 to me. I just started recording for you. 706. Okie dokie. Only yeah, so Jen's not here obviously. So I'll be heading up the chair position. And we're all here. No, we're missing. We're missing one missing Laura. Sorry. Sorry. Yes. To is right. So anything that passes tonight will have to be unanimous. Generally is. I guess in terms of comments, not much, but I do, you know, as you probably have all noticed, we are now up to category three drought here in the Connecticut River Valley. So just start collecting your gray water. And those little pulses of rain that come through actually do fill up the rain barrels if you have any. So that's my fun facts of the day. And we got Dave here, Dave, where have you been in? I'm sure you got a couple of comments for us. I know I feel I feel somewhat disconnected. So I jumped on here early and Erin and I were chatting. But yeah, then a lot of my plate lately and taking a little time off here and there, but also having some connectivity problems at home. So very strange. But I met with our IT department and every time I have needs, they chuckle a little bit because, you know, I don't follow all the IT rules and updates and all of that on my laptop. But they spade me out. And here I am. So happy to be with you from my basement in South Amherst. But yeah, I just thought I would take you around town a little bit with some updates from the field. Erin may have a few others that she's working on. But, you know, Fletcher, you mentioned, you know, kind of water levels. You know, I do work closely with the town manager and our DPW staff. So we are keeping a close eye just FYI on the reservoirs and the wells. And right now we are in good shape. All of our wells are operating in our reservoirs at reservoirs plural or at reasonable levels. But there's no question. It is, it is, it's tough out there now. It's probably going to get tougher. I was just up in Vermont over the weekend and my wife asked me why why are you not going out there fly fishing? And I took her over to one of my favorite rivers, the Black River. And it was a third of what it normally runs. And you don't want to stress out those fish. But Puffer spawned is is doing quite well this summer. Water is low. A lot of beach there this year with with the sandbar extending. It's been relatively busy, you know, certainly busy on these hot days. Water quality has been tested weekly and by and large, I think we had one blip on the screen a couple of weeks ago, but by and large, we're doing fine with water quality. Staff, staff test that on I believe Wednesdays, Tuesday or Wednesday, and then DPW runs the test right at the wastewater treatment plant down near UMass. So we get the test back very quickly. Once it's been cultured, if you will. Fort River is posted all summer long. We do not expect that water quality to improve. There's really not a lot we can do. This is that jump when they call it jump bridge there at Wentworth Farm Conservation Area. So I've actually stopped testing it. There is a cost to testing $35 to $50 per test. And frankly, that has not passed in a couple of years. And I don't think it will. So there's a bigger story to be explored at Fort River. And we are DPW and Fort River watershed and various, you know, UMass and Amherst College is kind of helping around the edges. So we've got a bigger mystery to figure out there. What is affecting the water quality in the fort so much? And we'll work on that. Let's see the KC trail off of Southeast Street. The Commission approved a kind of a modified plan for that. You may recall, we were hoping to put in a new bridge there. You we went through an NOI process with you many, many months ago to put in a new the dual of vehicular bridge as well as a pedestrian bridge, a trail bridge. And we really decided, given the complexity of that situation along the hop route that and the cost that we needed to come up with a temporary solution came back to you with a temp bridge. Aaron may have a picture of that temp bridge, but I was just down there today. Looks pretty good. I've got some tweaks for our field staff a little bit. But I think it'll be a great short term solution for the next year to get people safely over the hop brook down to the rail trail from Southeast Street. Speaking of it, let's stay in the category of bridges. Amethyst pedestrian bridge. This is the replacement for the bridge that was washed out. We have some fun funding banked, if you will for that project. Aaron and I went out and met on the site with our building commissioner Rob Mora, who's who's a builder in his in his other life, if you will, and is also our building commissioner, so has to give us a building permit for that bridge that large. And so we're, oh, there's the bridge on the new bridge on the KC trail off of Southeast Street. I think you said that was going to be a temporary bridge. This one it is. It is a temporary bridge. Oh, never mind. Now I see. Yeah, it can be taken apart. Got it. It's really for pedestrians for hikers. But we're taking a second look at that Amethyst brook and really reevaluating the design from a structural standpoint. We may go a different direction and pivot from the telephone pole style bridge. It would require us to come back through through the commission. So stay tuned on that. I think in the next four to six weeks, four to six weeks, we should have a kind of an updated design on that. Moving south plumber pond. I trust some of you have been out there to take a walk from sweet Alice conservation area around the pond at the at the Kestrel Trust office. We have new we have new town of Amherst conservation land signs up there just to make sure everybody knows what's town land, private land and Kestrel land. We Brad and staff also did some routine maintenance mowing of the dam, which is required and was part of our NOI many, many months ago. So we have to keep that dam system free of woody vegetation. So that will be nice to kind of get that back in shape. We did a little trail mowing there and then Aaron and Rob and I are working and I believe it'll go out to bid probably later this week or early next week. You may recall there was a couple of crushed culverts on one of the streams that comes into feeds the plumber pond above the Kestrel office. And we're going to put that out to bid and see if we can get some bids. It is dry. It's a great time to do a project like that. So we're going to see if we can get some bids from small contractors to do that. So it'd be kind of a nice project if we can get it done because Aaron worked so hard with Kestrel and others to get the culvert done below the dam and free up that section and that incredible habitat and stream flow improvement there. If we can do the same thing south of there on the inflow to the pond, one of the inflows to the pond, that would be a nice thing. And that's a but that that's that culvert you're speaking of now that's on just like a footpath, right? It is. Yeah, that's all. Yes. Yeah, okay. I know what you would do, but it wouldn't be obviously this scale to what they did on the driveway, obviously. Actually, it's what we do is we pull out the two culverts and we'd replace it with a footbridge. There will be a particular bridge there. Oh, so you would contract that in-house? Second. You would you would contract that workout and not do that are going to contract that out. It's it's some delicate work there in the stream. It's you know, it's a it's a cold water fishery there. You know, I have confidence in Brad and Tyler, but we want to, you know, there's stream bank stabilization that needs to happen there. So Aaron has worked on the scope of services with Rob more as a matter of fact. So we'll get a small smaller local firm, hopefully to do that work. It's it's not going to be a lot of money, but much, much smaller than the culvert replacement for the kestrel driveway. So that'll be exciting to get that going field mowing should start. You know, we always wait until after grassland birds have fledged. We're well after that period at this time. We, you know, we try to, you know, we have over 200 acres of open field habitat. We try to, you know, try as best we can to avoid those areas that are, you know, you know, prime pollinator habitat. But, you know, we do the best we can. We are going to allow places like Amethyst Brook, the fields there to grow up and we'll try to mow those in November. But if we can get in with the dry summer to places like in particular Atkins Flats has not been mowed in a number of years. And that used to be our best highest production for grassland birds, bobble links, metal arcs, et cetera. And that has really gone pretty woody in the last couple of years. And there's not a lot of production there for grassland birds. So we'll try to get in there. We're going to try to get into Mount Pollux. We're going to try to work our way around the filming. I'm not sure. I think the film crew that's going to be up there doing the movie probably wants the grass long as my guess. So we don't want to go in there and kind of knock it all down right before they film. I think that's on August 16, 17, something like that. And then finally, Hickory Ridge, we're pushing toward, you know, pulling all, you know, in the fall, we'll be pulling together all the pieces for a comprehensive plan. Obviously, the commission, the planning board, the town council will want to see that, that plan. I've been working on the elements of that with Aaron and Ben Breger and Nate Malloy and Stephanie Ciccarello, others in the planning department. We have the wetlands all done. Aaron and Ben have done a great job on mapping. We have a number of maps of the property, estimated habitat, priority habitat, flood, floodways, flood zones, etc. We're working on Aaron and Ben have also come up with kind of a preliminary trail design, utilizing some of the existing car paths and then some other connections. And then we're working with some of the abutting landowners on the easements to try to make our way, if you will, I don't have the map in front of you tonight, but making our way north to East Adley Road and east over to West Street. So we'll be bringing that to you probably in October, early November with some of the preliminary pieces of that comprehensive plan. And we hope to at least get in there and do some very basic mowing of the existing car paths this fall, but that will probably be late in the fall after wood turtles hunker down for the year. So after the first frost. The only other update I have the dog park opened and I don't think I've been with you since the dog park opened, had a great opening over there, very well utilized. I'm hoping it takes a little pressure off some of the conservation areas like Wentworth Farm, maybe Amethyst Brook. People seem to really enjoy it. And keep in mind that in concert with that prop project, we also put a conservation restriction on the entire landfill, the South landfill, about 45 acres. So that is now in trust, if you will, Kestrel holds the will hold the CR. I don't know if it's recorded yet, but you know, we're on the one yard line. And that'll all be grassland bird habitat up there on the main part of the South landfill. And we're poised to turn the turn the solar on at the North landfill. So it's a really nice project. We get solar on the North landfill grassland bird habitat on the South and then the dog park. And we maintain the Robert Frost Trail across the old landfill as well as the sledding hill to the South, if any of you've been to the to the sledding hill on the on the far end of the the the old landfill. So so yeah, lots of things happening. It's a great time to work. It is dry, which is nice and safer for resources and rivers and streams. So we're trying to get anything that's permitted done. So so that's a quick summary of projects around town. Any, what's going on with progress on commercial development at Hickory Ridge? Well, that'll all be part of all be part of the comprehensive plan, Larry, we will, you know, we the mapping we've done will show where there is quote, developable land, you know, high and dry out of estimated priority habitat out of wetland area, resource areas, riverfront, etc. There's not a lot of acreage there when you actually get down to the mapping. It is quite a limited, you know, people look at it and say, wow, 150 acres, there must be so much we can do there. And realistically, most of it is quite restricted. We actually had a great meeting with a group. They're regional, they are disc golf, the Disc Golf Association of New England or something like that, because we did have interest in disc golf being played there. And we had a good meeting with them. But once we laid over the layers of of restricted land, they kind of took a deep gulp, a big gulp and said, wow, we don't know if there's enough acreage there for disc golf. So available acreage. So we put that a little bit on the hit the pause button. But we will look at what the reuse options are for the clubhouse area and the parking lot. Obviously, we want trailhead parking there. Where what else could go there? You may recall in the in the lead up to buying Hickory Ridge, which was about four years, one and a half years, we did also look at other uses, municipal uses. We are still looking for and planning for a South Amherst fire station. And I would honestly say that Hickory Ridge could be used. Part of that available upland could be a some sort of a substation or South Amherst modest fire station. It's not out of the question. So all of that will be covered in that comprehensive plan. And the commission will be kind of front and center in those those discussions. And as that moves forward. Thanks. One last thing on Hickory, I will say that I forgot. Erin and I are working to try to bring on somebody to help us a little bit a consultant to help us with ecological restoration. I felt as though we just needed a little shot in the arm a little more help on that. So I believe we have a follow up conversation. It might be on Friday. Erin and myself with affirm that we are considering bringing on to help us with that aspect of the plan. We're really strong on mapping. We're really strong on trails. We're strong on the planning side with regard to upland redevelopment zoning, all of that. But we're I think we just needed a little boost on the ecological restoration. What are what are what should our goals be? And obviously, the conservation commission will be part of that piece as well. Yeah, that's a great one. I could jump in on that. But I won't because there's yeah, I was going to bring up like, you know, it'd be great because all the mowing you do is like maintain a fire, you know, but I said that's a huge resource intensive project as well. But there is funding available these days for fire planning, at least. So at least setting up a plan to work with prescribed fire in a way that's for restoration purposes. So grass and restoration is perfect, like perfect. So there is to do that on conservation. In my early years with the town, we prescribed burns down at Atkins Flats. We did some pretty extensive ones down there, Brad. And we brought in DCR and they were very helpful and that could all be on the table. Yeah. So there's there's you know, once you guys start looking at that, there's there are some funding availability actually currently. So those all the things try up to sometimes but there's there's opportunity now trying to build on specifically that type of restoration stuff. Sure. So that's cool. Any other questions on those those updates? All right, we're going to keep on moving then. I do want to just mention for the public that we are continuing. So if you're here for Canton Ave or the railroad, those two are continue to our September, sorry, year and 10th, 14th? September 14th, the railroad will be 735 and can will be I'm sorry, the railroad be 735. Can have will be 745. Yeah, thanks. So again, anyone in the public here for can have or the railroad, that's going to be continued. So can we want to move on to the land use policy draft? I got to look at it. Thanks for Michelle throwing, getting into it. I put some comments in there strictly comments and really get into like grammatical stuff or anything like that just kind of general comments. So we would this is really easy because I was going to ask who would be the next person to look at it and the next person would be Andre because you have no choice because you're the only one here because Larry's leaving. This is Larry's last last show. So Hey, as the logical next one, I'll certainly accept. Okay, tackling that. Excellent. Great. So Aaron, obviously, you don't mind sending that off to Andre for the next. Is it are we do want to just keep it going and have this this next conversation again? Same thing, same format on the next meeting. Yeah, I mean, I think give everybody a chance to just yeah, just give everybody a chance to read through it. And, you know, it's not going to take us very long for everybody to get through at this point because we're, you know, our membership is is we're down a couple members. So so yeah, that'd be great. I'll forward your comments. I just flipped through them. I'll forward those on to Andre and Andre. If you want to do markups and then when you're done, then then we'll send them on to Jen for for her to look at. Definitely. Sounds great. Thanks, man. And then the next one is the land use for Amherst College. I'm assuming somebody from Amherst College is not going to partake. They are not. Yeah, because the reason is that they have they've already requested this. This is a three year permit. So it's just administratively you were saying, Aaron, that you just requested them to do this online. Yeah, because we just started with the open gov permit software process. And the previous time that they submitted, we didn't have open gov set up yet. So this way we'll have the permit in our open gov system and it'll be documented that they're going to be doing the regular stream water quality monitoring for the next three years on various conservation areas in town. And they do give us the results of their water quality testing. And I do post those on our website. So if anybody's interested in what those results are that and any of our other sort of side projects that we are working on, if you go to the main Conservation Commission page, the left column all the way at the bottom, there's other wetlands projects and there there's a couple different projects listed with sort of results of different things that are going on in town related to wetlands. That's great. Thanks for putting that together. It is extremely great information to get, especially it's nice to partner up with other people in town to help with that stuff. So there's nothing else that we need to do administratively. There's no motion or anything correct. I think if we could make a motion just approving the land use application, it's sort of just a formality for us to now have their application in our open gov system. That would be great. All right, folks, let's get a motion going. I move to approve the Amherst College land use application for water quality monitoring. Second Larry, second. All right, voice vote, Michelle. Hi, Andre. Hi, Larry. Oh, and I for Fletcher. Excellent. Do you want to do you want to jump to a really quick other business item to get it off our plate so we're not dealing with it at the end? Yeah, that'd be great. OK. So we received a request for certificate of compliance for 30 Kestrel Lane and I was out there today or yesterday rather and took a look at it. The site is fully stable. It was constructed like 20 years ago. It's sort of more just like a administrative thing. They never issued the certificate of compliance on it. So I would be comfortable releasing the certificate of compliance for the property. Excellent. I always I move we issue a certificate of requirement for 30 Kestrel Lane. Second. Excellent. Voice vote. Larry. Hi, Andre. Hi, Michelle. Michelle. Hi. There we go. And I for Fletcher and that emergency service for the hazard trees that's getting tabled. The emergency service is getting tabled. We're just waiting for a start date for the work. The other item that was on the agenda was a minor modification for the Mill Lane. There's a project on Mill Lane. They're having a change to a footbridge. But I talked with Jen about that and we're going to table that discussion as well to the September 14th meeting. There was two other correspondence items. One was for the Hickory Ridge Solar Project, they're going to be working to start the interconnection process. And you'll recall that the commission did approve them to move the point of interconnection at West Pomeroy from the west side of the access road to the east side of the access road. So in the coming days and weeks, the trees that are on the east side will be removed so that they can start installing the poles for the interconnection there. So just to give the the board a heads up that that was that change was approved and that was just sort of part and parcel to the change. The other thing was that we've been asked because LaRoy was our CPA appointment to find a new CPA liaison and Fletcher and I spoke earlier today and Dave, we sort of thought it might be more appropriate to wait until we have two new members so that we can have a full complement of the board to appoint someone, but I don't know if that's OK to wait until September to do. Except when the CPA I remember they got started really early the last year they started really early, but generally it's December. Yeah, they do. They did they did move it up quite a bit since Fletcher was on that as part of the CPA See, I think proposals are now due September one or thereabouts or maybe it's the end of September might be the end of September. I think we have a little time. I believe the town manager is considering some residents who have put in their their forms to be to join the commission. So the process is typically the town manager works with me more specifically with Aaron and they interview people after somebody has filled out a CAF form online. And so that process is underway. But yeah, I think it's OK to wait, you know, two to four weeks on that. It was going to be Laura correct. And then Laura joined the the solar bylaw group. Did anybody else who's here tonight, Larry, is moving off? Did anybody else have an interest in that? Is everybody jumping for to get on or should we you want to just wait? I'm not sure what it is. Oh, Community Preservation Act Committee is is a group, a wonderful, wonderful committee. They meet to make decisions, recommendations, I should say, to the town council on projects that fall under the Community Preservation Act. So that is essentially a tax on real estate and the projects fall in four categories, conservation or open space, recreation, historic preservation and affordable housing. So it's a really interesting group. We typically the town of Amherst typically has between there's a range between nine hundred thousand and maybe one point three, one point four million dollars to allocate every year. We don't have to allocate all of that every year in those categories. So it's to protect historic resources, historic buildings. We've put money toward the town hall, the Jones Library, oh, the JCA steeple that was was needed needed corrective work fields, facilities, you know, things like that. Track and field project at the high school is kind of a hot item on that list, but also what an acquisition space, open space applications, trails, etc. Yeah. So thinking about it, maybe at our next meeting we have a more full discussion of that. Or Michelle, were you going to chime in? I was just wondering when they meet. They meet they meet rather intensely as they review the proposals. So they would probably start meeting in late September and then they like to they typically meet on a Thursday, if I'm not mistaken, like a Thursday evening, six thirtyish and then they try to get their recommendations done by middle of February because the recommendations are in anticipation of the next budget year. So they're so they will meet in, let's say, October, November, December, January, February. They'll make their recommendations to the town council based on the available budgets and the the projects that are eligible. And then that recommendation goes to the town council in the spring for FY twenty four. So the twenty four budget starts July one two thousand twenty three. So just to give you an idea, but it's not intensive like, you know, four times a month. It's no, no, no, no. It's not that one time a month. Yeah, that's not a. And there could be, you know, in recent years, there's been, you know, fifteen to twenty proposals. So there's a robust response, you know, everything from a, you know, a conservation commission puts in conservation department puts in a twenty five thousand dollar request for trails and bridges to, you know, an eight hundred thousand dollar request for a new track and field facility at the high school, you know, and everything in between. So think about it, you know, if anybody wants to call me, you know, I'm happy to have a conversation with them offline and not take the whole commission's time. And I can tell you more about it. Also go to their website and take a look at some of the proposals that have been supported by the. It's pretty, it's pretty impressive. It can be kind of fun, you know, allocating that money to worthy projects in our community, too. So no pressure. OK. Are we ready to do I think time to move on? Michelle, Andre, any other questions? You good? Cool. Excellent. So we're going to move on. I've got my cheat sheet here before we get started. Thanks, Aaron. We this is just we like to go over these types of things. But there's a general procedure of fairness and all the applicants. So each hearing would try to keep it within 20 minutes. We try. But we always request that the applicant gives us just a quick your name, quick representation of the explanation of what the project is. We usually have comments from the Conservation Commission or the staff, this will be Aaron from site visits, photos, whatever. And then we do allow for public comment and we do ask for public comment for each person just to only speak for two minutes, please. And that has to do with the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission. So our jurisdiction, we're here to uphold the Wetlands Protection Act, the Amherst Wetlands, Wetlands bylaw. So just ask that that is pertains to our jurisdiction. And then we'll have a couple of minutes for the Conservation Commission to kind of deliberate and we'll go from there. Thanks, Aaron, for that. So we are here to now start the further requests for determination of Fort River Waters Association. So I'm going to start procedure for wetlands hearings. This meeting is held. This meeting, this meeting is being held as required by the provisions of chapter one, thirty one, section 40 of the General Laws, the Commonwealth and act relative to the protection of wetlands as most recently amended in article three point three one, wetlands protection under the Amherst town of Amherst by general bylaws. And so do we have the applicant here? Yes, I believe Bruce, I saw Bruce Steadman in here and I will promote him to a panelist. Great, thanks. Can give us the presentation. Here, yep, got it. Hey, Bruce, yeah, there we go. Yeah, yeah, excellent. Hey, thanks for coming, Bruce. So can you just give us, you know, who you are and just a little explanation of the of the project here? I'm Bruce Steadman. I'm one of the three co-directors of the Conway School of Landscape Design. I'm also part of an ad hoc advisory group for the Fort River Watershed Association. And we're we're fiscally sponsored by the Connecticut River Conservancy. Last spring, we put in a proposal to the Mass Environmental Trust for about eight thousand dollars to essentially rehabilitate the Emily Dickinson Trail, which is on the south bank of the Fort River from those from Groth Park to the the Norwata Rail Trail Terminus. There's a little parking area there. If you have walked that stretch any time recently, you'll know that there was a long time ago a bunch of numbered posts that were part of a trail interpretive trail system. Yeah, an interpretive trail system. Thank you. And so our proposal was to the MET was to get a sufficient amount of money to establish two kiosks at either end and between seven and nine different way stations with different topics along the way. And you can I believe we're seeing a picture of that on the screen. Some significant things that we think will come from this are obviously improved signage for visitors who walk along and enhanced understanding of the Fort River's ecology by the users more in community engagement with the Fort River itself and its ecology. Some increased awareness and engagement of the Fort River by local environmental justice communities, of which there are several along who have access to it. Obviously, some there's some some environmental issues that need to be addressed, climate being among them and some collaborations between the Fort River Water Set Association, the town of Amherst and Amherst College, which actually is technically the the owner of most of the land on which this trail exists. And then there will be some other additional pieces over the over time. So the basic idea is to have a series of way stops. Each one would have a queue code. Someone could go along and use their phone to go to a website that would have much more detailed information. We're also intending to have a laminated set of placards that would have the same kind of information if people didn't weren't comfortable using their phone or didn't want to look at their phone while they're walking along. Aaron and I and Brian Yellen, who's the nominally the chair of this group, walked along and you can see a picture. Aaron has kindly put up a picture of a very tentative, but at least considered idea of the locations and the order of the topics. And so we're still within the group. There's Brian noting an old one, one of the old standards that was still there. So you can see a piece here. Aaron has kindly put up some pictures of what we observe while we were walking along. And the idea is to refine that and then put in these markers, these way stations that are relevant to the position along the trail that a walker would encounter. It'll probably take one more discussion and walking along to make sure that it's the right thing. On the other hand, we can also change them over time. If the queue code is usable to have someone go to a website. There we go. There's the tentative order of things and locations along the trail. It might have changed a little bit. We did some adjustments, but this was to give you an idea. Conceptually, this is the second draft, if you will, of the order and the topics. We're also going to have on the website that people go to. There'll be some information about Emily Dickinson herself. It happens that there's also two, I guess we'll call them renegade of things out there. There's a poetry stop that somebody put up. Probably Emmer's College allowed it to happen. And then there's another one that's been there for a number of other years. It's called the. The fairy house or the fairy bedroom or something. It's these little individual little dolls that are inside a little box that's a little dollhouse, the dollhouse. Right. So, you know, it has a sort of dynamic system, but it's it's we think it'll be a dramatically improved circumstance. The town has also done some work to and will continue to do some work to enhance the actual walkability of the trail. They've done some nice things to improve the bridges. Dave could describe and Dave does come to our Fort River meetings as does Aaron on occasion. So they're part of the thinking and the discussion about how this should be done. Yeah, I would just add, if I could fletcher. Yeah, Bruce gave a great description of the project. Obviously, we would remove the existing. We don't want confusion. The old posts there, Bruce, you know, accurately referred to. There was a a system there many, many years ago. All of those posts, there's some remaining they would all be removed. I noticed an errand forwarded to me, Bruce, on your walk. There were some blowdowns, you know, with the drought. Whether you get too much rain or too little rain, trees, you know, suffer. So there was some recent blowdowns there. So we will remove those. We've done some bridge work, at least one. The poetry box that is there did come through the commission and know that I am not familiar with the small box with dolls. Or I actually haven't seen that. I don't recall that coming through the commission, but the other folks who did install that did follow proper procedure and went through an earlier commission a couple of years ago and also Amherst College. So I think it's a great project, minimal impact in the riverfront. You know, a little hand digging to put in four by four posts with these QR codes and minimal digging for essentially for four support posts for the the kiosk. Each kiosk has two, what are they? Six by six is Bruce or four by four, probably six by sixes. And, you know, those would be backfilled and very simple, all hand dug stuff. So very minimal impact in the in the in the riverfront. So this wouldn't this wouldn't trigger natural because, you know, this is riverfront. So this wouldn't trigger anything from natural heritage. You know, say more about that. Yeah, so we did inquire with natural heritage about it. And they said, if we stay within the existing trail envelope that or layout that it wouldn't require a filing. And that is definitely our intention is to stay within the existing trail envelope. The legality was posted. The town took care of the butter notifications. We you saw the site visit photos. Natural heritage wasn't concerned if we were staying within the existing trail layout. And from my perspective, the trail is or the the proposed work is is so simple that I don't I don't have any concerns about what's proposed. And then who's going to maintain the trail? Well, because I know you just offered for help on it, but it's Amherst College land. Yeah, so so Amherst College did, as Bruce might have mentioned, Amherst College did approve of the concept of the grant concept of the educational mission of the of the project. Amherst town of Amherst has been maintaining that trail for 20 plus years. Amherst College, my predecessor, Pete Westover, essentially, I think, worked with Amherst College way back when 25, 30 years ago and and put in the trail. But long term maintenance would still fall to the town. So we would have to work with with the watershed group with the Fort River watershed group to make sure things don't get damaged. The kiosks are updated. The QR codes lead to something active. You know, there's nothing worse than going to a website that's so dated or old that it's not worth your time. So, you know, I think there's enough interest in this that the volunteers will be looking at that to make sure the post don't end up in the Fort River. Sometimes that happens. There's Vandal vandalism and, you know, we'll replace a post here and there. And the town can just pick up the cost of that. I was just going to mention that the Connecticut River Conservancy, which clearly is a long standing and will be long standing into the future, is the manager of the website, the Fort River. They are our fiscal sponsor. And we're still a little relatively ad hoc, but they're going to manage the website to make sure that it's there for the long term. Sounds good. Michelle, you had a question? I was just going to mention I think this is great. I love that trail. It's got a lot of good diversity and it's got good connectivity with interesting things. I was going to mention that I was there about a month ago, and it was pretty overgrown and impassable with poison ivy and other things. And I had to like do a full washdown. I couldn't get through the whole thing. And so I guess my only comment is if they were going to entice people down this trail with very cool kiosks and other things, just maybe keep it on a regular schedule. I don't know, maybe I don't know what's to do about the poison ivy. Like it looks like Aaron, you made it down there fine recently. But it was it was pretty impassable one month ago in July. So that's a really good point, Michelle. I believe the trail volunteers have done some some modest brush back since you were there. I will say honestly, there's no easy solution for poison ivy. We generally don't ask volunteers or even staff to kind of go full on into into poison ivy, although we've had some some volunteers who just don't get it and they're they're up for it. But that's really on them because I don't want to jeopardize their health. But in terms of brush back, it has been it has been cut back, you know, just modest annual, you know, trimming. And then, as Bruce mentioned, town staff did get in and replace some of the boards. There needs to be a little more bridge work, modest, you know, bridge wood replacement, nothing drastic. But yeah, that is a good point. It's it can be kind of a it can be a little overgrown and and and people get worried about two things, ticks and poison ivy. So there, you know, I don't have an easy solution for poison ivy. And we've looked at that through the years because we really try to avoid herbicides. So that's a tough one. Yeah, I mean, I guess if we're going to have all these great kiosks just to make it maybe like, I don't know, it grows fast because it's open and it's wet. So maybe like a I don't know, keep tabs on how open the trail is for the public so they can enjoy all the effort that goes into this. Yeah, that's not going to work with Bruce and his team on making sure kind of the branding, although this grant is working with the Watershed Association and and with other partners, we do want to make sure that the branding is consistent with other other new kiosks we're developing. So we'll work with Bruce and his team on that. And it does make sense. We do have some standard graphics for poison ivy and ticks. So it makes sense to put that on the kiosk and either end. Just for those people visiting or not aware, you know, you do need to be careful of those overhanging, you know, multi-flora rows. That's that's where the ticks are, you know, and that's when you take them home with you. So I guess we kind of jumped ahead a little bit. But if anyone else from the commission have any questions, comments? Anybody from the public if interested in commenting or questions about this project. You I'll say it new. All right, Commission, I think we're, you know, this seems pretty straightforward. Looks like we got a lot of support. So if somebody wants to make a motion, looks like Aaron's got one chalked up for us there. So yeah. I moved to issue a positive determination under the wetlands by law, checking box three and a negative determination under the wetlands protection act, checking box two. Second. Nice. Thank you. Voice vote, Michelle. Hi. Andre. Hi. Larry. Larry. Hi. Nice. And I for Fletcher. Bruce, hey, thanks. Keep up the good effort. Thank you for your support. We'll have some kind of an event where we'll invite you to come as the grand opening of the trail when it's ready to go in mid fall, we'll say. Mid fall. Let's hope the spray park's still going across the park, though. Fair enough. That's bad. I'll stop. All right, thank you so much. See ya. Bye, Bruce. Bye-bye. Just want to make another comment just in case folks are here for the Canton Ave and or the railroad that continued to September 14th. So just letting you know, we will not be discussing those, the Canton Ave project or the Winglin Railroad. But with that said, we will move on. All right. Excellent. And we'll all stay here. So this one is the, oh, still going. I'll let you add some in there. Oh, okay. Another request for termination. So it's going to open the hearings. The meeting is being held as required by the provisions of chapter 131, section 40 of the general laws of the Commonwealth and act relative to the protection of wetlands as most recently amended. And article 3.31 wetlands protection on the town of Amherst general bylaws. We have somebody here from the Eversource representing today in raising hand. Virginia, I believe. Virginia. I might have promoted the wrong person. If she raised her hand right as I was promoting her. Oh, there she goes. Okay. Excellent. Hey there. Hello. There you are. Hey there, Virginia. Hi. If you could just give me, you know, have us hear your name and then just give us a quick overview for the request termination. Sure. My name is Virginia Martel. I am here on behalf of Eversource through BSC group. And we've submitted this RDA request for determination to add one new mid span pole into the right away that's located adjacent to 169 Meadow Street. It is within the 200 front river front area to the Mill River up on that end. 100 foot buffer zone to BVW and then within bordering lands subject to flooding. Excellent. Thank you. Erin, you wanna give us a little bit more low down. Were you there today? Yes. And I'm just trying to queue up the plan, bear with me just a moment and then I'll share the site visit photos. So. The background of the project is that Eversource is looking to increase load capacity throughout the Amherst, South Deerfield, Waitefield, Waiteley and Hatfield areas. They have a lot of new businesses that have requests to be put onto the grid within the next couple of years. And in order to do that safely, they have to increase the capacity load so that like the thermal limits aren't reached and we don't have brownouts and stuff. So in order to do this, they would like to replace this section of underground. It's actually direct buried conduit that starts at pole 80-21 down here. So I'm pointing at my screen like you guys can see that. It's the yellow line. That is gonna be direct buried that is replaced with underground conduit. So it's a like for like replacement with increased capacity. And then at 311-32M, that underground conduit is going to rise up onto a new mid span pole and then continue down the row line overhead. Okay, yeah. So they think what they would like to do is to access this area. Normally new poles are easily exempt if they're within 10 feet of the road shoulder, but because this one is further back off of the road shoulder, they actually have to access either through the adjacent parcel of land. So they'll go overground with ground conditions as is or they will travel up to pole 311-30 and travel within the row down to the pole. Either way, they don't expect a lot of disturbance from driving over the grass and anything that would be disturbed that they would smooth and stabilize and mulch so that it re-vegetated. Yeah. So these are the very last poles on that line that are just gonna be replacement. So like for like replacement. So they're gonna take one out and put one right back in. Each one is four square feet of disturbed area in the end, but because it's a replacement and they're filling in the old hole, they're adding any additional disturbance to it. And then these pole, this where I'm standing there, the white marker is where that new pole is going to be located off of Meadow Street. And all of this is just within the field area. So it is not anticipated that any of the trees that are bordered the Mill River there will need to come down. And we're about 50 to 75 feet away from the riverbank at that point. It's very thick in there. It's really good pollinator habitat. Oh, it's beautiful to get down that river. Oh, I know guys that bait fish down there. I walk in there sometimes. It's cool. It's hard to get into though. Yeah. Letcher, can I ask a quick question? Is it possible to go back to the first page of the plan? I just had a question for Virginia. What I was curious about was coming off of Meadow Street I'm having a little trouble seeing the property line between RISE, that's the RISE marijuana establishment. And so yeah, I'm just curious. Yeah. The property, so is that line underground at that point? Yes, this section that is between 80 slash 20 dash one. There is a section that's already underground there but there is also overhead. So there's both along this entire section. Okay. But like three, I just wanna, I guess I'm trying to get a sense because the land that RISE is on obviously is private but the property line actually that is town of Amherst conservation land beyond like 311 slash 32 right in there. Right. Yeah, all of that. Everything to the east is all conservation land. So I'm just curious are any of the poles or any of the underground under conservation land or is it all in the private land? So Erin and I talked about this earlier because I've consulted with Eversource on this. Based on the Amherst GIS mapping, it appears that one pole is in the corner of the conservation land and the rest of everything else is still located on the RISE side or the agricultural parcel side. However, Eversource is legal and their seated information for right away shows all of their poles being not on conservation area. So they have ordered a survey to be done to make sure that nothing that the new pole that's going in isn't actually on conservation area. And maybe there's just a discrepancy between the Amherst GIS and the Eversource GIS. So they are looking at that and figuring that part of it out. So just make sure that because it was brought up that that looks like it's on conservation area. And then the seated information from the town site that you can look up doesn't include anything about electrical being in the conservation area. So they're working through those but they're having an official survey done to make sure. Okay, no, that's great. And Erin and I didn't have a chance to discuss that before this evening. But yeah, that would be my only concern we bought that land I'm gonna say 10 years ago. And I just wanna make sure, yeah, I didn't remember in that acquisition that there was any deeded right of way or easement over the family name was Schwoz. And it's about seven, eight acres there along the Mill River. And so yeah, I would just, you know, the town GIS has a degree of error, you know, it could be anywhere from five to, you know, in some places it could be 15 to 25 feet. So I just wanna make sure and I'm really glad you set a survey. I would just wanna make sure that Erin and or I review that survey and any deed information before any polls are put in. Cause I think it would be a big, we could not allow a poll to be put in on conservation land unless there was an existing easement. Right. I understand that. And I think that's why they've ordered to have a survey done for it. Right. And when we were out there, Erin could see that where the new poll is going is directly in line with all the existing polls. Now, whether those existing polls were allowed on conservation land before it was deeded over to the town or not, not entirely, sure. But I think the survey is a great thing and a great idea. And you know, we would really require that I think to make sure we don't make an error in 2022. And it would also show whether the existing polls, which go out to the North on APR land are truly on the APR farmland, the preserve farmland or conservation land. And I have a feeling they are all on the APR, but it'd be great to confirm that. So. I think it's a GIS error going out there and looking at it, you can see that the boundary of the right of way is like grown up. And it looks like that just follows the natural property bound, but we'll definitely confirm that. It's like a very direct cut in the vegetation between, you know, the forest and riverfront area and then whatever is being managed as, if it's being managed as anything by rise, but like just the area that, again, it looks like good pollinator habitat, whether they're doing that on purpose or not. But yeah. And we have honestly had a couple of misunderstandings there with the farmers who have farmed that about where is the property line? So I think a survey is an excellent idea. And again, we just want to make sure we all don't make a mistake like putting a telephone pole on conservation land, which we can't do without, unless ever source has an easement that allows them to do that, that is not something that we would do. Okay. Yeah, great. So Aaron and or I can review that survey when it comes in and any deed references, that'd be great. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Should we go to public comment first and then we'll hear from the commissioners. We'll just do that next. Anybody in the public have a question or concern about the, our jurisdiction with this project? If you do raise your hand and we'll get you on here. I would say no. Anybody on any members have any concerns, questions regarding this project? That we can issue the positive determination but whether or not the poll actually happens as contingent upon the survey results is that the process? It seems like the location of the poll would depend on the survey results. Like if it's shown inaccurately on the plan then it might be adjusted to be in a different location that's slightly off of the, does that seem reasonable, Virginia? Like if for example, your survey comes back that you're like one foot on conservation land you might just shift it over a foot or something. I would have to check just because the other two polls that are right there they have a minimum distance for safety that they have to be apart from each other and that might be the minimum and that's why it's spaced the way it is. Usually they're pretty good about being able to negotiate and navigate issues like that but I don't want to positively say yes or no on that. So that survey we're talking about would be surveying both the rise property and the conservation area? I think it would just be the property line fletcher they're not gonna survey, we just need to know where that line is to separate the rise property from the conservation land. So only the section where rise and the conservation land touch I'm saying so it'll only be like whatever 500 or 1,000 foot section. Yeah, it's not very far. So we're not saying like trying to get a survey all the way up out of this one. Yeah, but again, I don't know, I would look to Aaron to kind of help us through the navigate the next steps in this but yeah, I just want to reiterate we can't allow ever source to put a telephone poll on conservation land. So there has to be another solution that gets that poll on to, if it is found by survey to be on conservation land just move it five feet or whatever number of feet on to the rise property. And the other thing the survey will say and I'm a little surprised on this deed reference too is I presume there's an easement over the rise property that is so many feet wide that the telephone poll or underground cables must be in. So that's what the survey will tell us. Right, exactly. It should tell exactly where the ever source easement is on it and it should all be on the rise property but we haven't seen it so. Yeah, okay. So are we then I guess a lot commissioners if you have any other thoughts on this or so we come? Yeah, go ahead, Andre. Yeah, that this is within the within the area of jurisdiction is that correct? I mean, it's pretty it's right close next to the river there. Just curious about the impact of vehicles or equipment needed to drill that for that poll and install the new poll. So there should be minimal impact. Like I mentioned, they're gonna use ground conditions and it's not a very soft soil there. So they're either going to get permission from the rise property to drive over the lawn area that's there or if they have to, they would come in from that top poll that they're replacing and stay within the easement and drive down to that area. Any disturbed vegetation would be stabilized and then either and reseeded so that it vegetates back and the actual impact for the poll itself would only, they would auger in a six foot hole, take the spoils out and then drop in the poll and then use those same spoils to fill it back in. So the total impact is about four square feet for the poll which in the case of riverfront area is pretty minimal, the de minimis I think is the term. Other commissioners, so I guess my question then is, if we do, I'm sorry, I'm reading your conditions here, Aaron. So are we, will we'll be comfortable enough to issue this permit with this type of condition? Obviously, you know, because things could change if the survey does say something else. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty certain that it's a simple GIS error that's showing that. It's likely, I mean, the poll is proposed right in between two other polls. So it doesn't make sense that there would be polls on conservation land. It's got to be just running right along the edge of the conservation land. And it's just an error with the, you know, some of the polygon has a little error in it. Don't they all? There is the possibility that it could be an error with the survey and there was either, I mean, it was an acquired conservation easement from, or lands from a private property owner. So errors can happen. I just don't wanna assume that it's gonna be fine, I guess. So like just as long as we can issue this and it'll, you know, there's some solution if it's found that the poll is actually on the conservation land. Well, the poll that the poll is being proposed and what we're saying in the condition is that the poll is going on the ever source right of way and we're gonna determine that by survey. So there's no polls going on conservation land. We're just gonna get confirmation by survey that the poll must go in the ever source right of way because that's the only place they can legally put it. So as long as we confirm and ensure that the poll is going in the right of way, I think we'll be in good shape because there is no right of way that goes over the conservation area. Right, if the survey showed something else for some reason then I think that's a whole other can of worms because there's like eight polls out there right now. So there's something like that, but maybe not that many, but yeah. Okay. I think we seem if we can get a motion for somebody without the, we'll just kind of get this project on. I move we issue a positive determination under wetlands bylaw checking box three and a negative determination under wetlands protection act checking box two given the conditions one that ever source will share survey results of poll location to ensure the poll is on the ever source right away and two disturbance will be seated and stabilized upon completion. Second. Michelle, the second. Thanks everyone. Voice vote, Larry. Aye. Michelle. Aye. And Andre. Aye. And aye for me. Sounds good. Thanks Virginia. You'll be in contact with Aaron about those survey results and- Absolutely. Kletcher could I ask one quick question about Virginia before she runs and that is you mentioned, you mentioned the need for, you know, upgrading the polls, et cetera. There was a proposal by one of the farmers out there for a small solar installation. Is that, are you aware? Is that moving forward or is there still interest in that? I would have to look into it. I don't recall off of the top of my head if that is part of this reason. I know that there's four or five large projects and two of them include marijuana cultivation facilities that are going in that are going to really increase the load, like they're gonna need the load for it and without it, without these upgrades they're not gonna be able to put them on the network, on the grid. So I feel like I saw a solar installation project on that list, but I can't recall off the top of my head whether it's this one or a different one. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you, Virginia. Thank you so much, guys. Have a good night. I too. Gotta boost those loads and everybody needs a new phone. New phone. Air conditioning. Air exactly. That's right, exactly. Cool the world. That's right. One gas pipeline at a time. Anyway, we are gonna move on to another request for determination. So I'm gonna go ahead and read away here. So this meeting is being held and required by the provisions of Chapter 131, Section 40, the general laws of the Commonwealth and act relative to the protection of wetlands as most recently amended in Article 3.31. Wetlands protection are the town of Amherst general bylaws. So we have request determination. GZA is on behalf of Dana Carnegie and Steven Tauten. Am I butchering that name? Looks like Andrea is here. Yes, hi, I'm Adrienne Dunk from GZA. I'm here on behalf of the homeowners. I'm at 15 Atwater Circle. So this is an existing single family home. Atwater Circle is south of Pomerai Lane, near Route 116. And so what they are proposing is they will be removing an existing deck and building a garage, expanding their driveway and putting in a newly configured deck to connect their house and their existing pool. The work is located in the outer riverfront area and it will not exceed 10% total riverfront area development on their property. So that's the project, it's pretty limited. A portion of the work is outside of jurisdiction but most of it is within the riverfront area. Okay, thank you. Oh, God, you have something else for me. Oh, no, I was just saying Erin and I had a site visit on Tuesday. So I don't know if she can share those photos. You'll see the complete work area is with an existing lawn. Excellent. Yes, so here's the plan with the riverfront area marked. And I'll pull up the photos so you guys can see. Why did they do this to me? Why? No, that stinks. But just download it, just download it. No, it's not that simple, unfortunately. It doesn't just download and open. It's like you gotta go to a different location to find it. Bear with me just one second. I'm gonna see if I can open it from another location. There we go. This is standing out in the woods, looking out toward the riverfront area. There's a little brush pile there. This is looking out towards the river. So you can't even, from the tree line, you can't even see the river. It's pretty deep inside the tree line. This is the lawn. See how humid it is? My camera was completely fogged. I had to keep cleaning it because it was totally covered in condensation, the lens and the, yeah, it was really bad. You can just see how humid it was. And so from what I understand, the driveway would come in between the, sort of where those Adirondack chairs are located. And then the stakes. So, and the deck is going between the existing pool and the house. And then the stakes show the extent of the garage area in the lawn. And I also ran some calcs myself on the plan set. And I'll share those, but no surprise to what Adrian said. The lot is approximately one acre. The riverfront area approximately 32,670 square feet. The total alteration proposed between the garage and the driveway is approximately 1970 square feet. The deck is considered a minor activity. So that wasn't included, but the total percentage of alteration on the lot, or in the riverfront area on the lot is 6%. So it's under the 10% or 5,000 square foot area allowance for the parcel. So it doesn't exceed any regulatory threshold in terms of it being allowed. And it's also, as Adrian noted, it's on the outer extent of the 200 foot riverfront area. I think this one barely made it. And it was a surprise to the homeowners because it was literally like 178 feet from the river. And that triggered them to have to file a permit, which they've been very cooperative in doing and trying to get this approved before the work moves forward. So. Well, we appreciate them coming forward with us. Yeah. All right, thanks, Aaron. I'm just gonna open up to see if anybody in the public is interested in commenting or questioning about this project. So if anybody in the public is interested, raise your hand and we will put you on the pedestal. Salud, Aaron. Okay, no one from the public. And any commissioners? Did you guys see me sneezing or was it? I said salude, yeah, I was like, yeah. I tried to mute myself so you couldn't see. No, you did, you did, but we're all watching. So. Any questions from the commissioners about this project? I do have a question on those stakes. So it's probably obvious it's just the stakes that you showed for the garage, everything to the other side of it with that wood line is where the river is on the other side of that wood line, I assume. Yes, so the river is in the wood line. Yeah, okay. I was just confirming that lawn distance. Yeah, it's a pretty significant. So their property line follows the boundary of the lawn. And when you stand at the boundary of the lawn, looking into the woods, you can't even see the river from the edge of the woods. It's pretty far back. I want to say it's probably like a hundred feet in to that tree line. Cool. It's interesting you called the river, I would call it the stream anyway. It's almost in my back here. Well, it's on a USGS topographic map. So we have. I know, I'm very familiar with the area. What's next? You guys gonna pull out stream stats? All right. Yeah. Oh boy, here it goes. Andrea. All right. So if there's no other concerns or questions, we'll get a motion that's drafted here and keep it going. I move we issue a positive determination under the wet laws bylaw checking box three and a negative determination under wet lungs protection act checking box two with conditions for one installation of erosion controls as shown in the plans and to erosion control inspection prior to start of work and three erosion control inspection upon completion and final stabilization. Second. Excellent. Voice vote, Larry. Aye. Andre. Aye. Michelle. Aye. And aye for Fletcher. And all right. I think that's pretty straightforward. I think where we all and as said in the conditions, we are interested in seeing the erosion drills put in place before start construction. That's a big one for us. But I'm sure that's not a problem. Yeah. Excellent. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Folks, we're gonna move right along here. So the New England Central Railroad Request determination has been continued to September 14th, 735. That's correct, Erin. Yep. Excellent. And then Canton Ave has also been, oh, we have to make a motion though. I'm sorry, we have to make a motion to continue. Can we get a motion to continue with the New England Central Railroad? I moved to continue public hearing to September 14th, 2022 at 735 p.m. Second. Thank you. Voice vote, Larry. Aye. Michelle. Aye. Andre. Aye. And aye for Fletcher. Thank you. And the notice of intent for Canton Ave on lot two will also be continued. And so we're gonna need a motion for that for the 14th. I moved to continue the public hearing for Canton Ave lot two to September 14th, 2022 at 745 p.m. Second. Thank you. Voice vote, Michelle. Aye. Andre. Aye. Larry. Aye. And aye for Fletcher. Excellent. Thank you, everyone. All right. Moving on to the notice of intent for West Street. So we're gonna open this one up. I've got another thing here. Oh, we've already opened this one. We've already opened it. There's a continuation. Yep. Look at it. And I was getting all prepared for this and notes. Got my notes. Excellent. I'm assuming it's just for, Mickey Marcus is going to be here with us today. Yes. There we go. Okay. Hi, everybody. Here we are. I can cheer out in the ocean there. Well, I'm supposed to be on vacation on Cape Cod this week, but instead I'd much rather be with all of you. We know that. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, so we continued the hearing. Commission asked for a little additional information, but with your permission, can I share a screen? Sure. Okay. So commission asked for a couple of additional items. A snow storage area. And I don't know if you can see my cursor, but we've indicated that on the plan here. It's an area that currently it has a, it's pavement. It has a dumpster. It's going to be regressed and seated as an open space lawn. That's our proposed snow storage area. The commission asked for additional information on the proposed boardwalk that we're going to propose that little path connection here. And we do have a, let's see, I'm not sure if you can see this screen. Does that come up as a walk into it? So we added an additional sheet showing a very simple boardwalk walking path. It's a very small span, but it'll have helical piers going through an area that'll be restored well. And the commission, I'll stop the screen share. The heritage asked for a turtle protection plan before work could begin. And the initial drafts of that are calling for a silt fence rather than straw waddles. So we've changed the erosion control to silt fence around the whole property. It's a little over an acre of site work. Erin also asked for additional impact calculation. She's actually been asking for this for several weeks. And I think our CAD person finally got her what she was looking for, I hope a little bit like pulling Keith and I apologize, but I think we have all that information to Erin at this point. And then, okay, so that's the overview there, Mickey. It is, yeah. The commission just asked for some additional pieces of information that had been sent into the commission. So the plans just got updated to include the additional information that was requested. Okay, thanks. And we didn't, so we received that for Erin. Do you want to go over some of that before we get move on? We understand that the plans didn't come into this afternoon. The plans were sent on Monday. And then I think Erin had additional information for the calculations that came into the area. And a hard copy also got dropped off as well. Yeah, so the, so when the plans were sent, I was looking for the calculation to include so that we would be able to issue the permit because there's certain numbers as far as the restoration numbers within, they have to be broken out by inner riparian and outer riparian in the permit. And the plan set was like 22 gigabytes. So when I was trying to view it, it was just very unwieldy and it kept freezing. And I, switching pages, so I asked for a hard copy because it was difficult to read. And I was unable to confirm that the numbers were on there. And then so this was Monday when they were sent to me. And then later this week or Tuesday, whatever I was able to confirm the numbers weren't there. So they, today, finally I said, I really need these numbers because we can't issue the permit without them. And then I was able to get an answer with the numbers for the resource area restoration within a hundred feet and 200 feet. I was hoping to provide additional detail to the commission as far as the percentage of alterations in terms of the inner and outer riparian. But I can, what I can show you is, so this is, this was the information that had been requested. Oops, can you guys, you guys can't see my screen right now, can you? No. Okay, sorry. So based on the numbers that I was given today, so sorry, I just wanna highlight this so that you guys can see the actual regulation. So the issuing authority may allow alteration of up to 5,000 square feet or 10% of the riverfront area. And then the highlighted portion below proposed work, which does not meet the requirement may be allowed only if the applicant demonstrates by preponderance of the evidence from a competent source that the area of an undisturbed vegetation within the overall average width of the hundred feet will provide equivalent protection of the resource area or that the partial rebuttal of the presumption of significance is sufficient to justify the lesser area of undisturbed vegetation. So that's, that is the section that we basically be looking at here because 18% is the alteration. Now, I haven't been able to get numbers as far as the total riverfront area of inner and outer or the existing degraded area cause I was just trying to give you guys a comparison of what's existing and what's proposed. But so those numbers weren't provided but I was able to basically in order to just give you a general idea, 18% of alteration of the riverfront area on this lot is proposed with the 18,188 square feet that would be about 9% of the riverfront area that would be restored on the site. So if you take into consideration the overall proposed alteration and then the restoration area, it brings it down to like 9% alteration. So that was basically the alteration numbers in terms of compliance with the alteration under riverfront. But I haven't been able to look through all of the sheets in detail. They just got delivered to my desk this afternoon. So it's really at the commission's discretion or the applicant's discretion how you guys want to proceed in terms of tonight. If you want to continue to September 14th an issue with that meeting I could be prepared to have the order of conditions drafted with a full set of conditions at that point. I wouldn't really be prepared tonight to issue the full order of conditions just because I haven't had a chance to review the full set of plans. The other option would be to close the public hearing tonight. The only problem with that is that our second meeting in August was canceled for commissioner vacations. So that would require the applicant to provide us with an extension to the 21 day issuance requirement if the public hearing was closed this evening. So those are kind of the options before us tonight. Oh well, I should probably go to public comment then before we further deliberate here amongst those commissions. So let's do that first. So if it's anybody in the public interested that has a question or comment about this project within our jurisdiction, please raise your hand and you do state your name and where you live and you can ask away. Two minutes would be preferred. Okey-dokey, time has passed. So Erin, I just want to reiterate where we're at here. So we've finally got the, presumably got the numbers that we've asked for today. Obviously clearly haven't had a chance to review them. So you just laid out a couple of options there to, well, before we actually, I'm sorry, I'm gonna back up and see if there's anybody from commissioners, do you have any other concerns or questions what Erin has brought up or anything else with this project? I'll just make a comment that it doesn't seem like we have all the information that we would need to, or that I would want in order to make a decision just yet. I agree with Andre just because this is a exception contingent on mitigation context that I don't want more information to make, at least have a sound read upon order of conditions list. So just backing up Andre on that one. Okay, it looks like, I think Mickey looks, well, it looks like we're a few options if we just continue this. Erin, you said that you feel confident by September 14th that, so let's say hypothetically if we do decide to continue this, can we on the 14th issue this permit? And feel confident enough that we're gonna, obviously you're gonna review the documents again, but feel confident enough that we can, if we decide to continue to the 14th, that when this comes back up, that we can actually, we've deliberate what we wanted, rest of the commissioners, we've got everything, most of almost everything ready, that then by the 14th, maybe we could just make this a quick one. Yeah, let me make a comment. I won't be here for that. So do you have enough people that have got background on it? So Jen would have only missed one of the hearings. So she could do under the Mullen rule, she could review the proceeding and she could vote on the project. I believe Laura has also been here for this proceeding. So if Laura was in attendance at the next meeting, I believe she could also vote. If I could say so, I'll, that's acceptable. You're all saying there has been a lot of back and forth on numbers. Just, I'll just remind the commission and I'll pull out the old emails that I sent to the commission of the early part of the filing, but when the surveyors went out there, we had them survey the existing building, the existing sheds, the driveway. So there's part of the project that's developed Riverfront area. And so with the new project, we were under that 10% threshold. So the numbers are there and they're old emails and I just need to pull them together for Aaron. So they're all in one place. Oh, there was one other thing. And this is just, there's multiple ways we could handle it, but we had discussed a sequence of construction as far as the restoration plan and how it's kind of being folded into the overall development in terms of timeline. So, Mickey, if you wanted to, I don't know if that was included in the materials, the plan sets that you sent to us with revisions and or if you wanted to still send us something, we would just need to receive it prior to that meeting on the 14th. So like by the 9th of September, we'd need to receive that. And or if you don't provide it, I can just put in conditions to basically make sure that there's monitoring reports or like annual reporting during the course of the project that would basically report to the commission what had been done over the course of the calendar year as far as implementation of the mitigation plan. But again, I just wanna make sure that I'm giving you the option to give us that or have the monitoring reports during construction. Yeah, and I think that'd be fine. The existing driveway to the site's gonna be in effect decommissioned because it's gonna become rain gardens and mitigation area. So I'll probably access a site initially, but then it'll quickly be decommissioned. So the mitigation will follow the construction sequence. So I think having conditions with monitoring reports letting the commission know what's going on would be helpful. Okay, that's fine. We can just roll it right into the order. I would say that I'd also be interested in some detail about the mitigation schedule just so if there is a three year annual reporting that there are tangible benchmarks that we could be comparing the report to some objectives for year one, two, three. We have that kind of included how we usually sometimes boiler plate, like we have to have certain amount of life expectancy for the plantings. Is that answer that? So let me just suggest as far as the conditions were concerned, my conditions were going to be during the course of construction. So let's say we have a pre-construction meeting. Once those pre-construction meetings begin, I would put in the conditions that we get quarterly reports on the progress of the restoration report from the time of that pre-construction meeting until construction is completed. And then my other recommended condition to address that would be that following the completion of the construction of the restoration area and or the beginning of treatment for the invasives that there would be annual reports that would be required for three years following the construction. So there would be like year one, year two and then a final report on the restoration area because typically we would require 50% success over a three year period for a restoration to make sure plantings are successful and that sort of thing. So it just, those would be my conditions to sort of get at what Michelle's suggesting and that would give us an opportunity to review the progress. And if like at the end of the three years construction was wrapping up and things were being stabilized but the mitigation hadn't begun, it would kind of give us a heads up that, you know, and also it would be a condition of the certificate of compliance that we get those three monitoring the three annual reports and then the final report after completion of the mitigation. Just to say, Michelle, so there's no wetland alteration for this project. What we're doing is pulling up an existing driveway that crosses the wetland and just restoring the hydrology. So it's mitigation as part of an overall package but it's not mitigation for any wetland that's being filled just restoring previously altered wetlands and hydrology. Yeah, so I guess where I'm concerned is that we're issuing the permit on the basis of this mitigation happening. Otherwise we're exceeding the threshold for that 10%. Is it? So the mitigation offsets that total allowable percentage based on our regulation. So that's why I'm concerned that the mitigation happens as planned and stays on schedule. Okay, I think we're, so let's, commissioners, we're good. Any other concerns, questions? I say, well, let's make a motion to continue this to the 14th but with the idea that we're gonna, so if you got anything else you wanna say, say it right now. I'll put together a solid order of conditions after I review the plans to try to sort of cover all the bases and really make sure that where we have benchmarks built into the order of conditions as far as reporting is concerned so that we can make sure that they're happening, happening sort of in a synchronized manner with construction, hopefully the restoration is. And I would suggest a 750 time block on September 14th. Can we get a motion? I'll move to continue the hearing on 395 West Street to September 14th, 2022 at 750 PM. Second. Thanks, Larry. Voice vote, Andre. Aye. Larry. Aye. Michelle. Oh, one more time. Yeah, it doesn't say you're muted. Aye for Fletcher. All right. Thanks, Mickey. We're looking forward to seeing that driveway out of there and a little boardwalk put in. Thank you all. Appreciate your time tonight. See ya. Good night. Good luck with the cape. Okay. And we pretty much did all the other business. Are we doing a, are we doing the SORAB? I just want to make sure we have a time. Sorry. I just want to make sure we have an executive session scheduled for the September 14th meeting, just in case we need to have any discussion. Okay. We're going to get a motion for that folks. I am going to schedule an executive session pursuant to GLC 30A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation at 32 Bearing Street regarding recently issued to EP SORAB to be on the 9, 14, 22 agenda. Second. Voice vote, Michelle. Aye. Larry. Aye. Andre. Aye. Aye for Fletcher. I have to say I'm going to very much miss Larry's decisive motion making. Yes. That's something I've always appreciated. We can carry on the SO MOVE though. Yeah, right. Yes. You know, you guys weren't using SO MOVE until I got here. And the point I was arguing was, if it's all recorded, you've got a verbal transcript of what the motion is. So SO MOVED works. Really brilliant. It really does. Works well. And then of course, Aaron took it to another level and just wrote it out for us. So we still, now we have to read it, you know. Before it was like, well, you know, me. All their businesses, we're good on all their business. OK, great. Yeah, we're all set. And so I know Dave, you brought it up about a new appointment. So that's kind of in the motion. So we might be seeing somebody, a couple of folks in September, maybe. Yeah, I know it's in motion. I'll have to, I'll have to, that process is underway. I'll have to get an update from the town manager. I don't know, Aaron, do you have any interviews coming up yet? Have they been scheduled or not? No interviews, but I've been actively recruiting. Me too, man. People are like, no, no, my god. You all know anybody. Please encourage them. We need, we need residents to volunteer for committees across the board. It's a great way to get involved. And, you know, you all know, I mean, this is, you know, it's hard work. It's it's a lot of work, but it's also fun. You know, you're working on projects that are happening in town, protecting natural resources, talking about land use and trails and open space, et cetera, et cetera. So the coolest committee in town, come on. That's right. I just love the gossip. You bet. That's true. You know, I, what I said to myself when I, when I agreed to do this, or, you know, to be considered, was I've lived in this town for 50 years. I should give something back to the town. Right? Totally. That's a good argument to make to people. And what better gift to give than clean water, right? That's right. That's right. Yeah, Larry, we're going to miss you, man. Thanks. We are going to miss Larry. Larry, enjoy all those other pursuits with learning your journey. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'm serious when, when we get going on Hickory Ridge a little bit more, you know, we'll be knocking on your door. You know, I was thinking the other day that, that, that I've had in the last two or three years, I've had four issues of things, problems, properties right around me, you know, in terms of things that I was very surprised about, you know, that we're almost within trolling distance of a rock, including one tonight. Right. I mean, that one tonight we dealt with, I knew the original owners of that house. There's just so much going on, man. That's just, yeah, there's so much happening. And this would be good civically involved, you know. That's right. That's right. Volunteer level. It's important. I want to thank everybody for me tonight. I was pretty nervous tonight. But thanks for Aaron for dropping me. And I got a good crew. And it's really nice. The voice vote is only a couple of hours. That was easy. So, yeah. Yeah, so I appreciate it. Good luck, everybody. Thanks, Larry. Good luck, everybody. We've got to make a motion to adjourn. You've definitely given back. I move where you're at. I move where you're at. 8.50. And I thought we were going until 10 o'clock tonight. Nice. Yeah. Need a second. Yep. Like it. Nice. Voice vote, Larry. Last one. Hi. Sal. Hi. Andre. Hi. And I for Fletcher. All right, everybody.