 So usually takes a second for attendees to pop in. There we go. Bruce is here. Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I remember Jason messaging me that he had a conflict for one of the meetings and it might have been tonight so he might not be here tonight. Just double check my although I thought it was for the training, but so many Jason Jason Darnie. Unfortunately, he'll be away for the first meeting. Yeah, okay. So I just wanted to make sure verify that. And Bruce I'll update our zoom to get the zoom invites corrected so that you and Jason get zoom invites for webinars just like you did for the subcommittee meeting that was an oversight on my part. Right, I took it off the PowerPoint agenda. Perfect. All right, so we, we are going to go ahead and get started tonight for the conservation commission meeting. The first item on the agenda is to appoint a new chair person because our previous chair, her term expired at the end of June. Jen fairs term expired and Fletcher's term expired and also just so everyone knows Cameron resigned as of July 7. Because she's moving out of state. She got a job in Washington DC so she's moving. So, does anybody want to make an appointment for a new chair person this evening. I'd like to nominate Michelle. I second. I vote on this. abstain if you want. You can vote absolutely. Okay, I appreciate the yeah okay I vote also for myself. And I appreciate the support. Normally what would happen is somebody nominates you Michelle and then, then Aaron your kind of facility would say are there any other nominees. Okay, I want to make a motion for anyone else. Any, any other nominations for chair person. Okay, so I'll just do a quick roll call since we're doing this Andre. Hi, shell. Hi, Alex. Hi, Bruce. Hi. Great on favor so Michelle is is chair. And then just quickly. Does is there anybody who would like to nominate a vice chair or nominate themselves as vice chair. Okay. So, I, I'm not sure that we necessarily need to do that immediately but we should probably give that some thought just if anybody's interested or has questions about it we and we should probably have a backup. Again, if we don't do it tonight that's not a huge deal because Michelle's here but in the future we might want to consider that. All right, so I have a question. Yes. Who's not here. Jason and Laura are not here. Jason Dornie and Laura Paglia Rulo. Oh, by the way, just so everyone knows, I asked Alex if he could. Well, we were talking about sort of my duties and one of the areas that I have a sort of Achilles heel is minutes because I take written minutes but typing them up for meetings has been a real challenge for me I've had some intern assistance with that but Alex and I were talking about it and he said he wouldn't mind taking down who the made makes motions and seconds and stuff for the record so just if we need if Alex is asking clarifying questions that that could be why so just for everybody's knowledge on that. I did warn her I'm not a proficient note taker. I said I volunteer for. So still taking notes but decisions and actions, but not how we got there. Awesome. It would be like after some after considerable discussion. Yep, rather than taking notes on the roadmap. Yeah, and that's completely fine Alex that's actually that's kind of how how I have had to do it anyways just to streamline things. The video is our administrative record. Okay, well so congratulations Michelle and you want to take the reins here. I just want to comment that. I mean I could easily nominate a vice chair just based on seniority or whatever but I feel like some consent would be would be appreciated so if anybody has any volunteer comments maybe talk to Aaron so we don't inadvertently nominate someone that might be not appreciative or reluctant. So that's my only comment there. All right, so bear with me as I learn the ropes but we'll go for this. Thanks from the chair that's now me so we're welcoming new concom members we were short one and I'm wondering if we should save introductions for the next meeting or what do you think we do around table or Bruce is, if I may speak. Bruce participated in the site visit today. He's present he's active. I feel obliged to welcome him. Of course, so welcome and thank you for your service Bruce. Sorry. My pleasure. Do you want to just do a go around with like a couple sentences about our backgrounds and expertise just to help. Yeah. I'm starting. Let's see. Recently, the executive director of the college my school landscape design retired on July 8, and Dave promised to fill up my calendar with lots of things to do. Many, many years ago I got a masters in in planning from MIT and spend about, I don't know 20 years as a mediator and facilitator of public policy disputes, largely in Washington DC. Great, that sounds very helpful to us. I'm just going to go who's next on my screen Alex do you want to give us your comments. It was a pleasure to meet you today on our site visit by the way, likewise, and I have joined the conservation commission last September. So I'm a newbie. And prior to that, I retired from the US Fish and Wildlife Service five years ago. Given my time to an Indian tribe in Maine and New Brunswick to restore a river up there. And so that eight species of sea run fish could go upstream again. And this is an exciting time for me because the turbines were turned off on the last day of June. The coffer dams are in. The land is being demolished. So it's the oldest hydroelectric project in Canada. And we'll open up 18 miles of river when it comes out. So that's been a five year project for me. And it has put a bounce in my step. And I using, I have, yeah. I thoroughly enjoyed being on the conservation commission. It gives me an opportunity to see a lot of Amherst. I know how to get around, but I'm pretty handicapped because I never learned the names of the streets. So this forces me to learn the streets. And also as part of the land use committee, I plan to visit a great deal of the property that is under the care of the town. So I can get to know it. So I look forward to that. Congratulations on the dam removal. I'm with you on the street names. Having grown up here, I just go without knowing. I couldn't give directions to anybody. Okay, Andre. All right. Let's see, I've been on the conservation commission for a bit over a year, maybe a year and a quarter or so. I moved to Amherst as a senior in high school back in 1983. And worked for US Fish and Wildlife Service for 20, 28, 20 bunch of years, if you would, I was a park ranger before that with National Park Service. I was an inspector with a wildlife inspector. And then a special agent for 22 years. I've been retired for about four and a half years or so and I'm currently a state park ranger. It's great to be a part of a part of the conservation commission. We're, you know, we're ensuring that while that wetlands are protected to protect the the whole town and everyone in the, in the state. Hey, my, you know, I, one of, it's kind of interesting, Alex, what you said, but one of the bigger type cases that I've had and then I had another big one after that, with the same thing is on glass heels, which need, you know, which are stopped essentially at that first upstream dam. And that's where people are catching them illegally and stuff, but anyway, it, it's nice to see that that your work is complimenting some of some of what I did. That's great thanks Andre. I am not retired. I work for a West Coast land trust in the conservation and management of endangered species and habitats. So I've been typically mitigation conservation easements long term financial planning for stewardship. And just very from Washington to California so I've been on the commission for two years about and this is my way of being involved with the community on and doing conservation at a local level so that is really special to me. I don't know if the staff but do you guys feel compelled to have you already talked to Bruce or do you want to just. Oh, I know these people. All right, all right. Okay, sounds good. All right, so Dave, do you have any reports to share. Sure, I'll just do a quick couple of updates. I think we have a couple of things that I want to share with you guys before you all launch into your main agenda. You know we continue summer being what it is with the reins and and some intermittent sunshine we continue to do some management out there. Destination for thousands of people every year. We have very limited staff this summer, because we are we are down assistant land manager position is still open so again if you know anybody that's on a rolling basis until that position is hired we will keep it on our website so please keep the word out there we're interviewing for assistant land manager. We've hired two summer staff so they'll be out there doing trail maintenance, trying to keep up with you know invasives kind of overrunning the KC trail and the Robert Frost trail collaborating with volunteers and with Kestrel trust on, you know, maintenance of trails. We continue to do water testing at Puffers pond. We were doing quite well until that series of rainstorms and then last week, the pond failed the, the, the water testing standards that are required by the state, and I, I'm actually doing the testing right now to help out our very limited staff so we do the testing on Wednesday morning, and then we get the test back on Thursday takes 24 hours really to culture them, and then we post them on the website. We have gotten some feedback that the actual lab results are a little confusing to people so I just sent on an email this afternoon and we're going to try to clarify some of that on the website. So, you know, what happens is when you get significant rain, you know, bacteria and other sediments are washed in the puffers from the Cushman Brook and other tributaries and those, those levels of E coli get too high for us to safely recommend something there. So, we're also going to be looking long term at seeing if we can work with the university to maybe dig a little deeper into what are some of the causes of the coli situation in Puffers. So we're working on that. Let's see. We may be we were hoping to bring you an amendment to a CR tonight but for a variety of reasons, legal review and others we decided to postpone that a meeting, but suffice it to say that there is. There's a new IRS requirement for some CRs conservation restrictions where owners got donations for those CRs. We have one that is held by the conservation commission it's off of Flat Hills Road and Market Hill, and it just wasn't ready for primetime tonight so it'll probably come to you next meeting. And we've talked to a number of attorneys and we think that's going to be fine and there's no there's no content amendment this is really to deal with the IRS requirement. Michelle, perhaps you're dealing with that on the West Coast as well. Yeah, I attended a webinar with a bunch of lawyers about that I know exactly what you're talking about. It didn't really affect. Yeah, so it doesn't it doesn't change the, the, the intent of the CR at all. It's not in any condition so I've talked to a number of lawyers who honestly don't think this is even necessary but out of an abundance of caution we we will likely bring you an amendment to a CR next meeting. Let's see what else is going on. I'm going to talk a little bit about the upcoming grant for Hickory Ridge, so I'll leave that to you on the land use policy update perhaps you could give as well Aaron. The only other thing I wanted to give the commission a quick update on Hickory Ridge. There's certainly been a lot of inquiries by email and phone about what's happening at Hickory Ridge with the Hickory Ridge solar and really briefly. I think. I'm not sure if anyone from Hickory from amp is on this call but very quickly. Our relationship with amp and and now the new new parent company that is purchase amp has been really quite good. You know, moving forward on this project Aaron has been working very closely with them. They've been responsive they've been receptive. One of the reasons for the project not moving as quickly as perhaps some people might have thought it would be is that we have the town has not issued a building permit for the the actual erecting of the arrays yet. And the reason for that is is Aaron and other staff, working for the planning department and inspections department have been working closely with the amp team on some of the specifics having to do with the design and installation of the battery pad, battery storage, and the actual final, you know, design elements of the installation of the pole mounted solar that is going to go in the two arrays. But I want to make it clear that, you know, so far working with amp working with dynamic. We have been responsive and to our concerns and getting us information. They are also working through a few outstanding questions with the natural heritage program. And that really has to do with the timeline for the project. And, and in short, what happened was, you know, the project was supposed to kick off much sooner there were delays caused primarily by damages of solar materials all over the world supply chain issues. And so this the the project timeline got put back so they're now working through that Aaron and I are part of that conversation. And once the company and the natural heritage program agree on that timeline, then the building permit will be issued. So, I don't want people to read into that situation anything more. Those are the reasons why things have slowed down a little bit. But again they've been, they've been receptive and, and providing us information as we've, as we've gone along. I don't know Aaron if you want to add anything to that. I'll, I will defer to you on it Dave. Yeah, so I would expect a building permit to be issued in the next couple of weeks and they'll be back on the site, whether permitting of course it's a little soggy out there. Those were the quick updates that I had I know Aaron wants to update on a grant opportunity out there at Hickory. But why don't I stop there if there are any questions on buffers pond or trail work or Oh, I also wanted to mention I'm sorry trail work and buffers bond. And a couple of concerns raised about a small set of stairs at buffers pond if you're familiar with buffers bond there's a set of stairs that goes from State Street down to a small bridge and then out to the main beach at buffers. I would say there are maybe eight steps, and they're really significantly deteriorating and deteriorated. And we've had a couple of seniors who have expressed concern about those. I talked to Aaron and what we'd like to do is basically replace them in kind in that location. So, I think we're going to move forward with that we would probably get some estimates as to what that would cost. And if we have some capital money that I hope to apply to that it's not going to be a huge project. But just wanted to let you know that we would try to address those as quickly as possible. So I think I'll stop there. Thanks to. So other than that we had our first land use subcommittee meeting on July 11 and I think that's part of it would just sort of administrative and planning session, but we do need to officially nominate Bruce and state Bruce to that subcommittee. How do we, we nominate him to it. Yes, okay, I nominate Bruce, can I do it. No, okay, looking for a nomination for Bruce Sedman to the land management subcommittee. I move to nominate Bruce to the subcommittee for land use. Andre with motion. Yes. Maybe we should come back to it. Bruce can second. Yeah, we need four members to vote. Because we've only got a quorum tonight. Okay, well, do you want, did you have any more comments? Following David. I'm here. I just, I've been typing notes. Awesome. And I couldn't get, there was so much on the screen and it took me a while to get back. Wait a second. Right Alex for the second. Andre. Hi. Bruce. Hi. Alex. Hi. And I'm an eye. So we have a few minutes. Do you want to talk about a couple, like another business item? Because our first hearing is, is going to be continued anyways. Did you want to briefly talk about the grant? Sure. Yeah. So I apologize because it was, I was very late getting in your packets, a little bit of information on the grant. But. I mean, and just, I'll give a general overview because I'm not sure it's been a while since we've talked about the. Mitigation and restoration efforts at Hickory Ridge. And sort of the, the trail project at Hickory Ridge. So Dave talked a lot about the, the solar project that amp slash, I hope I'm getting this right. Pure sky are working on. The development project, which was permitted back in 2019. However. We have two grants that the town of Amherst currently have, that they're administering. One is a CDBG grant for a. Multi-use path to connect the sort of. Northern community of the site or the community to the north of the site down to the village center in South Amour or yeah, South Amour center. And then also there is a grant, a part grant for a handicap accessible trail loop, which would be located in the southwest corner of Hickory. So we have these, these new trail projects and we have spent. A significant amount of time reviewing our existing trail system, the proposed trail system. And in conjunction with that. We also have a substantial mitigation plan as well as a significant restoration plan at Hickory. That includes removal of upwards of. 10 culverts, which are currently constricting wetlands, intermittent streams, perennial streams on the site. Fill that was placed in wetlands that needs to be removed in order for wetlands to function and connect to the Fort River. And then we also have a, we also have a, we also have a, we also have a, we also have a, we also have a, as well as a foot bridges to connect to the trail and basically, you know, repair degraded areas. So we're working on that. And we have the US, US Fish and Wildlife, who've kindly offered to assist us on a lot of the culvert removals, which is fantastic. And. We have been working with mass fish and wildlife. And I know, I know that, I know that we're doing kind of, you know, depending on the type of해서, meaning the sort of, those like the length of the river. All of these competitions, Mike Jones has been a part of those conversations for this grant called America, the beautiful. And the idea being to do, basically riverine restoration of the Fort River. And significant riverine restoration as well as study of the Fort River, so doing like the hydrologic study. of the golf course's operation. And so a lot of this work would basically restore the banks of the river and repair work, potential drainage improvements like removing potential old tile drains or potential old irrigation lines that are on the site. So we aren't, you know, this is at the grant application phase and they are hustling to get this in by I believe it's July 20th. So they're looking for letters of support from all parties involved. And one of the parties would be the Amherst Conservation Commission since this site is in Amherst and within the concoms jurisdiction. Obviously right now it's not under the care custody and control of the conservation commission, but portions of it may be in the future. And I think we can all agree to the importance of this site and the sensitivity of the site in terms of resource areas. So I don't know if anybody's had a chance to look at those materials, the abstract or the email from Todd Richards, but basically we have a draft letter that Todd sent us and I could sort of wordsmith that in order to express the conservation commission's support for the grant process. That sounds great. And do you need signatures on that or probably need your signature? Okay, and it sounds like there's a quick timeline for it. Yeah, I will, I'll probably finalize the draft of it tomorrow and get it to you for signature, Michelle, right away. Great. Exciting me at the Hickory Ridge. Okay, is there anything else or should we move into our hearings? If we could just add just for the commission, but also for those participants in attendance, the focus, the main focus of the grant, as Erin said, is kind of in-stream restoration, culvert removal, removing bituminous asphalt in the floodplain, things like that. We need to keep in mind that Erin and I working with the planning department, we will likely present a PowerPoint presentation to the town council sometime in the fall with kind of the broad overview of where we are with Hickory Ridge planning, which will include in-stream restoration, upland restoration, obviously the solar project, what parts of the property we would propose for permanent preservation, the ADA trail, the connector trail north-south, perhaps an amphitheater, and then also ideas for reuse of the upland area where the clubhouse is currently. And one of the ideas that the town is looking at is whether that area where the clubhouse is would be suitable for a South Amherst fire station. So that area hopefully will be cleared of the clubhouse, it's quite the liability, I've talked about that in the past, but again I wanted to kind of put it in the context of there's other planning going on around Hickory Ridge that the conservation commission, the planning board, and of course the town council would be involved with, that information will reach you and the town council and other boards and committees later on this fall. The focus of this grant is really kind of really in the riparian zone for the most part, or in those resource areas that Erin mentioned. So I just want to give a little clarification there. A tough topic, excuse me, you mentioned the firehouse and it's not a ComCom issue, but I'm just curious if that would also include a new home for the DPW? We are not considering Hickory Ridge for a DPW or the DPW site. In our analysis the available upland at Hickory is actually quite limited. So there's just a small number of upland acres outside of wetland and other resource areas, but a fire station would definitely fit. We know that for sure. Yeah, I didn't want to get off the verdict, but I just curious. No, it's a good question. Thank you. So in terms of the letter of support, everybody's okay with the letter of support? Nobody objects to us issuing a letter of support? I think it's a good thing. Awesome. Okay, great. Okay, so before I jump in maybe I should just alert people to the fact that we're continuing 46 Bearing Street. So if you're here for that, it's being continued to July 26 at 740. Then that's 46 Bearing. Okay, so hearing. So general procedure for fairness to all applicants. Each hearing has 20 dedicated minutes on the agenda. The structure will be five minute presentations by the applicant or representative. Five minutes of comment from staff, five minutes of public comment or two per person and five minutes for commissioners. All plan revisions are required by Friday prior to the meeting at noon. If they're not in that might hold us up. And for presenters and members of the public, please clearly state your name, address, affiliation, and any preferred pronouns to have them. So our first one up is tie and bond for ever source energy to propose equipment and switch gear upgrades within the 70,000 17 K substation expansion of the substation fence line at 246 College Street 14 B 173 and installation of 21 manholes and three distribution poles within the roadway along College Street from the intersection of Northampton Road and South Pleasant Street to 246 College Street. So where this one is to be continued. So unless there's any questions from commissioners and looking for a motion to continue the public hearing for 246 College Street, no, it's been 10 to 726 24 years and 30. Yeah, so moved. Alex with the motion under the second Andre. Hi, Bruce. Hi, Alex. Hi, and I'm an eye. Okay, next up is it some 35 years. So this is the notice of intent for SWCA on behalf of the University of Massachusetts for the construction of a gravel parking lot and associated stormwater structures on the 100 but Oh, sorry, the things that have ordered buffer zoning zone deporting vegetated wetland at Law 13 Olympia Drive. So I need to open this hearing. Yes. Yes. Okay. This public hearing is now called the order the hearing is being held as required by the provisions of chapter 131 section 40 of the general laws of the Commonwealth that act relative to the protection of wetlands as most recently amended an article 3.31 wetlands protection of the town of Amherst general bylaws. And again, this is notice of intent for SWCA on behalf of the University of Massachusetts. So we have a girl. Okay. Is we have a representative or are we okay? Yep, I'm pulling Kristen in right now, Michelle. I think she is our only representative who's present on behalf of the applicant. But if there's anybody else that I've missed, please raise your hand. Hi, Kristen. Hi, everyone. Sorry, it takes a minute for the for me to rejoin. Hi, everybody. I'm Kristen McDonough. I'm a certified wildlife biologist and professional and scientist with SWCA environmental consultants. And I am representing the University of Massachusetts here to present a notice of intent for associated with the expansion of a gravel parking lot called Lot 13, which is located north of Olympia Drive in Amherst. I don't have a brief presentation, but should I just pull up the plan really quick? Is that cool if I share my screen? Yes, let me just enable that for you, Kristen. Hold on a moment. You should be good to go. Thank you. This is the plan here. So this notice of intent is a buffer zone only project and it is being filed for work within jurisdictional areas under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act and the Amherst bylaw. The file number has been issued for this and it was 0890718. Just as a quick refresher, UMass filed a comprehensive notice of intent for operation and maintenance in 2019 and that wetlands file number is 0890647. And that outlines several special conditions related to ongoing operation and maintenance across campus, including for parking lots. We communicated with the commission in February 2023 requesting consideration on whether this parking lot expansion would qualify as minor buffer zone work under the umbrella comprehensive NOI and the commission notified the applicant that this would require a new filing, hence this new NOI application. As part of this NOI, the applicant is proposing an expanded gravel parking lot area for students located north of Olympia that would be approximately 1.1 acres of parking plus stormwater management and you can see there are three stormwater facilities here, this one, this one and this one. Woodard and Curran, the project engineers did the design and stormwater report. Existing conditions within the limit of work include an upland forest consisting of eastern white pine and northern red oak with glassy buckthorn, multi-glower rows and Asianic bittersweet in the understory. SWCA did an initial delineation as part of that comprehensive NOI in 2019. We did a re-delineation on January 18th in 2023 and we double-checked that delineation again on April 12th 2023 during the growing season and to document Bernal pool activity within a portion of standing water at the western end of the wetland, which is not shown on this current scale, it's further off to the left to the west. We identified two vegetated wetlands within 100 feet of the parcels and the project is located outside the 50-foot bordering vegetated wetland buffer zone and outside the 100-foot Bernal pool buffer zone limits. The NOI was submitted prior to soil test pits but the applicant has since completed test pit investigations and analyses and given the results made a minor change to the plans recently, we just received a plan update on Friday afternoon last week. The revisions have not changed the limit of disturbance at all. The only changes were a reduction in the amount of parking lot area, so basically this fire retention pond grew, parking used to go up to here. So the limit of disturbance is the same as the original NOI application filing, it's just the parking lot has shrunk a little bit, so I think the original parking area was 1.3 acres and now it's 1.1 acre or something like that. We did walk the site today, SWCA, the Amherst wetlands agent and two commissioners were present. I was not communicated that there were any issues with the wetland delineation, however I was notified that there was an issue with the limit of disturbance not being clearly identified in the field within areas jurisdictional to the commission, so I recognize we can't close the hearing tonight, we will get the limits of disturbance clearly identified within jurisdiction in the next week, certainly before the next hearing date, but I did want to be present tonight just to open the hearing and answer any questions the public or the commission may have about the project. Thanks, Kristin. Erin, do you want to give us the comments? So let me see. I haven't really had a chance to review the updated materials of the test pit logs, I would just, you know, I only just provided those to the commission on the 11th, which was yesterday and so my request would be that we postpone my report until the July 26th meeting and also that we have another site visit on that date so that we can go out and take photos of the limit of work and potentially have another site visit if commissioners wish to attend. And other than that I don't have any comments. I just pulled up sorry to interrupt, I just pulled up these are the test pit locations and I again I sent this to I think on Friday. I might have sent you the figure on the test pit locations earlier but I didn't send you the report and the revised plans until Friday around four o'clock so it was after the noon o'clock threshold there. Alex? Kristin could you just inform those who are here where the vernal pool is located on this dry? I know it's off the drawing but yeah and what you found there. That's a great question thank you so much for bringing that up so the so here's the limit of the wetland right here the A-wetland we're a hundred feet out so this is where the new parking lot is proposed over here. This purple polygon is standing water and there are photos in the Nordus of intent we did look out at today in the field. This is a pretty in my opinion classic looking vernal pool and we've had a lot of rain recently so it was really evident in the field today although my suspicion is that it doesn't typically hold water this late in the year and there were no spotted salamanders out there which would indicate a longer hydroperead. I went out there in April and I found about 60 wood frog egg masses and they were all kind of in a communal cluster right here at the north northeastern corner of that PVP boundary so this this is not notified or identified excuse me on the natural heritage database. It just kind of had that look when I was out there in January so we went back and give it a second look. It's within the BBW and so on the plans just to kind of flip back to the plans so this you can barely see it but this hundred foot boundary is from the vernal pool basin limits and then this 50 foot wetland limit is from the BBW so the vernal pool is inside the BBW if that answers your question. Chris? The question almost certainly reflects the fact that this is my first meeting but when I look at the picture you just showed and having been out there I have to ask is yet another parking lot really needed? I mean it's student parking so I can't speak to the applicants need for additional I don't work for UMass. I don't really know what their needs are but I imagine that their student body is continually growing. The human population continues to grow and they just need to expand parking. Okay um my question remains but okay um do we have any public comment? This please raise your hand. Okay I see none um are there any other commissioners that have any other comments about this? Raise your hand still up I assume it's just okay all right it doesn't look like that um so it sounds like we're continuing this um for the need of um delineation in the field and potentially another site visit. I do want to just while I've got you here in a public hearing um Erin you had a question in the field about pre-treatment for storm water and I would refer you to page 2-2 of the storm water report in the notice of intent um for if you don't want to wade through the 350 pages just okay zero in on that page and that answers the question that you had in the field. Beautiful thank you so much. Okay um unless anybody else has any comments for looking for a motion to continue the public hearing for a lot 13 Olympia Drive notice of intent application to 726-23 at 735. So second. Andrea with motion. Alex with a second. Bruce? Hi. Andre? Hi. Alex? Hi. Hi and I'm an I. Okay um so this next hearing there's the applicant requested a continuance do we we don't open it but we just need a motion to continue it correct? Yeah so this hearing has already been opened um and just to give a little bit of an update on this one um this is a 46 fairing street site um just today it was either today or late yesterday afternoon um I was in communication with Tom Reedy and they have um some hydro CAD calculations that they've put together for the lot as well as um a um hydrologist who's submitted a some comment on the proposal um as far as the changes to drainage on the site with the proposed single family house lot I'm going to make a note to upload those materials to the website um so that the members of the public can see those in advance of the July 26th meeting. Again they came in yesterday afternoon so staff hasn't had a chance to review those yet um um and I uh I know the commission hasn't looked at them and the public hasn't looked at them so we wanted to give everybody adequate time to review those materials before um they're discussed in a public meeting so we'll we'll shoot for the um July 26th meeting for further discussion on that. Erin I'm I'm sorry I I missed what it is that they submitted. Um they submitted um what are called hydro CAD calculations which are essentially hydrologic calculations that review the pre and post um drainage pre and post um runoff from the site they also have a letter from a hydrologist that was submitted and um they may have some minor plan changes that are in association with the um information from the um the engineer and the um hydrologist who commented on the project. And that follows from our last meeting with them where we had a discussion about only so much water falls on the lot. Right and Jen had some things to say and there was a request made and so I assume that what they submitted is an answer to that request. That is correct. Okay got it. Any other comments? Okay um then I'm looking for a motion. I move to continue the public hearing for 49 Fairing Street notice of intent to 726 23 at 740 p.m. Second. Andre the motion Bruce of the second. Alex. Hi. Andre. Hi. Bruce. Hi. And I'm an I. Okay I see that Kristen's still hanging in there. Thanks Kristen. Do we need to let her out of the room or I'm not sure if I have the controls. Oh let me just see. Sorry I'm logging out anyways. Thanks everyone. Hi Kristen. Sorry. Okay I don't know if I can actually this is what's this is what's interesting is I don't know if you can actually remove somebody out of the room without kicking them out of the meeting they have to just excuse themselves I think. Okay don't want to be rude. Okay um so that's it for our hearings um let's see we discuss the okay we have a minor administrative change request for 191 formally you want to jump into that okay. Yes and um I I had hoped to be a little more prepared with with figures to share and um should I need to I I can do that this is just another sort of like other business items that are on our agenda um for this evening um I'm just going to flip back so I can see your faces um so I want to just give a little a little Dave talked about this on the front end of the of the call a little bit um the previous conversation that we had with amp pure sky we approved several modifications to their plans one of the conditions on that approval was relative to the equipment pads um and basically required that I have a review and sort of approval authority relative to the um containment that is being used on the equipment pads so I reviewed the equipment pad containment we um went through a couple iterations of of containment options and have arrived at a agreeable containment solution for the um the pads also um as we have gone through the sort of final construction set these are like the 100 design drawings for the installation of the the solar facility nope this is for the actual panels themselves for the solar array themselves um so the original approval of the um footings for the solar panels was a a driven post into the ground um and with the that was with a fixed um a fixed position panel I think they're called fixed tilt I'm not I'm not going to get the lingo correct but the panels over the course of our approval process changed from a fixed panel to a tracking panel so a panel that basically follows the sun throughout the course of the day um so the design changed slightly in the interim from the original design um when when the final 100 design drawings came in it included a a footing which was a little bit more substantial so it's it's an 18 inch concrete footing and so I inquired with amp pure sky about that because it's a it's very different from the driven post that was approved on the original 2019 drawings um in conversations with with laurence cook who's the um project manager for pure sky um this is what I've come to find out is basically that their first their first um preference would be to continue to use a driven post for the solar arrays so no change essentially from the originally approved um design concept that came before the commission and was approved by the commission however if when they're driving those um those posts they hit any resistance or have a problem with any of the posts the next option that they would do is do the driven post with sheets on the side which would essentially provide additional support for the driven post so that's their second preferred option and again that's if they run into trouble with the driven post now if they really really run into trouble like they're driving a post and they hit resistance and again we don't anticipate much here being a uh a flood plane here for the for the um fort river but if they hit a glacial erratic or you know bedrock or something underneath while they're pile driving then they may need to as a third alternative put in a poured concrete um foundation again it would be a um a last option but that is something that they may need to do structurally if the if the post isn't um adequate to support the the array so the the problem with that or the reason that i'm bringing this before you tonight um is because um drilling the 10 foot deep 18 inch um concrete footing is a change from the original design i spoke with amp and i said how do you want to handle this do you want to wait until you're actually doing the install and see if you run into trouble and you need um to come before the commission with a modification at that point and their feeling was basically they'd rather bring it to the commission now and and just present it to the commission so that when they're in the field if they need to modify and and include one of these concrete footings they can just do it on the fly as a sort of field change um and and i guess like you know as a staff person reviewing these my initial thought was well if they're doing one or two of these footings and it's just like a rare encounter it's not really that big of an issue right but if they end up having to do all of them with a concrete footing then it's a pretty substantial change from what was originally approved so as an over abundance of caution we've brought it to you to bring it to your attention um call out that distinction in the submitted construction set to you and basically make sure that you're aware of it the um biggest concern i have with the um placing of the the concrete um footing that's different from the driven pile is that there'd be a significant amount more spoils coming out from the you know um auguring of the the holes for these changed footing and so really it's a matter of discussing with the commission if they do end up having to auger in and and um do a concrete poured footing what would you like for them to do with the spoils um so before we jump into that discussion the other point I wanted to just clarify that I clarified with Lawrence is that one question I had was whether the top of the the concrete footing would be flush with the ground and or if it would extend above the ground because the concern there being that if it did come up above the ground it would be potential additional fill in the flood plain in this case from speaking with Lawrence you wouldn't actually even see the concrete footing it would be either at ground level or below ground level so um I don't think that that presents an issue in terms of a resource area alteration with the change in footing but the what to do with the spoils does present a question to the board so I wanted to make sure I give you an opportunity to discuss okay I see that Lawrence is in the audience do you want to bring him in for clarification so he he he can come in he's available for questions but right we can talk first then yes okay Alex yeah just for clarification it's within the flood plain but it's my understanding that the solar arrays are a long ways from the river so um erosion of the spoils could be easily contained and to me it sounds a lot like putting in a phone pole and I've seen right out my window um phone balls put in with an auger and they they took away a lot of the of these spoils where they put them I don't know and there was a small amount left that was piled up around the pole just waiting for things to compact so um asking them to haul it away it has to be disposed somewhere and I would venture to say that it could be disposed of right there around the hole so long as it is um seedable and will not erode am I am I on track the the only comments I had actually a question yeah as you were talking I'm sitting here saying aside from a change in the plan what's the impact right so um my only concern would be if if they hit resistance on a pole that was in the flood plain we wouldn't want them taking the spoils from the drilling in that specific area and depositing it in the flood plain in that specific case um I would suggest to the board that they either um relocate the spoils to an upland area or take the spoils off site but I am in agreement with you Alex that if it's in an upland area that's outside of conservation commission jurisdiction I'd have no problem with them keeping the spoils um around the the drill spot yeah so that's going to be several cubic feet of spoils per hole if it's 10 feet deep and 18 inches wide but I think those are the dimensions you gave that's that's I don't I didn't do the math but it's a cubic yard or two um it would be nice if they could just simplify things and dispose of them on site if it's in the upland and um all out of way if it's in the flood plain unless it can be well contained Dave? Yeah Michelle I was just going to suggest that since we have the project manager here um you know a conversation with him I think would be fruitful here you know to getting some feedback but let's let's hear from Lawrence um um he does this is his job so I was just going to suggest bringing him in and and he's heard this feedback and I'm sure there are practical practical solutions approaches. Yeah thank you all um and uh nice to be speaking to to you all again um Erin got most of it correct um the so what we have is the first course is that we've got a driven post system uh now the the post would have to be driven between 15 and 20 feet in the ground depending on whether it's an outside post or an inside post there's varying depths that they have to be driven to um we've done a geotech uh on the site where we went 18 foot down um in multiple locations didn't hit anything but as Erin correctly uh pointed out it's Massachusetts we're glacial there could be erratics there could be anything um that there wasn't picked up in that so um if if we can't drive the post in there are two uh remediation efforts the one was the slip sheet and the um the correction there is it's more of our frost eve um so we're concerned that with frost eve in the middle of winter you've got a significant upward uh force and the the slip sheets um eliminate that point so we can go with a shallower foundation down to about between 10 and 15 foot if we hit an obstruction that is going to require us to have a 10 foot post or below we would need to use concrete in that it's not one that we're expecting um and and so it would be a a a a resort a a method of last resort rather than anything that we would prefer to do um the other question we could do with the spoils is that we can stockpile them in an upland area see how much we have and then we can either decide to if it's just um mostly topsoil we can spread that around if there's any rock that needs to come out we can either um cut it off site or stockpile it you're going to be putting a walking trail around maybe you'll need to fill in some areas or anything like that we could make it available for the town um if if that's required or we can spread and remove offsite um and properly dispose of it um so with that they usually we would find somewhere within the town of Amherst um to dispose of it because a lot of towns don't like soil from within the town being moved to other towns um so we it could get moved to a yard where it could be separated into loam and rock and and whatever comes out and then reused um or uh sold at that point from uh from the yard okay thanks Lawrence commissioners any other comments um I have a comment and a question perhaps um one I'm fine with the the spoils being moved to an upland site but I would be interested in maybe identifying a previously disturbed area to put them so that it's not just getting dumped on something like nice you know building rod habitat or something so I mean you were talking Dave about potential sites for building or um as Lawrence mentioned there might be trail system so maybe finding an upland site that could uh take the spoils without any impact to existing vegetation and habitat would be something I'd be interested in and then if they and they fill they do do the borings and they fill I mean that's not going to be decommissioned right so that will be a permanent filling of concrete in the project area just the clarification the concrete would be removed as part of the decommissioning okay yeah got it Michelle if I could do your first point um you know we could certainly work with Lawrence and his team one idea and and again this is in the event that option a or option b does not work if they have to go to option c and and and do more significant um um holes and and that fill that spoil we could we could store that on the bituminous asphalt near the um near the near the clubhouse and then we could work with Lawrence and his team as to you know what would we want to do with that do we need it for trail leveling or you know edging of the trails as we as we create those trails and then you know if it's if it's decent soil could that be used in one of the trail projects perhaps it could and it could save us money but there's many options for that dpw often has need for you know clean fill so that's an option too but we could offer the um the already degraded parking lot as a possibility of that right now we're using part of the parking lot as you probably know we're staging for the um roundabout and that'll be over I would say in 45 to 50 days that'll be over and that parking lot will be returned to its former glory of a 60 year old parking lot that sounds like a good solution we can work with Lawrence and and um pure sky on on that if if the options wish we're going to have a kind of six to eight month presence on site while we're working and constructing this so anything that comes and most of this all happens in the the early stages as well so it would be available within the first couple of months of the project what we could do is because I wouldn't want to leave the pile of soil over by the clubhouse and just let the town deal with it what we could do is we could monitor how much it is and then see how much it is and then we could probably um we could leave it there if we were off site we could provide the the funds to the town that if you didn't need it then you could dispose of it with that money um and uh it said that you're not left holding the can uh on a pile of soil rocks in the in the parking lot there's lots of options and lots of maybes in all this I would just encourage every effort be made to not increase the construction footprint if at all possible um because you start talking about spreading things around and then that may change that so just constraining the construction footprint overall would be my concern thanks Chris Alex yeah thank you um if this if the I like the idea of stockpiling it in the parking lot um and I would suggest that it be covered so that it stays put you don't we don't know uh how long it's going to be there and if it's covered it will stay there rather than wash it's usually what the plan is whenever you've got stockpiled materials is that it gets seeded so that it it doesn't erode off and it would be uh surrounded by a silt sock to make sure that it stays in place and it wasn't just sort of then being a muddy mess across the parking lot so it'd be surrounded with a silt sock to prevent it from moving and it would uh it would get seeded so that the grass would grow and it would be stabilized rather than a um a tarp or something like that which could get blown away or or something like that in a heavy storm yeah I mean if you have an eight month timeline now we might have to have a contingency for the winter rains and no seeding um okay Erin I see your hands up look at you Andre um I was just going to say that you know if the commission is comfortable with sort of the general conditions that we've outlined here um that we would ask that the pure sky team coordinate with the town should they run into the situation where they're actually needing to drill and coordinate with us and let us know if they do and and if they do um coordinate with Dave and I on you know identifying appropriate upland location or parking lot location and treatment of that material um uh after it's been removed just because it's it's kind of like nitty gritty details and um as long as everybody's clear that we don't want it in the flood plain and we do want it to be placed in an upland location and there is a potential for it to be reused for other um projects in town that you know staff could coordinate those details with with pure sky um as long as we have a condition in the approval that um it's not placed in a wetland or resource area sorry Andre yeah I think I was uh actually going along the lines where Aaron is going my question was um what you know if this is a minor administrative change then the minor administrative change would carry with it uh exactly I mean what we're talking about right now what the that in the event that uh it has to be um drilled to the 10 foot by um basically to the uh to be filled uh with concrete as well um will we have those conditions added to uh to the to the approval um rather than just us uh talk about it I mean that's that's where I was going with it yeah I would definitely recommend that the commission make a motion with the condition associated with it and as we have with every change um and the the previous six changes that have been made to the project this is something that I would put into a formal um a formal letter basically stating that the commission has approved the change subject to the following conditions and and outline those conditions in writing to the um project proponent okay so I think we're looking to do that um and the general terms are that the project proponent will communicate with the town about the location of the soils and the treatment and containment of it um given that be the circumstances um but I think before we do that we should take public comment right nope Alex has another okay well if there's any public that does want to comment just put your hand up now as we get you on the radar I'll go to you Alex yeah I am more comfortable with them modifying their plan submitting a modification to their plan rather than and having us assume that the circumstance will occur rather than waiting for it to occur and have the company submit a change uh in their in their plan talking about this and and um I have no problem with the town working with them if it does occur but I would feel more comfortable if there was something in writing from them um on this subject um just to clarify Alex on on that statement are you stating something to the effect of like an as built to be provided to the town after the construction is complete that would identify the locations where the concrete drillings were located no kind of what you're thinking and maybe I've misunderstood but I think they're talking about a modification to the plan that's already approved and in anticipation of having to drill and put in concrete that was not in the plan that was originally approved correct right so they did submit a plan to us that shows the concrete um okay sorry yeah so we're working with the assumption that it will happen and we're trying to determine the terms in which case it does so um I think one of my problems we're trying to take notes I know are you sure you want to do that if it gets to me too much just tell me okay um so before we uh okay first well I agree with Alex though because the plan simply if I understand it correctly the plan simply shows where the possible concrete footings might be but I don't think the plan addresses the things we talked about here and so I think what Alex is saying is some form of a formal letter that spells out if there's a certain amount of stuff where is it going to go how's it going to be treated how's it going to get there who's in charge of it okay so a formal um so in terms of the conditions you're saying communicate with the town on the spoil location um coordinate with the town on where the locations of the um concrete footings end up being and provide us with something in writing that basically states um that they understand what the expectations of the commission are and that they've coordinated with the town that the locations will be in these specific designated areas beforehand yeah right beforehand happens right okay gotcha Lawrence do you have a comment yeah I was just going to say I think the conditions are the the absolute right way to go just so it's formally set out I would say that you should provide a decent amount of flexibility um because we don't know what the spoils are whether it's just going to be soil or whether it's going to be rock or whether it's going to be crushed rock or anything like that so I would just say that any conditions rather than because some locations would be more suitable for some spoil than others I would uh make sure that there's enough flexibility that we could work with Erin on the most suitable location for it to go rather than designate a specific area which may only be good for topsoil but wouldn't be good for rock if you know what I mean yeah um commissioners are you comfortable with that or do we need to revisit it once we know what the spoils are like to me it sounds like maybe the parking lot isn't necessarily going to be the only place necessary to to store depending on what kind of material comes out of the ground but um commissioners are you comfortable with Lawrence working with Erin and Dave to identify places and conditions of storing the spoils I am yes I am too I just want to make sure that the administrative record is is complete in that they are modifying the plan that was submitted and approved yeah are you are you drafting a motion right now Erin are we gonna take this on apricot um yeah that's a that's a fair fair request fair ask maybe seeing it like and with the words we can um more easily review it for our comfort level Dave do you have a comment yeah we're just gonna I think the motion is great and and if you move forward with that motion I think what I'm hearing is that Erin and Lawrence would work together there would be some document that would then pass from Pierschkei to the town from the town to Pierschkei whichever that kind of codifies and memorializes your decisions tonight that then go with the plan the other thing I want to come back to is Bruce said something that kind of resonated with me with which is let's not expand the footprint here you know um you know uh Pierschkei has a certain amount of of of square footage to work with within these two uh array areas so I for one really I'd love to avoid having if if if they even need to I mean this is the other thing is we're hoping they don't need to go to this alternative if they do and there are spoils be they topsoil or rock or or gravel but really I don't really want to spread that outside the easement area I just I something about that just does not resonate with me I agree with Bruce why increase the footprint um so because the whole area is is habitat for terrestrial turtles and grassland birds and all the rest of it so in my mind it just complicates it um if we're gonna if if if we do need to find a place for those spoils I I just think um why why go to an upland go to the parking lot and then we'll figure out where you know that's already an impacted area for the last 60 years let's and it's and we can contain it then we'll figure out where that can go so those are just my thoughts yeah I agree and I forgot to mention that that I think prioritizing it staying in the project footprint to the extent possible in addition to containing it on those um the parking lot and you know I don't know how to determine whether or not there's a point I wish it needs to be um removed but um I trust that Aaron and Dave will work with yeah we'll work with Lawrence and his team okay well okay so I don't see any hands raised from the public um so please raise them now if you have any comments okay um all right commissioners unless anyone has any final comments and looking for a motion but we'll give Aaron a few seconds to finish type hot off the press yeah please read this and see if there's any recommended changes I was trying to capture all of the discussion items um I'll just read it in case anyone's having trouble so we're looking for a motion to approve a minor administrative change to the proposed footings of the solar array at Hickory Ridge here sky will coordinate and communicate with the town to limit construction footprint designate an appropriate location for materials to be spread or stored in an upland area on the site and state in writing that they will abide by these conditions well it doesn't it doesn't include the notion of storing it at the parking lot I would say that what that does though is it does allow for some flexibility for for Aaron and Dave to uh to work with them on where to store it I mean it is an upland site right the area of the parking lot so I kind of read that we're stored in an upland area the other thing I might add is move to approve a minor administrative change to the proposed footings when we add maybe in parentheses if necessary I mean we're hoping this isn't even needed so I don't know that was certainly the point of all this what does Aaron excuse me I didn't raise my hand Alex did you have something to say yeah you got administrative change what an administrative change this I don't understand administrative this is this is not a change in who talks to who this is right this is a change in the footings right so um that's to me misleading yeah so that's the language that DEP uses when you're not formally amending an order of conditions so your options are to require a formal amendment which would reopen the public hearing or to approve a minor administrative change to the to the permit so that's that is the sort of state vernacular that's used when there's a change that doesn't require a formal amendment to a permit yeah I wasn't looking for a formal amendment permit so that's that's the vernacular that's the term of art okay I got it under did you have something say oh no I was I was just going to help with the understanding of the administrative changes and is essentially a change to the wording of of the of what we've approved yeah and I like to think about it as a we're essentially putting it on record in an in an administrative fashion that we're we're recording that there's a change a field change to the plan and that we're we're putting it in the record and that we're making an administrative record that there wasn't a change yeah and because Bruce is new this particular permit predates everyone maybe but Dave but it is I don't know we're going on several administrative changes right now so this is a this has been a lot of flexibility and sort of a rolling permit but okay unless anybody has any more comments I'm looking for a motion let me know if you want me to read it I'll move to approve the minor administrative change to the proposed footings if necessary for the solar arrays at Hickory Ridge here sky will coordinate and communicate with the town to limit the construction footprint designate an appropriate location for materials to be spread and stored or stored in an upland area on the site and state and writing that they will abide by these conditions anyone for a second I'll talk to Andre I'm sorry Andre on the first Bruce on the second Andre's and I Alex hi Bruce hi I'm an eye okay thank you Lawrence okay um do you have a preference for what we move to next I see that um Eric is here should be 296 sure oh I got yep so I'm gonna move Eric into the room promote to panelists um and while Eric is coming in um over the course of this week um I observed that there had been work that had taken place um at a pond in Amherst this had been a site that I previously coordinated with the owner on um relative to a um a lily pond I guess we'll call it um that is uh located on his property it was a created pond that um decades ago that was basically sort of left to to grow um un-maintained and it it grew in with all kinds of hydrophytes and sort of started to function as a un-maintained pond um and uh so I noticed that um vegetation was being removed out of the pond um and so I contacted him and let him know that uh that the site was in violation and that we had to have him come tonight to um sort of explain to the conservation commission what was going on um as I noted I did talk with him previously to let him know that if any materials moved out of the pond other than um invasive species that he would need to file a permit for that so um he's here now to to talk about it can you hear me yes um do you want me to start well anyway so I recently bought this house about eight months ago and we're restoring it um and and on the front of the property there's a uh an excuse my naivete for wetlands terms but I believe it is a detention pond that is collecting water from around the property through a series of pipes and things um and it has been planted as a lotus pond we believe since the late 60s early 70s I mean I have a picture of it from 1972 um in in uh in 2017 vertemae dale who's the the woman who owned the um house and had it built in the 1950s passed away lept it to her niece at 100 within one year so um and um uh the pond was maintained for a year or two after she passed away but then unfortunately two years after she passed away her niece also passed away because she was in her 80s and um uh that that then we found some information that the neighbors had been trying to maintain it um and then that sort of fell off and so it's been left sort of unmaintained for the last three or four years um and it's so it's grown a lot of excess vegetation and um and the lotus are getting crowded out um so um um I seem to have made a mistake and uh in a misunderstanding in that we could remove some of the invasive species which was the uh multi-flora rose that was growing along the back of it which had sort of eroded the edge of the pond as well and um I kind of got I didn't understand that I and it was said that we could remove that by hand which we did and then I there was a miscommunication between I think me and my girlfriend and we removed some of the cattails by hand because I was under the impression we could do that but as soon as I got the message from Erin we ceased that um and now I'm here um was that enough? Yes thank you okay um commissioners do you have any questions for Eric? Okay so Erin had communicated with a phone about um the do's and do nots of restoring the pond in terms of uh native versus non-native vegetation so there was a miscommunication um and what are your suggestions for moving forward with this um are you asking me Michelle or are you asking Erin or are you asking me so Erin sorry okay that's good so I mean um I would suggest that a notice of intent be filed to be you know for them to be able to complete the work that they want to do here um it's technically an alteration of a resource area this would be an alteration um of a resource area that's governed by our local bylaw um I'm not sure that this would qualify as a state um resource area I'm not sure it meets the definition of a state resource area but I do think under our local bylaw that it meets the definition of an isolated vegetated wetland so um I would just recommend that we get a notice of intent application in the work so that they can continue to do what they'd like to do with the pond and just have it be on the record that it's uh uh you know approved and that there's a plan of some kind for stabilization and restoration of the pond and that by the way is our you know we've been doing a lot of research in the interim um we believe we found the the the company uh Taylor Davis Landscaping believes they actually built the pond in the late 60s they're like looking for their records and they maintain the pond for years and years and years um we also got in touch with Alan Snow who I believe is the Tree Warden for Amherst um he also maintained the pond for for a number of years with his wife um and it was the eddies who live across the street who seem to voluntarily you know voluntarily take over uh maintenance and then we've also talked to some other people we talked to Pete Westover but is that I think he used to be the on the he was the he came over just to discuss it with us so we're all trying to figure out exactly what we're allowed to do and what we're not allowed to do and um and there's also a bunch of this is by the way aria 40 is sitting next to me she's uh helping me with the project um so um and um we're also trying to understand the fact that it's an actively functioning um you know detention pond that's being used to catch you know all this storm water that comes from the house like it there's drains that go into the ground and from the roof and force up to the um and and really what we mostly want to do is just make sure that you know redo the edge make sure it doesn't collapse anymore and get rid of not all necessarily but some of the cattails so that the lilies can grow back in um and then there's a number of requests from the town which I don't fully understand how to incorporate into this which is that they want there used to be an overflow that went into a storm drain right in front of the pond and they would like us to fix that but obviously that's going to require digging a hole in the ground in front of the pond um there's also on the other side um jason skeels is that his name jason pointed to another point there's a culvert that goes under the driveway and he believes that the where the culvert comes out that it's detached from the storm drain because it's it's it's sunken in like this so he would like me to dig that up and fix that which I'm glad to do both of those things but obviously I don't want to get an infraction from listening to a request from a different part of the town um and then there's um also it seems as though the water shut off for the house was lost about 20 years ago um and I was told I said well I need a water shut off for the house like it's not safe to have a house that a water shut off and I was told well just start digging around and you'll be able to find it but I don't really want to do that so um I'm trying to understand what what that means that whether I can find some ground radar or something to see if I can actually locate it you know um so and again I'm not really accustomed to this I've never been to a wetlands meeting I'm not accustomed to the language or the uh the flow of this I mean I'm have you reached out to any of the consultants um I have but unfortunately unfortunately like two of them one of them was Ward Smith um and another one was was Pete Westover but those those two people were both kind of in the same conundrum which is that like is it a detention pond that's functioning as a collection of storm water or is it a wetlands or or you know I think listening to your language it sounds like there is a difference between a state wetlands and a local wet wetlands and in that maybe because this actually has nothing that flows into it and it doesn't flow out to anything um the only source of water is actually you know pipes that maybe there's a little more leeway but I'm certainly glad to write up what we want to do and come to meetings and make sure everything is up and up and you know kosher um what we really want is to have a healthy pond in the front of the house is is what we want and return it to what it yeah what it what it was for like the which which by the way we've had a number of neighbors I would say three or four who have been asking us what are you going to return the pond is it going to come back is the other lilies coming back from a we have a highlight of south amherst yes that's what we've been told it was a very um we've heard words like iconic and and uh what else beloved um and it seems to hold some significance in the cambodian community in amherst in that they used to come and take wedding pictures they used to come and take wedding photos in front of it because lotus flowers are considered auspicious um for weddings so you know so um I think we need to get a professional to assist you guys because um I can't sort of put a plan together for you and it sounds like you're at a point where you're you're still information gathering but ultimately like once you get all of the pieces of information maybe the information from taylor davis or utility information that would help you to sort of figure out where repairs need to be made um then you could kind of is that something that taylor davis can do like can they help us put the plan together do we need to hire somebody to do to put it together there's a lot of complexity going on with the storm drain and potentially digging it out that I think you know I think we'd recommend is ward smith the appropriate person because he seems like a nice enough guy he was just like dude I don't he's like you seem like you're in some weird hybrid situation getting taylor davis to identify some of the original infrastructure around the pond first would help and we're in the works in the works see they think they might have it but you know it was a long time ago it was the late 60s yeah yeah I mean it might also behoove you to get um like a a surveyor to come in and survey the locations of all the pipe inverts and locations that way in the long term you have everything sort of on a plan and you know once you once you file a notice of intent and you identify sort of these are the work tasks we want to do relative to the pond these are the work tasks we need to do relative to repair these are the work tasks we need to do relative to like a long term operation and maintenance plan on the pond because in addition to the you know repairs and the vegetation removal you want to do there's going to be ongoing maintenance after all that stuff is done that you're going to have to do on an annual or five-year rolling basis and so that'll be built into the permit and hopefully we can include that in a ultimately once everything is done in a certificate of compliance that there's an ongoing operation and maintenance associated with this and once that's done you don't have to worry about it again but at this point and and it really comes down to the fact that it was abandoned and left to grow in as a wetland if if that had never happened we wouldn't be having this discussion it's part of the reason why i told you the story of how it got abandoned because i mean it's i mean it's kind of a sad end to somebody who was like a very you know well-known very you know vertemae dale was basically i mean we're restoring the house with that in mind too you know i mean we really love her picture is up in the house and she looks at us yes she watches she's watching her every decision um so that's great well that sound that all sounds awesome so we're gonna i mean i will say that i mean one thing that stopped me a little while ago is we had one other wetlands person who came over he was a hydrologist too and he presented me with a plan for figuring this out which was like 25 or 30 thousand dollars and you know i'm just a homeowner i'm not you mass i'm not so but i think ward smith i just talked to him the other day and i'll come back to him with all this information and and maybe between him and taylor davis we can like figure out a plan that makes sense and that we can then present to you know to get includes aeration yeah and we because we'd like to do things like aeration and and some you know uh what was it um you know what uh you know uh beneficial bacteria sorry uh you know to help like get rid of the muck so that it doesn't have to be dredged at some point which you know i'd rather not do so i think that's enough thank you very much i think that's understandable unless you have any more questions for me um andre well i'll um i'll add a little bit to uh to that history um oh you know about the pond i i mowed that lawn for taylor davis oh did you i love it i was his first uh full-time employee uh for the for the father no taylor davis no no bob davis uh yeah i worked for bob davis initially and then um then for taylor davis and uh mowed that i remember it quite erin and michelle know ryan davis i'm sure so i uh so i remember it well and i did notice when when there was a bunch of cotton there uh what maybe a month ago or so um and i do remember the lotus pond um it did i as i remember i think it had some cattails there um i i did find over the years like these original pictures like in this one from 72 there's no cattails this one seems to be from the early 80s that one there's no cattails i don't know when some sort of grass too this one is from 2000 and you can see there are some cattails in the back there starting you know yeah i mean maybe that's a factor of it sort of starting to fill in with emergent wetland rather than right and losing some depth so i'm just gonna make my plug for native species here because lotus are not and you know if you want to consider pond lilies um there are there are pond lilies okay because we are talking about removing native vegetation and planting it with an exotic species so well the lotus is still there so we we're not talking about necessarily adding lotus and we did talk about when we looked at it we did talk about potentially leaving some of the cattails there because they are nice it's just when they overgrown the whole thing then the waste every year starts right and before you know there won't be any water left so because i was told the pond was about five and a half feet deep by by alan snow who used to go around in waders um you know many years ago um and it's you know you you know there's there's many feet of just kind of sludge because it doesn't have an output it you know it's just kind of water right it's filling in yeah and then we'll definitely consider there's another grass in there now too which i don't know what it is and we'll try to get that identified and doesn't seem to spread the same way as the cattails it seems to be plumping rather than like you know so but i don't know yes we will definitely consider that okay well um i think erin's given you a list of consultants but you're in touch with ward so there's yeah there's enough complexity here that yeah maybe getting in touch with both um someone who can figure out that inflow outflow situation and then i'm getting a plan together with the consultant um so are we just sending them off with a plan erin or commissioners do you have any other comments yeah i mean i would just i would just request that maybe in like 30 days we check back to see where you're at um and i love a deadline and in the and in the interim please you know just see some cutting until we until we have an approved plan because it puts us all in a really tough position no no i'm not going to touch it i already told you as soon as you send me that message we stop immediately so thank you we'll pull the lawn around it i'm assuming that's okay um as it's been being mowed for whatever um but we won't touch the pond until we get an exact plan figured out and i'll hopefully ward will be uh you know reasonably enough price that i can deal with it and will and hopefully between them and tayla davis will get it figured out and um and then i just attend the meeting the same way in a month yeah you can just communicate with me um via email or just give me an update in in like 30 days of sort of where things stand and you know what you're what you're where you're at with putting a plan together so we can just keep in touch that's beautiful okay okay alex you have something real quick yeah i just wanted to thank you for coming before the commission yeah um i hope this is a pleasant journey for you yeah thank you it has been a mixed bag it is a very complex house that was built by a very complex woman i a native of of i grew up in amherst massachusetts my my grandparents were incredibly involved with land conservation and environmental you know they started the second csa in the country which is brookfield farm um and you know have large trails named after them so so i am so completely um environmentally aware and and that has always been you know keeping things happy and i don't know but not not going in and bulldozing things and doing crazy things but restoring things no i mean to give you a sense of the restoration of the house we're saving pretty much everything all the wood inside the house is all being saved cat you know numbered catalog sanded and put back like i mean we're we're we're restoring it not renovating it so um so hopefully that's what the pond will look like too and but that's great good luck we got your work cut out for you okay so you'll communicate with erin and sorry alex um and we'll be seeing you back here with a plan hopefully in hands alex do you want to say the last thing just thank you again for coming before us and uh yeah we appreciate working we're there to be so have a pleasant journey awesome thank you very much okay bye guys yeah stop by sometime okay okay all right one more thing a emergency start um yes so this is for um there's a former gas station that's behind the old north amherst library and um basically they did some investigation of the structure and deemed that it was unsafe and want to take it down before the library sort of comes online um is to make sure that hazardous materials and the unsafe structure is taken down so um Dave and I uh Dave approved the issuance of the emergency certification and we just need to ratify that this evening so just a motion to ratify the emergency cert for 24 monagu road can i ask a question sure i drove by there and i the life and the i couldn't figure out what the connection was for any wetland the it's within the 200 foot buffer 200 foot riverfront area of the middle river so um yeah yeah i couldn't see it just walking around but okay i think you're worth it yep it is very industrial yeah it is okay um all right looking for a motion then uh so moved okay alex with a motion second second laundry the second bruce hi andre hi alex hi and i'm an eye that is joe soco's old garage he used to pump gas there i remember that i remember that i remember driving across from cumberland farms to get my gas there yeah when i first got my license there was a year where i was his number one customer how about that like on a word or something that you know in terms of the number of times my car was in there but i don't know if the gas tanks are still on the ground well it's exciting to see that space renovated to see that building come down but it will be a benefit to the library which just looks terrific yeah first um is it possible to stay on and ask you a question when other people leave or can we make an appointment for me to call you tomorrow to ask several questions are you talking to me or erin erin um yeah i would i would prefer if we could talk maybe sometime tomorrow bruce and you're welcome to just call me at the office i think i have a nine to ten and i have a eleven to twelve but other than that i'm in the office i'll call you at ten perfect i hope we're not closing the meeting erin there's one more item um so the conservation restriction item was tabled by dav for um upcoming meeting and then we covered the letter of support for fish and wildlife at the front end so i think we're good unless i missed anything else i don't think so and just i do have some context about the conservation restriction that the irs did a a big change which has a tight deadline um for donation and bargain sale easements and as dav said it is really sort of administrative um the organization i worked for didn't have to deal with it but a lot of the lawyers were actually recommending not doing anything might be the best course of event so i heard you was saying with that but um just for some context it's not i don't think it's going to have any conservation implications that i would be worried about from my personal standpoint so the only other thing um and i don't know if bruce has another question or if his hand is still up but uh oh that's okay i just um we might want to just check if there's any general public comment from anybody because there are a couple folks still in the room before we close you a few people um i do have an item of business before we go okay okay i don't see any hands alex so why don't you go ahead with that um i would like to make a motion that we update our wetland regulations and there have been it's been a year since the uh they were last updated and there have been a number of um changes and uh in the way we do business that need to be codified and there's also been perhaps 15 items that erin has identified that need to be updated this is not a big piece of work we're not talking about an overhaul we're talking about updating okay it sounds like you already have a list in mind and have you talked to erin about it already like is this something with erin and i asked her several times um when was inappropriate time to bring this up and she said to me most recently at the end of the meeting under other business okay and here we are um okay so to propose that uh we've reviewed this at another meeting um like in bullet form or you know maybe alex and erin could present the the items specifically is that i mean do you have a proposal for how to handle that yeah i mean i would suggest that we we make track changes to the existing um word document and then also come up with a list of what the changes identifying the changes and and why we're recommending that they be changed um and i'm not sure if we'll be ready by the next meeting but will alex and i can coordinate outside of the meeting to try to get that ball rolling so that we can talk about it um okay do you think i could pass it around like we did our land use plan okay yeah absolutely okay yep all right well that's exciting thank you alex for being on top of that okay any last call for a public comment please raise your hand okay that's none and i think we've addressed all of our items so unless anyone has something else to say i'm looking for a motion to adjourn i move that we adjourn my second andre motion bruce of the second i mean sorry alex andre hi bruce hi alex hi i'm an i you run a good meeting good job shell yay thanks alex i've got good support which is really it's just about watching the clock right did great okay thanks for taking this on yeah and if anyone wants to volunteer to be vice chair please just let erin know i didn't want to like call anyone out there but um i'd like to look into it okay great um sounds good okay and hopefully we'll have jason next time um and yep enjoy your four minutes before night o'clock see you next time okay bye guys have good night erin would you stay on and help me spell a name sure okay bye guys oh i can leave yes so how do you spell laura's last name uh pa g l i a r u l o let me read it back to you p h e l i a r u l o yes i believe that's correct okay and i um i kind of write i kind of wrote notes on the back of an envelope and i i tried i tried typing i've got to learn how to do this better i'll uh i'll write up what i've got um i'm kind of done for today so it won't be tonight okay but i um i'll send you a