is that they look like they're real they're really well designed for the high flows to reduce kind of sheer forces on the bank reduce erosion slow flow, which is great but we also have these periods, as you guys know in the clearing but increasingly kind of hydrochlamatically a really, really low flow. So one thing I don't see in there is like across typical section that allows for kind of enough heterogeneity to have pool kind of riffle structure in the stream itself. So that might be worth asking them like, if there's any plan for helping or like accelerating kind of arm ring of the bank and things that would encourage habitat, you know, connected habitat at low flow. Because those root wads chances are for most of the year will be high and dry, you know. So and then the other thing I was thinking along those lines is, if you can use sycamores or there's like a few species of like our big floodplain trees that grow around here that will stump sprout. So not only will they have that really cool, like structural integrity on the bank they also will create more vegetation so at low flow you can have more shading over the stream. So that's one thing to think about is like, look for London Plains or sycamores or poplars will stump sprout a lot of them. So maybe we're thinking about for when when you're harvesting those big trees for the root wads. I'm trying to remember if we have any sycamores out there. Yeah, we should. Yeah, I know up I know downstream there are on the Fort River. Yeah. But so yeah, like the low flow design there I think is it. I don't see it reflected in the plans that well and I think it would be a good thing to think about. So you're you're meaning in channel in stream channel improvements. I mean I realize when I say that it means it's it's interpreted I mean if they're already going in for the random boulder clusters then like just make sure it's not going to end up in a situation where we float slow down flow so much it's just dropping a bunch of sand and then at low flow it's going to be one continuous very very low like very homogenous habitat situation. Yeah, because we know in in the Fort River there's you know a really healthy ecology in some places so that chance you know the hope would be right that you, if you build it they will come. And that you have to kind of establish kind of some heterogeneity of the bed form in Bearing Brook. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And that those guys will know. Yeah. Yeah. Megan will know. Yeah, exactly yeah her. Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jen. But that was like, there's a whole course that was amazing. They're in my computer battery working. So is there anybody from the public who would like to comment on this. Okay, so anything else from the Commission or do you have what you need at this point Beth and you'll be formally submitting in a few weeks. Yeah, no, those were some great, great comments and and sorry if I was a little vague with the presentation but like I said, we're, we're still sort of developing the narrative and the rest of it so but yeah, it would be helpful to share the plans and yeah, good comments. Yep, and it's always great to see it before it's formally submitted so that's great thank you. All right yeah and if anybody has any more comments that they think of feel free to email me. Thank you Beth. All right. Thanks. Good night. Good night. Okay. What should we move on to. Um, yeah so I'm going to go in kind of a funky order, but I think it'll just help us to move a little faster. I'd like to start with this emergency certification request. This is a basically just under our bylaw it was one tree in the buffer zone, located at 22 Hawthorne Road, they got a arborist out there, the tree was leaning over their home. It's a really large tree and they requested to have it removed because it was a hazard to the house. So, I got the go ahead from Dave that it's okay to issue and just looking for the board to ratify that order, or that emergency certification. Okay that makes sense. I just want to also note that there are at least a couple people here who I think are here for can have so if we did that one soon too. Yeah, yeah we can maybe jump to that one next. Okay. So, um, yep. And so they had that letter from the arborist. It looked like, yeah. Yeah, and I did condition it they did spread some wood chips around the base of the tree but it was all outside of the wetland. And then there was some other trees that were blown down in the yard that were where the, the stumps were tipped up and they just cut the tree and the stumps fell back into place so but those ones are already dead and down so it was just this one tree that they got approval for. Okay. That makes sense to me I don't see any issues. Is anybody else. No, I was going to make the motion. Please. Jump. I move that the conservation commission ratified the emergency certification at 22 Hawthorne road. Seconded. Okay, Jen. Hi. Roy. Hi. Anna. Hi. And I, we are good on this one. So let's jump to enforcement. So I'm, there's a couple enforcement updates, but there's, there's nothing substantive for me to share on Canton have really the board had basically kind of taken a no action stance on this one at the last meeting. I actually just added it as an administrative follow up because the order of conditions expires on February 23rd, and there was some back and forth about whether or not we should reach out to the landowner. So I just wanted to mention that they need to make take some actions as far as the outstanding enforcement prior to that expiration date if they want a continuance, or if we would again take a no action standpoint and just kind of not proceed with any communication until they reach a point of expiration. So I just wanted to follow up and make sure because, you know, it's a, it's a big deal to have it expire for them and then have to come back and refile and also because there's been no action on the enforcement and that's also a big issue. I think we should stay the course. Yeah. Fine with that as well. Yeah, and so I mean I guess one thing will be what happens if there is no movement on the enforcement though. Yeah, and I was going to actually recommend that if there is no action on the enforcement that once the order of conditions expires on the 23rd that we notify the landowner in writing that finding will begin if action is not taken by a certain date, because you have that authority under the local bylaw. I believe it's finding up to $300 a day. And I just know for a fact that they could get a surveyor out there and start addressing this right now. And they're not so. Okay, so I think, yeah we had no action last time it sounds like we have no action again this time. I just want to just kind of cross that bridge when we come to it. Okay, that's totally fine by me I know there's a couple of butters that have reached out to me since the last meeting and I see a couple of them on. I don't, I'm, I think they were just kind of wanting to be, you know, see if there was any updates but I don't want to speak for them if. So if anybody is on the call from the public would like to speak if you just raise your hand. And there's nothing you want to say at this point that's fine as well, obviously. Okay. So I'm not hearing or seeing anything so yeah, I think we are good on can now ready for the next one. Okay. So, as an as a follow up there was some tree cutting that was reported on 562 South Pleasant Street. It's been a real task trying to get in touch with those folks I was I tried stopping by twice knocking on the door no one came to the door even though those cars there then I finally was able to track down a phone number. I got several messages and finally got a call back this afternoon. So I'll just kind of give a, an overview of the conversation so first it was one of the owners that I spoke to and she denied that there had been any cutting on the site other than a hazard tree that had been removed last year. And then I said well I was out on the property line where it meets the DPW barn and I did document several trees that had been cut in the wetland. And at that point I was turned over to the other homeowner who admitted that there was cutting, and they said, they were trying to improve the land and improve the aesthetics of the land and they are. I don't believe English is their first language so there was a little bit of a, you know they're not maybe not aware of the law in Massachusetts perhaps they did not know that there was any wetlands laws. And the guy said basically I thought it was my property I could do whatever I wanted, and then kind of went on to say, well, can we fill in with some dirt, can we do additional work and I was like, absolutely not. I got his email address and basically said, you can come forward with a plan to replant the trees that have been cut as an option, or you can file an after the fact permit. So I just come before the concom for, you know, because it sounds like they wanted to do more back there. But I sent him all of the regulations, I sent him a list of consultants. I think it was one of those situations where they maybe didn't know, but then when they got the letter from me certified letter from me and also phone calls and follow ups that they realized something, they had done something wrong and anyways so I'm trying to work with them to resolve it without an enforcement order. And I asked them to basically via email to provide some comments to us by way of response. That the date was on that the 5th of February. So I asked them to respond by February 5 via email with, are you filing a permit, are you replanting and if you are replanting what species are you replanting and where. And I also requested a site visit once the snow is no longer on the ground. So, that's an update on that one. And some of you may have seen 214 Palmer, Palmer Lane. This is the poor farm property. So, you may recall the last meeting that was some talk about the deadlines they did end up meeting the deadline which is great for a submission of an initial plan. The initial restoration plan was basically replanting of blueberries in nothing but blueberries in the wetland and the riverfront area that had been cleared and grubbed. So my response back was basically, you know, planting a monoculture crop in resource areas. And for agricultural purposes, by as a means of restoration is not going to work, and that they had to come up with a more comprehensive plan with diverse species and, you know, overstory understory and some some herbaceous options as well. And that they could include blueberries in those plantings, but they couldn't just exclusively plant a blueberry crop in there. So they agreed and they said they're coming back with revisions. So that's where that stands. And just double checking. Oh, the CR for Dave, I think we need to look at and other than that I don't have any additional business. So let me pull that up. And let me. So, so really, this isn't the CR itself, it's the assignment of the conservation restriction so the conservation restriction. This is on a property. It's off of Southeast Street it's not visible from Southeast Street but it's a conservation restriction that was put into effect. In 2009. And essentially, let me just pull up one document here on my phone. In essence, what they're transferring their assets from what they were before, which was a charitable trust, and they become a nonprofit corporation. So this is really nothing changes about the conservation restriction the town of Amherst through the conservation through you is a co-holder of the CR with the Kestrel Trust. It's really a charitable trust. Now that they've become a nonprofit corporation, they need to move their assets, an asset being an interest in land which is a conservation restriction from the old charitable trust to the new nonprofit corporation. So, in your packet where the official, the official assignment of conservation restriction and this really. It doesn't even really appear to need a vote I mean we could take a vote but it's really authorizing Brett as chair to sign the assignment of conservation restriction from for the town of Amherst. That's, it's really a fairly minor legal document that we're going to do once and never do again, because they only become a nonprofit corporation once from their former legal legal. They were a charitable trust. Now they're becoming a nonprofit corporation. They're going to do this with all of their CRs that they hold in any town every town in, I think they have an 18 town focus area now, 18 or 19 towns. Nothing changes about the CR land is protected in perpetuity. It's just now protected by both the kind of Amherst through the conservation commission and the Kestrel Trust as a nonprofit corporation. So Dave emotion would be to authorize Brett to sign off on the assignment of conservation restriction. And I would I would maybe put in the motion. Exactly those words and then assignment conservation restriction for, you know, one one one for southeast street. And then we could insert in the motion later the, you know, the, the booking page from the assignment sheet, the assignment itself. Aaron. We would just need somebody to make that motion second and then authorize Brett to sign. And so Dave, this all makes sense to me seems just like kind of paperwork type stuff. Is this like a real legal type document where it needs a pen and ink and a witness and all of that. I mean, it does say yeah, we're going to have to figure out how to do that Brett because it does need your signature notarized. I can figure that out. My week is a little jam tomorrow and Friday but we can figure that out next week. I think we could do a socially distanced. Notarized notarization with Angela Mills from my office. I've done it before. Yeah. Okay. Okay sounds good to me. So does anybody have any questions on this. Anyway, this property is adjacent to McLeod field, if you know where McLeod field is off of station road. You go down to the bottom of the hill on station road. And you take the first trail on your right you you head out and the big open field is McLeod field and this is to the south of that. It's it's called the Johnson CR and so that Johnson's in the McLeod there's family connections between them and they donated this CR to the town back in 2009 I think it was. Yeah, 2009 granted to Kestrel Trust in town of Amherst. There's the book and page yeah book 9874 and page 107. Does somebody want to make that motion or I think it's 1074 and 107 so I could just I could restate it and then somebody could say so moved if that's easier. I move. Approve the chair of the conservation commission signature for assignment of conservation construction. The CR at station road something 11114 southeast street that's book 13570 page. book 9874 page 107. What else. For the Johnson CR. Basically we approve Brett, the chair of the conservation commission signing this document. Oh, you got sorry. All right. Okay, thank you. So, Leroy. Hi, Jen. Hi. Anna. Hi. And I assume I'm allowed to vote on this I so I'm authorizing myself. Okay, so I think we're good. And so Dave, yeah, we can just be in touch to figure out when I can meet up with Angela. We'll do thank you. Okay, are we good for the night so. That is all I have. Okay, so looking for a final motion. There we go. Second, I got the second, that's fine. I will settle for a second. Hi, Jen. Hi, Leroy. Hi, Anna. And I for myself so we are officially adjourned and Aaron we probably won't see you next time so have fun. Enjoy. Good luck. This way I hope you don't see me next. I saw you a couple of weeks ago so we see you next time. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Stephanie. We'll see Stephanie in two weeks. I will be there. Bye, everybody. Bye, guys. Take care.