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Conservation Commission

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be here. Would you survive the gardening? Yes. I did have covered. But it was so much
for the hotbed. Yeah. Yeah. What were you doing working on a trip?
Yeah. Yeah, well now it's not good. I don't know. I don't have it. I think so much and
I don't believe it's not. This is kind of like really not, not, not believe it's not
If you have it, you have it, you're better.
Well.
Is your brunt, is your garage or?
Yeah, I actually could put the raccoons in there, so.
What?
Are there a raccoon living in there?
A raccoon.
He comes out about, no, about 6.30.
I told you.
I have a tree.
I know, I think we're going to meet.
Is there a family?
I'll bring it back to tomorrow.
I don't think so.
It's just one young, young one.
So far.
Yeah.
He's like left the door open.
I'm done.
So, yeah.
You probably could get it anyway.
they didn't, you know, it's pretty well locked down now.
You got the doors in?
No, but the one door that's missing is, is,
everything else is locked down.
I think we're just waiting on, did you hear from the cable?
I think she said early on that she had to work tonight.
I think, yeah, I think she's got a commitment.
So we don't, we shouldn't wait, we should go ahead and get started.
Yes, although we're waiting.
Maybe.
I mean, I can.
We can reorder, we can reorder the agenda.
I don't know what you want to do.
Do you know what?
I think there's plenty of work with.
Okay.
We got started.
Yeah.
She should be unsurprised to say.
She's my boss.
She's usually late in time.
Ooh, now you got something.
You were early, so you were a new person.
More like a collaborator.
She gets it when I was that work.
All right.
Well, let's go ahead and open the meeting.
So Thursday, June, 11th.
June 11th, 2020, 6th, 2 p.m.
We'll start our conservation commission.
Oh, she's lit.
The boss is late.
Oh, good.
We'll start with the first thing on the agenda,
which is not the change makers.
We'll give you, we'll buy you guys a couple minutes.
We wanted to welcome one of our two new members.
So, Heidi, welcome to the group.
We appreciate you joining.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Do you, is there anything you want to share with us in terms of what you're hoping to accomplish or some of your experience or passion or anything towards conservation activities?
Or questions for us?
Yeah.
Maybe you start with it.
Um, no, I don't really have much.
I mean, as far as, um, you know, I'm just looking forward to working with all of you
and properties in town, um, I just, I've kind of have an environmental background.
environmental background also, so hopefully I can utilize that going forward to what we come up with here.
Yeah, that's great.
And I also have dock building experience and permitting experience.
Wow.
Oh, good.
Wow. That's fantastic.
I noticed that was on back in April.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think our agenda is, there's some, some pieces that are consistent, but some of
others that are kind of all in the place of kind of in front of us or what we're working on.
So I think your skill set will be great.
Okay.
Especially for me.
I don't have any formal training in.
Yeah, but you've done a great job.
Presenting.
I've done amazing.
You guys bring in an eye solution together.
Yeah.
And then Michaela Clanch, Clanchis.
Clanchist.
Is our other new member.
So hopefully we'll get to meet her on the Hapsalonier.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's been a while since she sent, I probably sent you all an email and I think she replied to me almost immediately saying she had a, she had a, I think she had a work shift tonight, I think.
But she said she was going forward, she was going to try to make sure that this night was clear, she was clear this night, so she could attend future meeting, so, yeah.
Okay, yeah, I was going to say, should we, we need to be a little bit more flexible for her work together?
Let's, let's give her one more month, and if that doesn't work, you know, I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, if she always work.
on Thursday night, that might be a problem.
Yeah.
If she just happens to work on the second Thursday of the month, maybe we could change it around.
But let's see, let's give her another chance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I would just, John will send us emails with the agenda,
and dates and times and all that ahead of time if we haven't.
Like today, we may determine our July meeting time ahead.
Okay.
It just kind of depends again what we get through, but John's our keeper of communication.
That's great.
And we don't meet, what do you think we meet, eight, nine times a year?
Yeah.
It depends.
Yeah.
I mean, we don't meet to meet, if we don't have anything going on,
then we won't get together.
But I would say, probably nine times a year.
Yeah.
I mean, it really depends what's happening.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then we do two, try to do two events,
the spring from the bay and fall for the day events.
And you'll be leading the fall for the bay.
We're looking for the day.
So we're looking for the day.
come up with an interesting topic because we're running out of the next.
We get everyone.
No pressure.
All right, excellent.
Well, with that, I think we can move on to the second one,
which is Grapey Change Maker program with New Hampshire Pushing King.
So, yeah.
Can I just have one second?
So I met with Jack O'Reilly,
came in, and we all, we got together,
and the reason that I invited
I can't marry names.
Lynn and Contrae.
Lynn and Cottry here tonight is that they want to
and they can explain the program.
But they have a program that I think takes
is it three different events in the fall
and they wanted to do one in Newington.
And if the Constitution Commission is supportive of it,
then they can use the auditorium with no fee.
If they don't, then they have to pay for it.
And I think it's a really cool program.
It might be a program that somebody you want to
participate in if you qualify.
So, is that fair?
Sure.
Okay.
We can have a little.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Next fall for our fall for the bag.
We could combine the two.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, excellent.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about your program?
Yeah.
If you want to sit there, it might be better.
Whatever we want to sit.
For the recording, is it better?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You look comfortable.
Sit right there.
I can only be to start with like just a quick introduction to the two of us,
and so just our organizations, just for the background, it's just always nice to take a minute
to connect with the different conservation commissions around Great Bay.
So I work for the Great Bay National Estuarian Research Reserve, which is within
an after fishing game.
We're headquartered at the Great Bay Discovery Center.
And I'm guessing that many of you are somewhat familiar with that group.
I think my boss, Corey Riley, recently attended at the Newington Library.
Yes.
Yeah, so all about the Glen Cove project.
Right, right.
You're next.
Yeah.
Which I'm excited to share just yesterday.
We had the ribbon cutting.
Oh.
It's a very long project to kind of redevelop this property.
It's a really beautiful spot.
Right on Great Bay, there's kind of a cart-top boat launch,
and now a new picnic pavilion there.
So check it out.
It's always fun to share that.
It's fun actually yesterday.
The woman from the Greenland Conservation Commission came to this first.
commission came to this ribbon cutting.
Together, we're going to try to do a little pollinator workshop there
under the pavilion.
So it's another space that's available if you want to collaborate
on some kind of an event like that.
And then just a tiny little bit of background.
My role at the reserve is called training and engagement,
and it's one of the kind of the standard positions
that all the reserves in our national network have.
So there's somebody in my role,
and it's all about connecting science to management,
staying in touch with the communities around Great Bay,
trying to connect with other people.
connect with other professionals that could help us better
steward Great Bay.
So a lot of workshops and collaborative projects,
supporting advisory groups for a research project,
for example, to make sure the research actually meets the need
that people have.
So I can use just a resource for you.
Like if there's things that Greenland's working on
that you think that we might be able to help with
or find some science to kind of be of support,
you know, that's the kind of thing I can do.
I'm working on a proposal right now with Durham,
which is fun, and doing that event with Greenland is also fun.
so fun. And because I have your ear, I wanted to just like do a couple
quick little promotions of things that are coming up that before I pass it to
Cochery, you'll talk about the change maker program. John, do you might we take like 15
minutes?
Yeah, go for it, yeah.
Okay. So one is just this this guide we recently launched called Caring for our Marshes.
I'll just share a couple of copies.
And it's really meant to like, for anybody who you know lives,
plays alongside our title marches to, you know,
kind of foster best practices.
It's the kind of thing that would be fun to just maybe even,
like, have available in here in town hall,
or you might even want to give to applicants
that are proposing work, you know, alongside our title honors.
There's a website, video, and postcard if you want to do a mail-in
to coastal landowners.
It's been a really fun project, but the Department of Environmental Services.
And then the other sort of related thing is that hopefully by next spring,
next spring we're in the midst of kind of developing a new workshop series
specifically for kind of municipal board members, conservation commissioners, planning boards,
all around Buffalo Protection.
So you'll see a little invitation to those workshops and that might be an interest.
Just recognizing that there's just always a lot to learn.
I actually serve on the Conservation Commission in Portsmouth,
so I'm like very, sort of aware of just like how many different things you're expected
to kind of be, you know, an expert on in these roles.
Yeah, so it's always fun to do
kind of connect with other commissioners.
And as part of that, the other, the last thing I'll say before I passed in the country,
the last little last program promotion,
I think a couple of you, maybe Jane and Cheryl are on our list for this group
that I helped facilitate called the Coastal Conservation Roundtable.
Yeah, and I always miss it.
Yeah!
Well, I'll just sort of mention that it's available, and if you have any interest in, you know,
receiving email invitations, we meet every other month, typically on Zoom,
and it's just for any conservation commissioner around the same.
goes to kind of just connect. Like the last one we did,
folks just did sort of a debrief on the recent town meetings,
and like what's sort of coming up in different communities through the boats
and their budgeting process.
And sometimes we do like a deeper dive into a topic
people want to learn about trails or basis of movies or that kind of thing.
If you wouldn't mind, I'm just going to just pass around this place
if you want to add your name and email.
And there's sort of updates about the roundtable, you can check off yes or no,
and then sort of updates more broadly about the work that Katri is going to propose
or explain to you in a minute is that second column
if you want to sort of get updates about the change maker program,
which is really the thing that's on the agenda,
so I should pass it to Katri.
But it's been super fun to get to work with Katri
on the program that she's going to explain.
Has anybody heard of the change maker program?
So I manage it.
This is my third cycle of managing it.
Basically the goal of the change maker program
is to grow a group of healthy water champions
and all the communities that drained a great project.
that drained to Great Bay, so it's like 48 towns.
And we're funded through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
through Great Bay 2030, which I mentioned
some of you are familiar with Great Bay 2030.
Are you?
I'm just curious.
No.
Do you want to take a moment to just explain?
Yeah, it's sort of a cool thing.
It's funded by New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
There's kind of one donor that's kind of behind it.
But it's really a whole initiative.
It's really a whole initiative, which has been super exciting.
There's a steering committee of six different organizations
that are kind of guiding the way the money gets funded,
and there's work groups coming up with specific projects.
But it's been a cool thing because, as you know,
money often kind of affects the types of work you can do.
And with the Chair of Foundation, it's very flexible.
We can propose things that we would normally kind of get to do
as part of our day job.
And so the change maker program is actually a great example of that.
That it's the kind of thing, partly because it's, you know,
really kind of integrating science and advocacy and community leadership.
it's been a unique thing that I think we can do because of the kind of the partnerships
that have formed through this funding source.
Yeah, so it's basically $12 million over five years.
And for all the folks kind of in the great big region to work together, not in their separate silos.
And so the change maker program is a part of that.
And we do a few different things each year.
Can you go back?
You said 48 pounds.
Where does it go where or where?
I mean, that's a big.
It must be all the, the rare.
Rivers.
The seven rivers.
Yeah.
So that's how we model, and I'll get to that in a minute.
But I work closely with Lynn, and then Melissa Pally, who's the Conservation Law Foundation
Waterkeeper.
I'm not sure if you heard her, but, and so the three of us are the project team.
And we do a few different things over the course of the year, but basically the heart of our program,
and that's why I'm here tonight, is to talk about, is to do this change maker boot camp.
And this year, because we're focusing our boot camp, which I'll detail in a sec, on the
the Salmon Falls and Pascauas.
It made sense to talk to Newington folks.
So basically what happens is people from anywhere in the Great Bay region apply to participate in this program.
I chat with them, we've never turned anybody away, and then they basically commit to learning
about water issues in the region and advocacy over a six-week period.
So we meet every other Thursday night from the most part starting September 10th.
And, you know, we have a very first of our first week period.
You know, we have a free dinner together.
It's usually like two.
We made at 5 o'clock and we end at 7.30.
And we rotate typically from town to town within the watershed where we are.
And we have panelists to learn about success stories in the region.
We have people talking about what specifically about water issues.
We hear from a panel of people serving like you folks in municipal capacities to hear what that's like.
And it's basically, this, I should back up and mention.
that this started because decision makers and communities were given science
recommending investments and improvements for water quality.
But they didn't believe that it was necessarily public support for these kinds of changes.
And so this program is to basically create capacity in communities
and kind of to show people who participate how they can speak up on behalf of healthy waters.
So we have this boot camp and it's every other week.
It's every other week, six weeks, and, well, it's really 12 weeks every other week.
We meet six times.
And we have an optional walk beforehand, often beforehand these sessions,
and we'll just like, we'll wastewater treatment plants.
Sometimes we'll go to a land conservation area to learn about
and conservation and water quality.
I'm trying to think of what I'm forgetting.
So this will be our fourth cycle, and we've focused on the Lamprey River.
Let me out here, the Exeter's Squam Scott, and before I was here.
And our group of participants has grown each year.
And so this past fall, for example, we had a couple high school students from Kingston high school.
We have people in our 20s, 30s, 40s, you know, the standard group of retired folks.
Some people who have never done any kind of advocacy work,
and then other people who have 10 years of experience or more.
So we really try to craft a program that benefits everybody.
And it's been really really fun.
fun. People have really stepped into some cool roles as a result. Not everybody has, but,
and so we're hoping to be in Newington for one of the sessions.
And yeah, what else could I share about it?
Yeah.
And the second page of that handout has kind of an outline of the six sessions
that you want to kind of make the overall flow of the topics and the places we are planning for this year.
Still kind of in draft format.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so how do you apply?
that you apply?
There is a link to apply online.
Okay.
And anybody can apply.
It's very easy.
It's very just like, we want to just hear what people are interested in more than anything.
And then I do have a phone conversation with every person afterwards to really hear specifically
what people want to learn about.
And yeah, we hope people will apply by mid-August, really, since we're starting to
since we're starting in September.
We go out in the gondolo for an outing,
although this past year I got rained out,
so we were in the sheep warehouse next door,
but it's still worked out well.
We have some good field trips beforehand.
The field trips at 4 o'clock are optional.
You know, a lot of people work, so now everybody can do it.
But for the most part, we have like two-thirds,
half the two-thirds of the people
participate in the optional walk beforehand.
So when we were in Newington, there would be a walk beforehand.
So promoting-wise, I mean people,
we welcome.
anybody, you know, folks like you,
obviously you're more experienced than some people
who haven't had any kind of advocacy experience.
But, yeah, it's a way to get involved,
meet more people, build some community.
Yeah.
How do you spread the word other than through conservation commissions?
Good question.
Well, through the town connections that we have,
through what's called seven rivers to the coast,
which is a little bit of a sister program
as part of Great Bay 2030, and it's a flat
that, you know, is basically a way to learn about all the water things going on in the
Grand Bay region, which if you guys don't know about, you should actually check out.
It's really cool.
And I have, so Seven Rivers to the Coast is on this side, and then the change maker program's on the other side.
So the Seven Rivers to the Coast advertises for us and a lot of Facebook pages.
Really, a lot of it's word of mouth and just kind of our networks that we've, you know, the three of us have grown over time.
over time.
Um, something we kind of, you know, really sell about supporting, you know,
folks who want to be champions for water, right?
And that includes, you know, a whole range of folks in all different roles,
including, I feel like, volunteer, you know, kind of municipal roles.
Um, so one of the reasons we're kind of going out and talking to different communities,
just to see where there's gaps and see where there's places, you know.
So the very first one, we did in the Cucco River,
there's this real need to kind of re-energize the local river advisory
committee for that river.
And so we, you know, kind of push hard on that and kind of couple people who at the end of the program
kind of wanted to step into those roles.
Oh, that's good.
So if there's anything like that, I don't know, in Newington that you'd like us to promote,
we could kind of reference that specifically, you know, especially when we're here,
or just throughout the program, gaps in your community, the recreation department,
or the recreation commission, or, you know, whatever those kind of volunteer rules might be.
Yeah, so maybe just like a few questions for you.
Would that we just sort of, just take a minute and you can either say them right, share your ideas
right now or follow up with us over email.
But one of the reasons we are doing meetings like this,
and meeting with conservation commissioners.
Good ideas, see if there's ideas for promoting it,
different pathways for that.
Like I said, kind of specific goals that might be connected
to Newington that we should emphasize, you know,
around encouraging people to join different committees or commissions
after the fact.
It's also been really fun because we rotate which watershed we focus on.
We can really vary the examples that we share, the types of
of issues that we focus on, the types of people we put on the panels.
There's actually three different kind of panels spread throughout the program.
So for our, like, you know, kind of issues that you're like,
this is the thing I wish more people were talking about.
Or this is an example of a kind of a success story that you think would make a fun thing
that people could learn from.
You know, we did a thing on, like, using, like, returnable takeout containers,
you know, reusable takeout containers, you know, a woman who kind of gotten that started
in, for some kind of a funful example we dug into last year.
The dam removal story of Durham is another one that we talk about.
Yeah, so there's anything like that that you want to just sort of throw it up?
You're like, hey, you're an issue, here's a person, here's a promotion idea, we're all yours.
Well, the first one I can think of as the erosion along the bay.
We've had now four property owners having to do various different techniques of hard-scaping,
softscaping. And we also at Fox Point have a real issue that it's definitely eroding away.
So that is probably...
That was the first thing I thought of.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're having new development along the shoreline that we had before.
We're coming right by the ridge there.
Yeah, it's very visible.
It's kind of what's going along with that.
And so.
docks, that kind of issue.
That's probably spending a lot of our time each meeting,
meeting with property owners and docks.
What do they need to that?
Walkways down to their docks.
Right.
So what are best practices for that?
Things that we can recommend?
That would be helpful to them?
You need to recommend or, you know,
one of the things that I feel like
One of the frustrations with one of our commissioners that didn't come back this year was that I think he felt like we were just, we didn't have a, we didn't have the regulatory strength that he, you know, we were basically, we're just sort of understanding everything in the state.
The state's rules and I think in some of our eyes are not stringent enough.
You know, if you look at the development and done it.
development and in Shafford, a lot of those lots were cleared heavily, but they all comply with the shoreline protection.
And so that's frustrating because, you know, what's happened in Newington and it's happened everywhere is that, you know, locks that set on the river for, you know, many, many years and have gone through all kinds of
development cycles. All of a sudden now they're worth a fortune.
And when people spend, you know, a million and a million and a half dollars from a lot on the river, they want to take advantage.
they want to take advantage of it.
And I think taking advantage of their lot isn't always, you know, consistent with what the town of the commission have his goals.
So is that fair?
Yeah, yeah.
Because, you know, and I don't, I don't, I don't, we don't, we don't, we don't have a ton of undeveloped land, so I don't know.
But I think we could do better, you know.
I was just thinking, um, my answer is, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
We have a house on Lake in Maine, and there's a program there that the Lake Association has launched called Lake Smart.
I don't know if you know about that, but it's, um, property owners can opt into it.
And a team will come to your property and walk through it with you and say, like, oh, you know, if you put blueberry bushes here, it would prevent erosion and, you know, things of that nature.
Um, and if the property owner complete some of the recommendations, they get like a little sign for their driveway that says they're late smart certified.
And so I, you know, I think there's, I, I like that because it's opt in by the rent, the owner.
It's no one forcing their hand, right, which never goes over well.
But I think there's, you know, a sense of sort of like pride and accountability, like, hey, I did this and I won this.
I won this, you know, got recognition for it.
So I just wonder if there's some opportunities to do that that would drive more attendance or participation for you guys, you know,
and sort of get the word out.
You know, if I drove by 10 dragways in Newington with a change maker sign on it, I might say, well, what is this?
You know, I should find out what it is because my neighbors are doing it.
Got to keep up with the Jones is, right?
Yeah.
So anyway, just maybe something.
to think about.
Yeah, I love that idea.
There's like a few different, like, variations of that locally, but not maybe as organized as it could be.
Yeah, we definitely do a whole session actually on kind of land use decisions and also just kind
of who would think local government makes these rules, how does that happen?
We do a little, kind of example, look at an example application and kind of talk through the challenges
and like the limited capacity that we have to kind of, you know,
mandate the changes people think.
We, you know, like, sort of the constraints, basically,
the regulatory landscape.
Yeah, it's a fine line for sure.
But I think, to your point, Jane, like erosion is definitely,
probably...
I'm also thinking of connectivity of, like,
the few streams that are in town, how they connect to the bay,
and just activities around you.
around the bay and how is it affecting the bay?
We sort of live in a vacuum here.
I mean, I don't know what the biggest challenges that the bay faces.
You know, we don't have any, there's no agriculture left.
Not really.
I mean, I guess there's some in Greenland, but it's not really on the bay,
but I think most of the agriculture is gone.
So I don't know what the impacts are, if it's from fertilizers that people are spreading,
or septic systems.
I don't, you know, I don't, you know, I guess, we don't really know.
And I guess I don't know if we, if we even know what we're contributing, you know,
let alone the other 47 towns.
Yeah.
But we did, Newington has had a, has been assisted,
the Conservation Commission has been assisted by Mark West for 20 years, Jane?
Oh, at least 20 years.
One of the things that we have that's pretty strong that a lot of communities don't have
is that any stream that lead that, that, that, uh,
discharge is directly into the bay.
We have larger, larger buffers requirements for those.
So we've done pretty, I think we've done a pretty good job of managing that as the land use aspect.
But again, I don't think we know what, we don't even know what we're doing wrong, I don't think.
Right.
Or what we could do better.
I think that's a good point, John, and I think the flip side is, like,
I'm sure there's towns upstream from us that are making impacts that,
we don't know about and maybe we owe them a thank you.
We don't even know it.
Or not a thank you.
Or not a thank you.
But we have all the industry too, so.
Yeah.
But that's more river.
But that still goes in and out into the bag.
Yeah, not so much though.
Yeah, there's title.
Very title.
Yeah.
And we saw the title thing where
probably anything moves.
But, yeah, so I think,
another concept other people have is that we have, you know, all this industry,
and we have a low tax rate, and we really don't.
And so I don't know how that flies into the bay.
I think, you know, I think that, I don't think that's,
I don't think that we can just dismiss that.
Jane is right, you know, we have the only deepwater port in New Hampshire right now
because Forestments is pretty much gone.
And, you know, the stuff coming in and out of the,
stuff coming in and out of that port is unbelievable and the stuff sitting on the shore.
Now, I don't know how far that water goes up into the bay.
I mean, I can't tell you.
But some of it may get up into the bay, you know?
It does, but I forget, not very much.
They didn't, they told us that the oyster.
It's actually pretty cool.
Yeah, I can't think it.
See where the stuff goes and it doesn't go for.
It is important to us.
It's not like we want to shut down apart, but it's a consideration.
What do we see within the boundaries of Newington?
How is that connected to the bay?
The other thing is, I mean, as you know, a lot of the room,
a lot of Newington, half the town is owned by the federal road.
So, peas.
Oh, peas, the wildlife rushes and, and,
fishing game runs, a small section.
So, yeah, over half the town is federally owned.
So it's, right.
We don't have, we have a lot of less to screw up in other towns, I guess.
It's all right.
People.
Isn't that?
I said it's been screwed up by us.
Well, right.
I mean, certainly, peas is, yeah, peas is a big one.
Yeah.
There's, I mean, most of the groundwater in new engine is all contaminated thanks to peas.
Yeah.
Which is another issue that we've had people ask about.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You're actually hosting an event next Tuesday's day, right?
On PFS.
On PFS in wastewater and wastewater and bioethwaters.
water and biosolids. So if you're interested, there's a, you could go to our page and
the events button, you could sign up for it.
We have about 50 people coming.
We had a pretty good panel of four folks.
It's actually the second, we had another one last year, a general one that was
well attended as well.
Are you sponsoring that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's an awesome panel too.
We'll follow up if I email with a couple of links.
by email with a couple links to all these things.
Yeah.
Skim it and click on what interest you.
I know we're taking your time.
We're getting our bar for you to talk about other stuff.
Thanks for letting us to pop in.
Yeah, you'll see it's just in terms of when we'll be in Newington
with the ChangeMaker program.
So, I mean, I guess to be, is this something you guys,
I just want to let Martha know that if you're going to support their effort,
then just waive the fees for the use of the auditorium.
used to the auditorium, but I think it's a good thing for the town.
I mean it's a thing for the region.
Yes, I agree.
Okay.
No, no, I don't think.
I mean, unless anybody's adamantly opposed, I'll let her know.
It sounds like you're all in favor, so.
Yeah.
Over 22.
Yeah.
What is it?
October 22.
Okay, I'll let it go.
And then just let, you know, as we, when we get closer,
if you have, I don't know how you deal with your food,
I don't know if you went in there,
but if Jack gave you a two.
but we have a kitchen, I don't know if it's just a catered event, but just let us know.
Okay.
And I want to add, I didn't mention this, that we do give a $200 stipend for people who
to participate in at least four of the six sessions to try to offset the cost of, you know,
gas or childcare or whatever.
It's not a lot, but it's something that people appreciate it.
So it's great.
You can share that if you talk to anybody about it.
So you, you have block ideas when you,
you contact this closer to the time of what you decided to do on the...
I know, we have like two there on the list.
We kind of haven't quite figured out.
Yeah, the Great Bay Marina and then Oyster Farm chat.
Yeah.
And then Barth Point.
I know, we kind of got to be one or the other.
Yeah.
Or, yeah.
It could be weather dependent.
It could be, yeah.
I mean, I don't know, if, if somebody wants to volunteer,
I mean, Jane may be the best person to contact, but you should,
we should have at least.
a couple of options and then an indoor option, you know.
And if you don't want to do it in the auditorium,
we could see if the library is available.
I don't know.
I don't know how big your group is.
I don't think you fit the library last time.
Last time, we were, this past fall, about 32 people.
But not all those people come to every session.
Okay.
Usually we're around 25, 30.
Yeah.
I don't know Fox Point is all that.
Exciting.
I thought the Wild Life Refuge Tour was great.
Yes.
I don't know if they'd be willing to do that.
that was pretty, where they, were they, where they,
I can't remember what they, what they,
what they were they,
remove the dam?
Yeah.
I don't know if you guys, have been there,
but it's pretty cool.
And I don't know what the woman's name was
that manages that place, but.
Oh, she's out of, um, down at,
um,
she knew very far.
Yeah, and she gave, yeah, it was a cool tour.
Yeah.
And it was, and we had people, you know,
that were 80, five years old,
you know, it was easy, very, very, very,
Right, right.
Yeah.
That'd be great place to do a
country also organizes
a series of watershed walks in the summer,
just sort of public events to just, you know.
Yeah.
Well, and we have a bunch of people from there
and never even by there.
Right.
It's kind of, it's pretty neat.
Yeah, I'll leave this with you to this.
These are our watershed walks.
Okay.
There are six.
The first one is next week,
but you can sign up or learn more by
the QR code there.
But the refugee is a great idea
for next year.
I've got to line off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good idea.
Thank you all.
I need.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you.
No, thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you for your time.
Something exciting.
Yes.
I like your shirt by the way as in.
Okay.
See care.
Laura, do you want to do
seven first?
Because Rick is, Rick,
unless you want to sit through everything.
Really?
Oh, come on.
We're fun.
Yeah, we can definitely do that.
It's air condition, right? That's not bad.
It's why it's not.
We need free drinks and dessert to serve people in.
So I think we're going to come back to talk about Night's Hill, but I think we're
for the rest of 2026, we need to focus our attention on some different projects.
projects.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, and Heidi, you might know this, but just to confirm,
we put up four signs last year.
Yeah.
For the Baird, Bear Adams, Fox Point, and Trace Coe
tend to note that those are conserved properties in town.
Just to kind of call some attention to them
so that the residents know what they're done.
what their dollars went towards.
Like, hey, your tax money paid from this property, right?
So we've been trying to work a little bit more on,
and we'll get to some of these other pieces with the map and all that after this,
but just try to educate people a little bit more
of what is within our town boundary that is kind of under our purview.
So, Turkey's Cove, I think, is tricky.
Tricky.
Tricky.
Tricky.
I'm going to say unique, but I like your word by all the way.
In the fact that there really is no access.
No place to park?
No place to park.
With that construction, I'm not about your way to park.
Yeah, because they pretty much have taken it.
It's also very small.
Yeah.
It's full of poison iv.
And also Japanese nut-made.
Yeah.
It's also full of brush.
Yeah.
When they cut it all out, they just left everything there.
Yeah, yeah.
It's all the basis species.
and it's just all out of level.
Yeah.
Good to know.
So the one thing is I don't know.
I know, Heidi, you were for DOT,
you probably have nothing to do with the bridge project,
but I don't, and maybe Rick, you know,
I don't know what they're going to do with that
driveway into the bridge when they're done.
Is that, I mean...
Is that part of Tricky coat?
No, no, no.
But it wouldn't be a bad spot to park two of three cars.
One of the problems with Tricky's code
is that, I think there,
is there vertical grid of curbing there?
Yeah, yeah.
So there's really no.
where to park.
Right.
But that wouldn't be a bad spot to park, but I don't know what they're going to do with that.
So that's something I can talk to the state about, because I do know the person that is in charge
of that project, and that's something maybe the town can work with the state on before at the
end of the project and see if it can get to parking.
I don't believe that piece of property goes all the way up.
No, it doesn't.
It doesn't.
But that state, you know, I mean, as the state would just leave.
I've watched them come down every year with a clipboard and look at the property.
It's a tiny piece of property.
Oh.
Oh, it's tiny.
Yeah, it's got a stream going through it.
Yeah.
It's got drainage going out.
Yeah, South East Land Trust does a review every year.
Yeah, they do.
So how...
The problem is, now they used to come up my driver, which I never owned it before.
I own it now.
Oh.
So there's no access to really access, they go through the bushes and back and around.
That's the only access.
So how did they, how did the brush get dumped in there?
Town did.
They cut a path behind all those Arbibides.
all those armabides.
But they left everything there.
They just cut everything down.
Oh, so they cut it and just let it.
And I said something at Jeremy, I said, that's a nice fire hazard.
Yeah.
They're all wound up pieces of brush.
Is there a way to take care of that?
If the town wants to remove it.
How would that be done?
Manual there.
They're dragging it out of there.
They had to drag it up by hand and put it in the truck and haul it off.
Yeah.
So we're back on the brush clearing.
Since.
the signage went up for the conservation sign went up.
Was that the impetus for clearing the pass or was that before that?
No, they did it after they cut two of the Arborides down and put the sign up.
Oh, that's what happened.
That's what happened.
That's what happened.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How steep is that?
How much land is there?
Right to the...
There's a clip there.
There's a clip there.
There's a cliff there.
You can't really get down on the wall.
Right.
You're sliding down in the wall.
If I remember correctly, I think it was a, was a DOT that...
DoT put all those trees in.
No, they switched properties.
They gave us that for something else.
Way back, back when they were starting the admission.
There used to be a bench there.
Well, that was, that was, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, somebody's personal bench.
Yes.
That was...
It's a nice place to say.
Right.
But it's not.
How did Chickies cold get...
How did that get acquired?
Because I don't know.
It happened in 2003.
And I don't know.
It happened in 2003.
And I don't know how it was.
That used to be...
So there used to be a road,
my driver used to go from
spalling traumatic all the way down through the woods.
And the people that owned that property,
somehow they gave that little teeny piece
to the town.
I don't know why.
Why?
What is the acreage?
No, I don't think it's acre.
No, it's not.
Maybe a third.
Yeah, it's right.
It's right.
It's, yeah, it's, yeah.
This is the team of the green dot.
Maybe a third, you know, it's small.
So if you can't even access the water, no fishing,
because it's very tight.
Well, you could, you could access it, but.
But it's really tidal, I think.
It's title. Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
But they do further down by the brayers estimate.
Yeah.
would go in down there.
My grandfather used to stop there on the bench and read his mail
before the other two bridges went in, obviously.
Yeah.
So what is, what are they, do we have any options to do anything with that,
that you can see, Rick?
No.
Yeah.
No.
Putting trails would be a waste of time because there's nowhere to go.
It was just an access to the bay.
Nothing.
You're obviously going to put trails in there.
No.
That wouldn't make any sense.
I just think if it's nice to just put a bench there and sit there, but there's no place to park to actually get there.
I know what they are our bodies.
Because it used to be open.
It used to be open.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They used to be almost like a parking lot.
Right where that road is now.
Yeah.
They used to open the bridge and fish.
So if we could park,
Heidi, right?
Yes.
Sorry.
That's okay.
If we could park there, we could park there.
We could park there.
could possibly clear it out to stick a bench there.
Well, that's all state property.
Yeah, yeah.
That's for sale.
No, no.
It's not for sale.
No.
So, oddly enough,
when the small and turnpike was built,
so there is, this is the spalling turnpike,
this is Shattuckway.
Yeah.
There is one parcel of land that goes like this.
Yeah.
Bloody Point is right here.
The piece that Rick is talking about is right there.
about is right there.
Yeah.
This is the inner loop down here.
Right here is a sliver of land along the, along Rocky and Hem Electric.
So this sliver, DOT has talked about selling to, it has to go to Northeast Electric.
Couldn't go to anybody else.
Bloody Point, they've been talking about selling that forever.
I don't know what that's going on with that.
This they've already sold to ProCon, and they do not want to sell this.
And they actually don't want to sell this.
This piece, Bloody Point, sort of going to go.
bloody point sort of goes over there and it gets really skinny in here.
They don't want to sell that because they want to keep along the bridge abutment.
So this piece here they don't want to sell and this piece they don't want to sell.
This they want to get rid of, this they want to get rid of this they want to get rid of that.
It is one lot.
Right.
But it was never subdivided, but somehow when they built Shattuck Way and the Swelling Turnpike,
they got cut in four pieces of...
Yeah.
And that was a parking lot.
It got offered to the town.
Really?
to maintain it.
They told us they don't want to sell this piece.
They don't want to sell this piece.
I think the only two they want to sell left as the piece next to Northeast and then Bloody Point.
And I don't think they should sell that piece.
No, they shouldn't sell that piece.
It is access to the river.
Yeah.
Is that really close to you, Rick, that one piece, the Coast piece?
Is it really, would it be?
It abuts my property.
It what?
It abuts my property.
Yeah, I know at a butt, but I mean, if we put, like, a bench there or something, would that be intrusive to you?
Oh, no.
No.
No.
Okay.
No, I thought it was nice to have a bench here.
What was that?
I thought it was nice to have a bench there.
Yeah, okay.
All right.
It's a nice place to sit.
Does anybody walk down there?
I see if you are running, but do any, does any, are they walk or something?
That's the gym.
Yeah.
That's part of their training.
I know that.
I know that.
Does anybody, I don't, I know people walk, you know, you know, I know people walk, you know,
like any industrial area, I doubt, but I don't think they go down that far, but do people walk by you or no?
You do?
Yeah.
You used to ride by the bridge.
Some people do walk there.
Okay.
There were a lot more when the bridge was still usable.
That was a good place to run.
Right.
Because it was an angle.
Yeah.
Like fish.
And where do I?
Okay.
So they do, they do.
They have to go around.
To go around.
To go around.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
That was fun.
Well, maybe what we should do is see if we can get southeast to go down there.
I don't know who they, I don't know who monitors that for them, but maybe we could get their land person to, you know, before a meeting.
I'll have to look that up.
What's that?
What's that?
Yeah.
They usually send me.
But, yeah, they'll send me reports, but maybe we could at least go down there and we'd at least put our eyes on and say,
yeah.
Because, Rick, right.
There is a lot of uncertainty as even what's there.
Right, right.
Is there?
Is there?
Yeah, all over the place.
Right in there?
Yeah.
I've got to get the dogs out of there.
I've been wanting to go in there, but.
It's poison out everywhere.
I just could park and then I thought about ticks and didn't have any tics.
We need to do it when it's two piece now.
Yeah.
Let me see if I can set up, you know, just a...
Okay, so I need to remember.
I might be able to pull out some of those reports, but I'm sure if I call that, they...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Would the state lease that to us for parking?
When all of a sudden...
Who the heck knows?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, they're parking in the sidewalk.
I mean, that's kind of annoying.
And they plow, I know in the wintertime, they plow right up past the footwalk too.
That's something you might mention the selectmen, because I know it was offered to them.
They didn't want to maintain it.
Yeah.
And it's really not much.
Maintenance was a dirt lot.
Right.
cover with invasive species. Now there's nothing left there. So if you did something,
whether you could plant something that wouldn't be invasive like what was there.
And I hear, where do we, where do we decide, where does sign walks out of shed?
I know what's he stuck?
My son walks underneath and goes over the bridge and goes over to the door.
No, no, no, no. If you wanted to, let's say we had a parking area there,
and Lou Anne wanted to park on there, because she walked to,
Chick-fil-A?
Are this sidewalks in the show?
No.
No, no, no.
Okay, so it's not a great walk.
No, you're on the road.
No, you're on the road.
It's before
you could love the stone face.
You can probably drive at that point.
And you can walk across the bridge to the
Hilton Park.
Yeah.
Okay, so you're going to, let me get a hold of the cell
and see if we can
I'll try finding.
Figure out what's the day.
before you go any further but maybe it's just a bench and not a walkway and maybe we could work with the state if I don't know if there's a demand for people to walk down the shore to fish but maybe the state would do something for it.
I bet they would.
Whether it's not Shurkey's coveland or the state land, I guess who could.
They were paths there that were worn paths going down to the river.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They also go behind that bloody point to the building over there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I know, but if they ever do end of sign.
do end up selling that. That's a big if, I guess.
Well, they want to give it to the town.
It doesn't know.
Well, the town doesn't want.
So, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen to it.
All right.
I will follow up on that and I'll let you know.
I know.
I know this is on your agenda, but you might be interested in it.
And you should know about it.
Did Jack Sanding about us?
U.B. Lights?
Did you mention that you?
Yes, he did.
He was very interesting.
So, I'm on sewer commissioner.
sewer commissioner. And I started reading about treating the
influence that we put out in the river with the UV light.
We need chemicals right now.
Yeah.
So the chemical room needs to be redone.
We got numbers a couple years ago.
One of them was to build a new building and put the
separate chemicals from the main building.
Well, that could be a million dollars to do that.
So.
So we use two chemicals.
One is to purify chlorine and the other one is to neutralize the chlorine.
Well, mixed together they're very dangerous.
That's why you've got to separate the tanks.
And the UVs don't use anything like that.
So we would eliminate...
Dover's been doing it since 91.
They have a giant bank.
2021?
No, 1991?
Two.
Thank you.
They've been doing it for, excuse me, yeah,
2019.
Yeah.
They're on their second new bank,
hasn't been in that long, it's a fairly new system.
It's all computerized.
It's pretty amazing to watch it.
The problem with putting chemicals in,
some of those chemicals go in the river.
Right.
And chlorine kills everything.
UV light does not.
Right.
Once it goes through, it's done.
It purifies water.
It's gone.
The guests from our engineers is close to Lingandalls to do that.
To me, I'd rather do that and change chemical worms and keep buying chemicals.
So that would be coming down the road.
What's the lifespan of the system?
Well, they just replaced theirs after 19 years.
The new one's been in there, maybe two years.
Okay.
They keep improving the systems.
But the only operating costs of electricity, right?
Right.
Oh, it's the more operating cost.
They're UV light bulbs.
Oh.
They last about two years.
Yeah.
But still, I would think still cheaper than can't buy chlorine and neutral either.
Yeah, those things go up all the time.
Chemicals, they're very price-wise.
Where are these UV light bulbs?
Were they made?
I think they're made here.
That's in the U.S.
We were asking them about aftermarket ones and everything.
He says, they haven't really tried using aftermarket
because they're still into warranty.
warranty.
No.
So we wouldn't have to worry about China or you guys?
No.
No.
No.
No.
Their system is a lot more involved than ours would be.
It's probably the size of this room with four banks.
So they can switch it out different banks.
How many gallons a day do they do?
I don't know.
Their flow is huge compared to ours.
We do like 12,000 gallons, I think.
I didn't even ask them.
It's continually.
going and it's sound like a waterfall.
Well, it's got to be enormous.
I mean, they were the first ones in this area to do that.
And is it as effective as chlorine or more?
It's much more effective.
Yeah.
And you're not putting that chlorine in the river.
And you're not running the risk of explosions or chemical reactions.
Yeah.
That's great.
The fine thing is if you ever came down to our plant, it smells is a smell.
It's a smell.
Because of that.
There was no smell later.
Really?
Yeah.
We're standing in the formal as lights and all the influence flowing underneath us.
No smell.
Oh, do I know how bad your plant smells?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was actually pleasant.
It looked like a swimming pool.
It looked like a swimming pool.
It looked like a blue swimming pool.
You know, to spend money to just use the chemicals.
It's ridiculous.
Oh, that is interesting.
But we want to start, we want to visit some plants in New Hampshire.
that they're using it.
Small plants.
Because we want to see what they're, how they look, the small plants.
But it's all, you go into the main room and they've got, this is away from the lights and everything.
There's a computer that reads everything.
It has all the lights, little green dots.
If something's wrong, they know they have to fix it.
They have to lift, they're very heavy.
They have to lift them up with like little crane.
They can roll this.
Derek out and it lifts them up.
And he says,
once is if you guys got one, they're probably going to flip up,
hydraulically flip up.
And you can just slide the new bolts.
It's like a big, long tube with a light in it.
These things.
I think of an instrument that actually does that.
It takes special training to control this plant.
Is our operator capable of that?
No idea.
Oh.
I believe my operator account, but I don't know if the people
we might be more help.
Because it's not, it's a continuous,
well, it's no worse than making sure that chemicals are flowing properly.
Right, right.
You know, some of them freeze at different temperatures,
and it's much easier to do the lights and it is chemicals.
It seems to me anyway.
What do they do if they lose the power?
You've got a generator.
They have a generator.
Backup generator.
I guess the state one was worried about,
does it two second lap,
if you lose electricity.
they were going to make a rule they had it in some way to put chemicals in quickly if they did that.
But they decided not to do that.
The power plant by behind you see.
Yeah, they still keep one chemical error just in case they need to.
And the whole time they had this system, and they've never done it.
They've never used it.
That's interesting.
What's smaller, do you know, do any of the smaller plants in New Hampshire that are doing it?
I just talked to them.
I just talked to them.
to what Wright Pierce today and Jeff Mercy is a guy that's that works for us.
I'm just curious.
And he mentioned a couple, but they're not real close here.
Not close to us.
But he's going to find some more that we can go see.
Well, Connolly jumps into the soccer.
I don't know if they have.
It was also thinking around Linda Pasaki.
There might be some of the tent.
These were in western part of the state.
Oh, western part.
They were.
How far can you travel in New Hampshire?
You know, to look at that.
Actually, certainly back in the 70s had one of the most advanced systems.
It probably wasn't UV license.
No, no, no, but I mean for a small town they had, we went and visited back in the class.
Yeah, I was trying to...
Interesting.
Anyway, I just thought I mentioned it.
Thank you.
Do you need us to support with water?
Do you need us to support it in some way?
Pardon me?
I guess the support it in some way?
Wait until we actually decided to do it.
Okay.
We put in for a grant to do the chemical tanks.
We just change that grant to add UV lights to look into that.
I think that's the way to go.
If it's not, we didn't think it was that, it's not really inexpensive,
but in the scheme of things, it's inexpensive.
Yeah.
And what did the chemicals went?
How often do you have to replace that?
The chemicals?
Well, you say it's what, 19 years the UV light lasts?
No, no. Dover has had theirs for 19 years.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
They replaced...
12,000 hours.
That's how long they leave the lights in.
And they switch, they don't switch them all at the same time.
He says, we usually run them to like 50,000.
usually run them to like 15,000. But there's, they have, it's like redundant. They
have more lights here they really need. So it's, if they, a couple go out, it's not going to, it's
not horrible.
I know where I saw it. It was down in Boston, the treatment plant that's out on that island
by the airport. They had a system with the UV.
We spent $9 million for nitrates.
Yeah.
Just to get better.
get better numbers.
And I don't know if you know this, but the EPA was down on all the plants around here.
Right.
I knew you know that.
Tom Morgan was here at the time planner.
We talked a lot about that and he just said, why don't we just spend money?
Why fight the EPA?
Because you're never going to win.
It's just going to postpone what you have to do.
And every year, stuff like that goes up in price.
So we just did it.
We were the first ones that just said, we're not going to give you, we're not going to give the co-op money to
fight the EPA. It doesn't make any sense to do that.
So, but that was $9 million.
This is relatively inexpensive.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, well, that's all I needed to do today.
If you're going to get down a visit, I'll let me know.
Yeah, that would be a good.
Okay.
Thank you very much for it.
That way you're not talking around the road.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Have good night.
Good night.
Well, that was very interesting.
All right.
Okay, we've done item number one.
one item number seven
Two, one, two, seven.
Let's go back to three.
Okay.
So I want to give you all an update on item number three,
which is the Nights Hill Parking and Trail project.
On Monday, two Mondays ago, we received a, you know what you call it,
a lawsuit from the abutter.
It's about this thick.
And there's, I want to say, about 50 allegations raised in the lawsuit.
It's not an appeal because no decision was made.
This is a municipal project.
So, but what I wanted to tell you is that I met with originally,
our original lawyer, the town's attorney, Eric Mayer,
was conflicted out of this.
And so the selectmen have hired Laura Spectre
Morgan from the Mitchell law firm in Leconia to represent the town of this matter.
And I met with her today and the only update I have for you is that we can put this
project in hold for this year, probably.
You know, they have, I think, a scheduling conference with the Superior Court, what
is the 25th?
25th of June, which says, again, needs...
and then our attorney.
It's a web.
It's a web thing.
You can, I, if anybody's interested, you can,
I don't think you can talk.
You can't talk.
You can probably listen to it, I said,
Web something, I don't know,
WebX, you think, I guess, yeah.
So you can certainly listen.
But it's, according to Laura,
it's not going to be a medful.
And then, I'm assuming the judge will say,
we're going to have a trial on X date
and she probably, I don't know, hopefully soon, but...
Which is unfortunate because I had put together an RFP to send out
for the trail work and the parking lot construction
and it's sitting on my desk and I don't think we should do anything with it until...
Right.
You know, we find out what's going on with us.
So I guess that's all I have for you.
It's disappointing because I think it was a project that a lot of people were looking forward to.
Um...
Um...
Um...
But...
Let's see where this goes.
So, if we can't do any improvements,
or...
Does that mean the town sells it for development?
I'm not a lawyer.
Um, I don't know, Jane.
Um...
If we can't use it.
I don't know.
It's a very good question.
Okay, keep that in mind.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
It's a very good question and I don't have an answer.
Um.
And the sad thing is, um, do I want to jump to, uh, item number four is, I mean, the sad thing is that if you look at the town conservation, and I know it's the tough attributes is so small.
It's a, it's a nice, I mean, between the two Histlet parcels and the Knights Hill, that's a pretty big block of conservation.
Yeah.
You know, and, uh, I know that we never taught, we, you know, we, we, we, the trails weren't going to leave the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
property. But nevertheless, that's a pretty important block. And I, I mean, I, I, I believe that the town's
understanding when they purchased it was for conservation uses. But, again, that'll be
that'll be sorted out by the, by the court. And, but, uh, and it was funny, I had, uh,
I had an inquiry about when are we putting a sign up in. I'm like, well, I don't think we want to put
put a sign up, because I think the signs should be adjacent to the parking lot.
Right. You know, right. We don't know what that's got to hold up on that.
So we've got to hold up on the whole thing. So that's the only update I can give you, and
maybe we'll know more after the 25th when they schedule the trial. I'm assuming it'll be a quick trial,
but you never know it. But sometimes, it may be a half-day trial, but it might be, you know, six months before they make a decision.
Yeah. Yeah. In the meantime, in terms of communication and things. Oh, and by the way, the, the, you had nothing to do with it.
The Plenty Board was the name of them.
the lawsuit. Oh. Oh. So you guys were scot-free. How did we skip out on that one?
That's that's tozy attorney. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. It was the plaintiff. I, but in terms of communication,
if someone approaches us to speak one-on-one about it, we should not engage. No, I mean, the, the, the documents,
public record, it's sitting on Martha's desk. I didn't, it's that thick. I didn't bring it. I didn't, I didn't, I don't have a copy.
If anybody wants a copy, I think, does it? I see what you're asking. I have the electronic copy.
Yeah, I can send you the, like, if anybody wants it, I can have you that forward to you. It's, it's kind of.
I think I'd rather not know because we do interact with the people.
Then don't, yeah, then stay out of. Yeah, but that's that. But that's that. So, yeah. Maybe we'll know more after 25th.
Yep. Um, which is back to seven was in five and four. And four. And I don't know which I'm.
ones but sort of why we need to find some new things to work on you know jumping to
eight um did we have any review on the proxy map yeah let's talk about the peppery map
because this is a long time coming and I know I will definitely follow on the sword because
it appears that Eric sent it to John and I at least in February and it was I was just
off the grid dealing with family stuff. So I know I missed it, but we've reserved, we found it,
we dusted it off. Good. So I think, yeah, let's talk about it. So I think our original request
was so that we knew what was town on property, what is conservation property, where we have
kind of jurisdiction, I'll say, right, where we should be focused.
I guess number one, I don't, I don't know how to, I'm just taking it for granted that Eric
and Altus did this accurately. Yeah, the only, I have, I have, I have only one question on
this map and is something that I don't understand and somebody may understand it, but the
only piece that I don't agree with is where the, right across the street from Cherokee's Coe.
I don't think that's town land. It's not town land. It's all, yeah, it's not.
It used to be state and it got sold. Yep. So that's the only piece in that red block, that should be removed.
Okay, so that one's red block out of there. Yeah, red block is out of there. But other than that, I think that, I think the, I think the, oh, I don't know, Jane might know this one. I don't know that. Is Goat Island Town Lane? I saw that too. I don't, I don't, I don't know it was same. No, I thought that was privately owned.
So if you go on the key on the left, second to the last, it says go Island Island.
is the state of New Hampshire. Well, they haven't as town of town of conservation.
But there's two days. They changed, if that's correct. I think it is owned by the state.
Yeah, I think at one point it was privately owned and I, and, um, he was, he was a birder. He used to own Ness Lab down. Oh, really?
Down the band. And so he then gave it to the state. And Han Island is town of, right?
I never knew that.
Well, this is red.
Yes, it is red.
Does anybody, it is no?
It's not.
High-tide.
The turns lift.
Low-tide.
It's just one.
But high-tide it's just one. But high-tide, it might be.
The Swan Island is like that, too.
But Swan Island is like that, too.
But Swan Island is probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm going to question it, Baird.
That's not right.
That's not right.
Baird's over here by the pond.
Is it supposed to be pointing to?
See, this, it says Baird up here, pointing to this, pointing to this little green one?
I don't know.
I don't know.
in there not it is.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
That's where they're right.
I don't know what that is.
I don't know.
Well, that's where the, that was where the little,
the cider mills.
Oh, is that the Carter's Lane?
Oh, no, that's it. That's Carter's Lane.
Yeah, you're right.
Oh, that's the, what is it called?
Is it a rock? Something wrong?
No.
There is a rock there.
There is town.
That's always been
test. Yes, because
the pickerings.
Pickering's.
And now somebody else tells them.
There's not a name for that land?
That's where Bob
Blotting and suggested we put a
gazebo.
Yeah.
So that's just a
There's a Harley's
But supposedly the
Watson's
because
Lauren, I mean,
I know I went down there once
I got yelled at by
Kenny Pickley.
Yeah, because he's
for he owned it.
And, and
um, oh.
It's been
that's all the street.
Becky?
No,
older, she was a member
of Conservation Commission.
She was the one that
could tell us stories from
like the early 1900s.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, she lived in the White House
and died.
Margarita?
Huh?
Margarita?
No, no, not
the other side of the family.
I don't know the other side of the family.
Oh, yes, you do.
Large?
Is it the Watts?
Large pickers.
He had the Watson's.
And Dorothy, Lorna?
Dorothy.
Dorothy.
Dorothy Watson.
That she swore that her family gave that her family
gave that little piece of property to the town.
It's, well, remember when
that house, the big house
was built out there, they came to
the council. No, they can't, they probably
did come in. Yeah, they came in. But they came to
ZBA for a variance.
And I have, and it's
clearly shown that that is
town on land, because they had a survey.
Right. So it's clearly... I think it's
Watson or De Rochevon or
one of those. But it's clearly, but
it's not bare. It's not bare.
Baird is the big green.
Is there still offensive, though? No, Baird is
not marked.
Yeah, they're.
Do you have it as red.
It's 5110, right?
No, no, that's the basketball
should be over here.
Oh, it's even further down?
Yeah.
Is he right on the Greenland?
Yeah, he's right on the corner of the ton.
So 5110 is the basketball court.
It's a tonneous core, which is correct.
52-6.
That shows a zero fox point road
if you go under the town on property list,
which, obviously, that's...
Bounder Road.
Yeah.
2.25 acres, is that what he, we have for the, what Baird is?
No, I think it's...
But Baird should be across from 55-1.
Right.
Yep.
And 551 is fishing game, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I don't know what 526 is supposed to be.
Obviously, that's not Fox Point Road.
That's...
That's the airport road, isn't?
Yeah.
Is at the end of Airport Road?
Is that town owned down there?
Okay.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I have a question mark, though, so I'll figure it.
It says undeveloped lot.
I don't know if we have any land down there, though.
That's really bizarre.
We'll have to go find this.
Is it okay to write on these things?
Yeah.
Oh, sure.
Yeah, mark them up and I'll get it back to all this.
Yeah, that's a question mark.
But I'll add Baird.
5110.
5110.
Oh, that's the basketball.
Yeah.
Oh, that's the basketball before.
Okay.
Not one in the next time.
Yeah.
I didn't think the flint pit was that big.
but maybe it is.
Um, Flynn.
Excuse me.
Oh, because this, I think there's a lot of power lines, right?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Sure isn't much in Newington here.
So Flynn Pitt, that, we used to skate at the, um, that pond.
Did you really?
Yeah.
And there used to be a little shack there.
Yeah.
Excuse me.
I have no idea.
But that looks like a pretty sizable little place.
I think they re, they did.
They re- They re-lined.
lined because the power line. So I think there was a little, there was some adjustment there
that they gave us, gave us some more land, if I remember correctly.
My memories.
I'm being curious how the condition of that little.
Oh, it's a weed patch.
It is.
Yeah.
What is, is that, is that at the end of Fabian point, is that, who was that?
I don't know, the refuge, I think.
Oh, there's a little tiny, yeah.
Yeah, there's, no...
Isn't there a house out there?
Yeah, they own .2 acres on the very end of the point.
And then the, um, government, um...
This is right then.
The wildlife...
Refuge.
What was it?
So I guess...
So yeah, it is right, but they're just missing that little tiny...
Well, if you get a little, 0.2 blob of white...
Yeah, how you fought.
...were going to show up.
Yeah, so the, um, um, six, that is, that 6.2, that was the, that was the, that was the...
Oh, wait a minute, that's a state in New Hampshire. Would that still be fishing game?
That one up there, 6-2?
It's part of the Beans property, and I know a section of that one.
Yeah, that is.
It's fishing game.
Okay.
That's, I think, Sue, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, she's...
Newcomer.
Newcomber.
Yeah.
I don't know who sold it, but yeah.
Well, her father did.
That was...
That was...
So.
Is this correct that we have six conservation easement deeds?
Let me see.
Seed is...
That's a...
That's a...
Yeah.
Yeah, and the Frinks is actually a USDA farm easement.
So should it not be in town of Merington?
No, it's...
It's under town of Mielington Conservation Eastman's seeds.
No.
We're missing Hislip.
Islip's in that group, too.
Yeah, but don't we have two Hislips?
No, it's all one piece of property.
Yeah, there's two.
I thought Davis was separate from yours.
His two acres separate from, but it's not part of the easement.
But that the Hislip easement includes your land and Davis land?
It does not include my land.
You didn't give anything up?
No, I have five acres.
How rude.
I don't have any road running.
How about that?
I'm proud.
So do you think Frank should be moved out of here?
No.
It's just, I wonder if we should clarify it.
I think you should.
That is a USDA farm.
Just put it in the precedes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's not for cross-country skiing and all that.
Public access.
Thank you.
It's not for public access.
No, because it's a farm.
It's farmland.
Okay.
Yeah.
So we have oversight of six properties as a commission.
Thanks to our recently passed warrant article for the third time, we can spend money on town-owned
properties.
Yeah.
On town-owned properties, so the red, not the light green, which I don't think we would ever touch.
So one of the things I will do is I'll have all this print these in a big format so we can actually
before we finalize it.
It's hard to read these.
So I'll get some large print copies.
Okay.
I think the other thing is that I, not to get too far ahead, but I would like to do some more website work,
and I think portraying this on the website would be great.
But this looks a little busy to me, like for that.
like for the average Joe trying to, maybe we could just cut out anything east of the highway.
Well, I think the easiest thing is what we could do is, I get a lot of plans in the office,
and what they basically do is they'll draw a quadrant like that, and it'll look like one,
and then we could have, like, four, we could have this is an overall on the website,
and then we could have, you know, a quadrant here, a quadrant.
here in a quadrant there that were much bigger so you can see them.
I think we could do that.
Yeah.
You're right, it's too busy.
But I think locking off the other side of the swelling turnpike,
it's probably not going to help much.
But when it's blown up on the computer, if you were using it?
Yeah, it didn't.
I think it depends on how it gets uploaded to the website.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Like, if it's a copy versus the original file.
Well, we can, I mean, Eric can send us the original file.
can send us the original, so you can.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I almost wonder, like, just even taking out, like, a lot lines from the other
pieces of property.
Yeah.
Just leave the roads.
Yeah.
You think that would help?
Yeah, maybe.
I'm sure he's done stuff like that for other people, so.
Okay.
Take our expertise.
Okay.
Okay, so let's jump to these invoices real quick,
then, since we'll cover what both of the invoices were for,
which is...
Oh, wait, I have one more.
One more comment.
At the end of Fox Point Road down here, there's a green blob.
Oh, the town owns that little piece of land.
Because originally in peace and all of their wisdom cut the road up.
They just cut the road up and everybody back into my grandfather's driveway.
So turn around.
So they deeded that little piece of land.
That's where the circle was.
That's where the circle is.
That's where the circle is.
Oh, okay.
That was nice.
So that should be 52-6.
I'd say that zero fox point road.
I don't mean, it may be just part of the road right away.
It may not even have a map.
No, there's land there.
Oh, there is?
Yeah.
It kind of looks like a different color green than the other greens.
So shouldn't that be red though?
Yeah.
It should be.
Yeah.
It should be.
Yeah.
I mean, it abuts my property.
Yeah.
And I've taken down the fence
because it doesn't need to be there anymore.
Because it doesn't need to be there anymore.
not peas.
Okay.
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
No, that.
Laura.
Okay.
So we have three invoices from all of us that total, I wrote it down,
$4,000, say $4,700.
This one is for draft plan.
Probably for the parking plans.
Yeah, that must be that.
And then this one is for the map.
for the map work. And then this one is for conceptual site plan, site visit, parking.
So this was the more final night hill plan.
Yes.
Okay.
So Cheryl, we can take these out of the conservation budget?
Operative budget.
Yeah, we have a consultant line that has a budget of $4,000.
I mean, we might have to pull the rest of it out on the flip.
like professional, one of our other lines.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
We have minimal expenditures in that so far.
And since we're not going forward
in getting our consultants on Night Hill, we might as well.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, absolutely.
Do you need anything from us to make a motion?
If you just put on there,
can you put this, this number?
Yeah.
So it's 01 down.
4611-49-865 and then just initial it.
Can you get on each one now? Can you remember that number?
No.
Oh, yeah, I can't because somebody already wrote it on here.
Yeah.
That was a shame.
That was John and Margaret.
I wouldn't know that.
Oh, no, there's a different number on this one.
Yeah, that's the planning board, so you probably don't want to do that.
No.
Oh.
Really?
Sounds like this.
Yeah.
And then we'll put it in for payment to the conservation commission.
Cheryl, when you are not up your elbows and all this finance stuff, we're going to miss all of the inside school.
I know.
I'll have the new finance director to come.
Did they have one?
Yes.
And sure's only got, what do you have, 10 days left?
Oh, I think I have.
Seven days.
Yes.
Do we need to make a motion?
Do you need to make a motion?
Yes.
Okay.
To approve those invoices?
Oh, the total.
Okay.
I make a motion to pay Altus using primarily $4,000 of the consultant.
Thank you.
And then the $695 and 15 cents to come from.
One of the other loss.
One other line, or two lines, how many it takes since our budget says them all?
I'd second.
All in favor?
Hi.
All right.
Okay.
This is a nice net.
This is really a natural.
It'll be nice, you know, full size.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think we need a blow-up one, like right over there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
Okay.
Okay.
So are we going to do anything with Carter's?
Well, it came up and I think at the time, the commission said we don't see
the need to put a bill that pay for a structure down there.
I don't think it gets used.
Nobody knows about it.
Well, if everyone looks at this map.
Put a bench there.
Yeah.
That's a pretty tight.
Yeah, it is.
Does that need a sign?
A small, maybe a small time or no?
Does it need clean-up?
Is it still?
a fence there?
Should we go down, should we, the next, before our next meeting,
there should go down there?
Yeah, we could.
Yeah.
I've always wanted to ditch that fence.
Yeah.
And I don't know why it's there.
Because...
There are more people falling into the water?
No, because...
Pickling's problem.
You did.
Oh, I did not know that.
Yes.
We could have.
That's why you got yelled that, too.
The same is for yelling at people there.
Yeah, my four, five-year-old son got yelled down.
Oh, no.
I think there's also some boundary marker movement at that one point in time.
Yeah.
That's what I mean.
But we know we're there now, so we're good.
Okay.
So I guess in terms of signage, the only two places we don't have one, three places is Nighthettle, Hisslop, and Frank.
And Hyslip is, there's no, we can't put a signage.
Right.
And Frank.
We can't choose and Frank.
I don't think.
we should do that.
He has a sign.
And he doesn't want to.
I talked to him.
He said, please.
He was upset with what it cost to do the other side.
Yeah.
All the old people.
And you know, if we're going to do, I think what we should do is if we want to do one at the Flynn pit,
I don't know if it really needs it, because it's really not much there.
If you're going to do one there, maybe a real small one, and then do Nights Hill.
You know, I think that's probably enough.
But we're saying Flynn is not conservation property.
Oh, there?
Yeah.
Oh.
So I guess the only left us is night till.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Where is that?
Green.
Can I mean?
All right.
Find some kind of a little landing.
What's that?
It's it?
It's basically all one parcel in here.
in here?
See the two dots?
It's that one.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's Hislav.
And then it's the rest of it.
Okay.
So you could physically walk.
Okay.
But yeah.
So the signage project is done then.
Well, I think we should just, you know, I think we should just hold off on that.
I mean, there's no, we just, I think it should be adjacent to the parking lot and let's.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
The other thing, do we still have conservation?
and a little?
Yep, placards?
Yep.
Plackers?
Yep.
Because that could be something that we work on.
Because that we could use on the Hitzlop
because there's no road frontage for it.
Yeah.
What do you mean?
Placards?
We had...
Newington Conservation Land.
It's a metal four-inch metal placard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't know if they've ever been used.
We have those and we have wetland placers and the wetland placers.
If you've snooped around Paul Harvey's subdivision, they're all over that.
Oh.
Those just mark out the wetland buffers.
But we do, I have a stack of the conservation land.
I don't know if they've ever been used.
Yeah.
I haven't, you know.
We pay people like on a tree or something?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think I'm already some.
go on posts because there was not enough trees, but, yeah, they generally go on trees.
Yeah.
You just put it on the knotweed over there.
Everybody's a comedian.
Sorry.
Don't put them on ash trees.
No.
With copper nails.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, so I guess the website was the other thing that I wanted to talk about.
So Sylvia actually.
actually can do website updates for us.
Oh, cool.
Martha had agreed a while ago to do stuff,
and I didn't really, I didn't push it with her
because she's had a bunch of things going on.
Yeah.
But I think Sylvia, I haven't talked directly to Sylvia,
but Martha said, Sylvia knows more than Martha does
anyway about the website stuff.
So, you know, I think, at one point, I think last year,
we talked about, like, dividing out the properties
and kind of taking some pictures and doing a little
write up of each one that we could post on the website for residents to see and at some point maybe get trail maps.
I don't think we've read the trail map.
Unless Heidi, is that a skill set?
Can you do trail maps?
I don't know.
I don't know yet.
I can let you know.
No pressure.
No pressure.
Okay.
So can we even put that on the, with the lawsuit?
Can we have?
Is that a nice?
I mean, it is ours.
Yeah.
Well, the deed is out there right now.
Right.
So my, sort of, the way I sort of envisioned it originally was that you would click.
Oh, that's so cool.
Maybe that's not a good idea to put some of those, you know, around easements that we have.
Yeah.
I'll ask David.
Yeah, it's marked some trees for me.
I'll give your step in.
So my original, no.
I'll let you know how many trees I'm talking about.
500 trees later.
No.
My vision was really to have the property name,
and when you click the property name,
you would get the information on it.
So it could be the deed and photos,
and we were talking about, like, how did we acquire the property
and, you know, what happened here in 1732,
like fun facts, all that kind of stuff.
I don't know what you guys think about that.
about that.
If you're looking, I don't think we have the money to do it right now, but the one person
is really good at stuff like that, and she's a good writer is Jane Kendall.
You know, if you want to someone, because we have, I don't, the problem is we have this
massive binder of all the conservation easements that Martha keeps in her office.
So, you know, maybe we could hire Jane just spent a couple days just to, you know,
we only have six of them.
But it'd be kind of interesting from people to read how we acquire them, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a great idea.
I don't know though. I've thumbed through that binder a year.
Isn't that helpful?
It's, I mean, the deeds are there, which is what Martha put up on the site, which that was nice.
You finally have that one.
But you want more of a story?
Yeah, I think so.
Well, I mean, I mean, the problem is that Jane's the one with the history.
So maybe we could, I mean, maybe Jane, I don't know.
Oh, right. Now she's crying.
No, I'm not crying.
I'm just sitting in my head.
I didn't even do it.
I tell. I did talk to Becky several times.
Was that the one that you were assigned?
Yeah, I was assigned.
Okay.
I have kind of, but I don't think I was assigned.
And I did the town force.
And I was told to send all that information to Jane.
This Jane, the other Jane.
Jane Kendall.
And nothing happened.
Which is fine.
I'm like, she probably going, what the heck is this when she got it?
Well, I talked to Jane Kendall about it a year or so ago as well,
a year or so it goes well. But I, we just kind of let it go, I think, for a bunch of reasons.
But maybe if you could resurrect that?
Yeah, yeah, I could do that. It just was research on the internet.
And Jeff knew some stuff too, because it was it was it for whatever it was.
And I think I said I was going to do Baird, which I didn't, but I could still go around, get some pictures and talk to Badger and see, you know, he has any background.
I think I was supposed to do trickies.
and I didn't do anything with that.
That would be a quick one way.
Yeah.
And we just covered it today.
We're good to go.
Okay.
Heidi, would you want to pick up a property?
And it's a, mine is a town-owned property.
It's not a conservation.
Yeah.
But I don't think that really kind of matters.
No, I think, I mean.
Because it's a place to walk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that Adam's farm would be.
Well, that's, yeah, that's C.
C.
D.
Oh, so you had C.E.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I didn't make it.
Anyone has.
Yeah.
Do you know Bob over there?
I don't.
He's right over there.
Oh, come on.
I talked about length today, so he, I mean, he's, he's a great guy, so.
What's planting now?
Blueberries.
Blueberries?
And there's something smaller.
Oh, wow.
He may have gotten smaller blueberries.
I don't know.
You got a lot of blueberries.
Our raspberries?
Or blackberries?
Last room.
Maybe even the year before.
before I asked Trevor to talk to him about the signing that property.
And he was telling us, he's documented all the renovations on Instagram.
Oh, nice.
I forget what his handle.
I mean, it's pretty, so if you, I mean, if you're willing to go over and talk to him,
I mean, I can make the introduction, but he's super, super nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's done a great job too.
Yeah.
Yeah, it looks fantastic.
Yeah.
I hope he opens that up for the public picking.
He's hoping to.
Yeah.
helping to.
For the berries?
Yeah.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Okay.
All right.
So let's all try to do a little progress then, even though I know it's summer and everyone's outside
and doing some time.
Yeah.
It was rainy days.
Many days, if you want to stay inside and not get sunburned or poison
or eaten by mosquitoes.
There are ticks.
Yeah.
We're really telling the great outdoors.
All right.
And maybe...
Maybe projects?
Yeah.
I was trying to push it off and say, think about it.
I would really like to do the...
I don't even know what it's called.
The end of Carers.
Car is rock?
Yeah.
We're actually going to do that by...
So that could be our new project.
They're going there.
What happened with Fox Point?
With the...
Oh, what is that out there?
Oh, we have a proposal.
I will bring that to you the next time.
It's not cheap to do the permitting.
It turns out there's no...
There was no survey data out there,
which I find hard to believe. With all the work that Ports with Water did
on the point, nobody can find any survey work,
even though they don't want to share it with us.
Survey states are still out.
Yeah.
So I had the proposals.
I'll get it.
Sure.
Yeah, I'll go good.
We did this site.
walk across with
who, um, Pickering.
Riverside Pickering.
Riverside Pickering.
Oh.
And, I forget, the engineering company.
Yeah.
Nothing more.
Maybe.
Did they are a man?
Right, Cheryl.
Yeah.
They did a shoreland restoration project
over at somebody's house.
Uh-oh.
Road.
The group, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it was the first time that we had seen that kind of restoration project.
That was the stone with the...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we wanted them to look at Fox Point and see if that could be a solution for us out there.
And then, of course, like, how much money would that cost to come with a project family
it looked like.
Bob Blonigan came with us from the select board.
select board.
I generally was there too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think we had any other from the training board.
And we didn't do the site lock and haven't heard anything until John's unveiling right now.
So, yeah.
So this is a proposal from Riverside Pickering, in concert with T.F. Moran, who they work with.
And the total cost of the price, so this is the scope of the work, is a topographic survey,
survey DES Bureau permit application that is $39,670.
Reimbursables are $26,010.
I'm sorry, $2,610.
An estimated state and local fees, including an estimated
estimated mitigation fee for NADES permit is $12,900
for a total of $55,180.
That's just the permitting.
That's just the permit.
So I, we know that the project that we looked at on Little Bay was in the $350,000 range.
I think this project is four times bigger.
I mean, I think it's got to be a million and a million and a half dollars, I would say.
I think what we, I think what the Conservation Commission needs to do is meet with the Board of Selectmen
and talk about cost sharing because you're going to deplete everything you have and I don't know if that's fair.
And I don't see here's the real problem is I don't see any money is coming in.
Airport Road was not in current use, so there's no penalties there.
I don't have, I'm not aware of any more.
So we have, I don't know what we know, we have a conservation fund that is funded by the land use change tax.
So when somebody takes a piece of land that's in conservation, when it's in current use, they take,
and they subdivide, we get a penalty, we get a 10% penalty.
So it's Shackford, we got, how much?
A million.
Million.
So that money goes in another account.
And then we have a second account is called a conservation fund.
And that, and that is $250,000, up to $250,000.
It's replenished.
with either land use change tax funds or interest on the bigger account.
The problem is if we spend the 250, we're going to have interest on a million four at, what,
five, six percent?
It's not going to be replayed.
There's such many years that we felt back to the 250.
Right.
I mean, unlike most towns that have a lot of subdivision activity and a lot of land use change tax, we don't.
So I just, I don't really, I mean, I think, you know,
you know, I think we should, I'd like to see if we could set up a meeting with the selectmen and just say,
here's the proposal.
You know, there's no sense, to my way of thinking, there's no sense spending $55,000
if there's not a commitment from you and the Board of Selectmen to do the project.
Right, right, right, right.
Do we need to spend that to find out the cost of what the project would be?
I think you do.
I mean, I think, I think, I think.
I think we all know what it's going to be, I mean, if Gruby was 3.50, this is...
And we don't know what the other three were.
Well, I mean, you're saying a million, but...
Well, I'm saying at least a million.
Yeah.
And maybe you don't do it all at once, but you're not going to do...
It doesn't make sense to go, to do, you know, a quarter of it one year, a quarter of a
quarter of a five, because mobilization is very expensive.
Yeah.
Once they get out there, you know, um...
So, you know, I just don't know what the, I don't think it should be on your back as the conservation commission.
It'd be nice to be part of it, but I don't think.
I think, you know, the conversation I have with Bob, I think actually that day you very,
you know, I think the board is willing to definitely support in some fashion.
We have, they have the box point fund now.
There's not a lot in it.
Like $13,000.
I think they would be willing to do some warrant articles to try to beat that out.
Well, let's just say, you know, we said, we're going to spend a half a million.
And, I mean, and I can't remember what she said, you know, I can't remember how long these permits are good for.
But I think it was, it was five years and you can extend it another five.
So maybe, you know, let's just say, you said, we'll do the worst part.
It's a half a million bucks and maybe go back in five years and do another.
years and do another half a million. I don't know. That whole point cost us $400,000.
That's what the town paid for it. And it was, I don't know it was over time or not, that's what we paid for that whole point, all that area.
But like think about the value of it now.
It's literally priceless. It's like that much.
It is. But I kind of wonder, it's just that point and it's in really bad shape and it's going to go fast.
It is going fast.
Is that some idea of where the land might be over time?
I mean, doing that time?
Well, the land seems to be the expert out there.
You can see where it was.
She thinks we've lost 30 or 40 feet, right?
Yeah, if you stand at the point, you know, where the tree fell over.
Yep.
And you look out, you can see the rocks.
When the land used to be, it goes right out into the river.
Maybe at least 40 feet.
It's...
And I don't know how long it's been doing that, you know, years and years and years, but it's so unstable.
It's really bad.
unstable.
And the real problem is the soil itself is really unstable.
I mean, they ran into problems at the other one.
And so we were starting, and there was like this whole area that...
They were, they basically chinked the whole thing with armor with huge boulders.
But as they were trying to sort of pull some of the dirt up so they could put the boulders in,
it was just sluffing off.
And Fox Point was even worse than, I think it's worse.
It's the sand, clay.
Yeah.
marine laser deposits.
Yeah.
So that, yeah.
It's going to actually be dangerous to walk there, not too distant future.
And it's going to be kind of sad, but I kind of wonder if we really should be spending money
on just that part, the point, and just let nature take its course.
Well, here's the problem.
I don't think you have the money to do it anyway.
Even if you spent whatever you have, and you can't use a million dollar for that.
You only are 250.
Right.
And if you spend that 250, you're going to get, what, 70, 60 grand maybe, in interest the next year.
So you're just not going to, it's not going to be replaced.
That's why I think we ought to have a conversation with the Board of Selectmen and say,
here's where we're at.
We think this is, let's just say it's going to be a million and a half of construction,
$56,000 in permitting.
I mean, you know, I mean, you could put one article in the town and say, what do you want to do?
Do you want to do it?
Do you want to do it?
Do you know?
I don't.
You know where...
And make to your point, maybe to say, you know what, let's just go cut the trees and let nature...
Well, cut the trees and get it safe and let nature do it as close.
Right.
I mean, it's not like you live on the cape in your houses sitting over the edge.
If you lose another 20 feet in 20 years, maybe you don't care.
I don't know.
Nothing's really in danger.
There's no houses in that particular spot.
Nothing's in...
Except with the water line.
Well, we don't care.
That's not our water line.
It's really, there's nothing, if it goes, it's just, it's going to be sad because it's so pretty,
and you have such a great view from that point, but I don't see saving it, truly.
And the other, my other concern was if you did a piecemeal, you're changing the force on
the remaining piece of land.
If you look, if you look when the tide goes by the rocks that used to be land there, it's
really strong right there.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, all you got to do is go to somewhere where they've tried, like, you know, where they put a concrete seawall.
Yeah.
And Jane's exactly, you see the water hit the seawall when it gets to the end, it causes nothing of a problem.
So that's, that is one of my concerns is that if we do small sections like this,
what's going to happen on the, you know, the end?
No, I agree. It's just part of nature.
Yeah.
Some lands erode and some go up.
Yeah.
You don't have a problem.
Yeah.
So do we, I think we could, I think it would be good to meet with the selectmen and say, you know,
we looked into this, this is the quote we got.
I didn't realize it cost so much to permit something, honestly.
And I mean, that.
We have their hand up.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, and we can't rationalize it.
Well, I.
I wonder if even just, I agree with meeting with the Board of Selectmen and getting their temperature on it.
I wonder if the next step after that is just to do a public meeting and have people, like, just be very honest with people and say,
we're considering going down this road of costs and everything else, like, who's in and who's out.
And if a lot of people are like, hell no, then we just drop it.
I think the only challenge is that it's hard to do without costs.
Like people are going to want to find out.
I think it's safe to say that you're, you know,
it's going to be a million, million and that bucks anyway.
But the money in the perpetual trust is for conservation.
So it would just take the town meeting to approve that.
But then you've been wiped out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is fine. I mean, you didn't have money five years ago, so it's fine.
If that's what you decided to do, you know.
Yes, but, you know, if those.
Yes.
if the Boris Lechman are willing to put a warrant article and find dollars from other places,
we talked, Bob had talked to me about grants potentially, which I know there's,
especially with Fox Point that may or may not be possible.
You, John, had a great idea of just doing a fundraiser and soliciting cash from...
When I was a half-minute freedom, we put the largest conservation
even on a parcel of land in the state's history.
in the state's history, it was 2,600 acres, which has been surpassed.
And I think we needed to raise a million dollars.
And, you know, I didn't make too many phone calls before we had a million bucks.
It wasn't hard.
Wow.
You know, people are willing to donate for stuff like that.
They don't want to, you know,
not everybody wants to donate to other things, but land conservation.
So I don't know, you might be able to do a fun, you know,
there may be wealthy people that are willing to contribute money.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, it's like Wilcox and sidewalks.
Wilcox and subcom, like, they've been good to us as a town, how much better it may be.
Well, I can tell you, we're right now, Wilcox just built a $220,000 sidewalk for the town's benefit a long, a
long, scatter away, out of the goodness of their heart.
So...
You'd have a question.
Why did they put all on species of trees that they re- when they had to replant along the front?
Because they want to cherry trees.
Okay, but hopefully they don't get...
they don't get some disease.
All right, well...
So, if you want to, if you think, I mean, my feeling is we put,
we asked these people to put, to give us a proposal,
I think they put a fair amount of time and effort into it.
I know they did.
I would at least like to go and talk to the board selectmen.
And if everybody across the board says,
Jesus, there's too much money, we just don't think we need to do it,
then we can say, sorry, we try, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
So I'll ask, um,
Martha, when we can get to the board.
Okay, thank you.
I know we're getting late.
So let's move on to minutes and maybe more homework to be assigned.
It's fall from today, ideas.
So that we're not caught late like we were this spring.
And seriously, if anybody, you know, this,
I don't know if anybody's interested in the Great Bay Change Maker program,
but it'd be kind of cool, you know.
If anybody has time, I mean, she'll have retired now, so she's...
I'll have a monthly meeting if it falls on that third day.
Well, Jane, you've got to go out of the six to get your $200, so you're never going to make the $10.00.
You're traveling that much.
Oh, yeah?
Okay.
I would be happy to go to someone.
Yeah.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, you do.
But, and I'm looking at the day.
and I'm looking at the date for the one here in Newington thinking we can't schedule fall for the day that day.
Yeah.
So...
Unless we call it.
Unless we call it.
Well, they're providing food.
Why not?
Hey, where are these 30 extra people coming from?
As long as Jane doesn't have to cater it.
No, I'm not catering.
Someone else.
So, Laura, you'd have two sets of minutes, right?
Yes.
night which was a joint because Jane Kendall said we did not adopt
which that's that would be true we haven't yet so we have what April 27th is
then April 27th April 27th April 27th yeah so oh that's okay oh that's okay
um calling you no that's
for April 9th but not so building is that done or is that
Are they changing the plan?
Where are you?
On April 9th, the north-south building.
That was where they were going to put the trees.
Yeah, that's gone.
They're not doing it.
They're not doing it.
They selected they didn't want the island in the road right away,
so that got eliminated.
They're doing the other landscaping, but the four,
I think the three street trees
are no longer going to be there.
Yeah.
For the April 9th minutes, does anybody have
Does anybody have any edits or questions?
I noticed a couple of those docs are already out.
What are we at? The dots?
Oh, yeah, yes. They definitely had some boat in, I mean, some platform working.
Yeah.
We should have a presentation that doesn't scare everybody.
Like the library did that one.
That took.
Yeah.
Oh, and I actually, I reached out to that.
I talked to that woman from the one at the library.
And I'm trying to remember what I,
from our last, from this April 9th meeting,
you had made some suggestions on the next.
I forget what it was.
You're right.
Whatever it was, she said that she couldn't do it.
Oh, okay.
But I think she gave me another name that possibly could.
So let me ask off and see.
I know ticks are a huge.
huge talking point everywhere in the world right now.
It's just gross.
Everywhere.
Any other corrections?
Good to me.
Anybody want to make a motion to accept April 9th
minutes as is?
I move that we accept the minutes of April 9th,
2026.
All right.
All in favor.
Hi.
All right, moving on to April 27.
John, you said the planning board already approved these minutes for them.
They have.
Okay.
All right.
Is there any questions?
Does I move that we approve the meeting minutes from Monday, April 27, 2026?
It says Conservation Commission, but are we going to call these joint meeting?
Jane Kendall, I think we should change the title to joint meeting.
to joint conservation commission planning board meeting on the 27th minutes.
Good catch the name.
All right, so I'm going to amend that so that we change the title to Joint Conservation Commission
and Planning Board minutes from Monday, April 27th, 2026.
Okay.
All right. All in favor.
Excellent.
All right.
Excellent.
Excellent.
Anyone have anything else?
No.
Do we need to meet in July?
I think we do.
Well, I think we should because I'd like to do, I'd like to, well, let me see if I can set up a meeting with,
some of themselves to walk down a Tricky's Code, maybe we could do Carters Lane as well.
Maybe it would be just a quick walk-go-on meeting.
Yeah.
Let's, I'll, Laura and I will talk between now and we'll give you plenty of advance warning
before the July meeting, and if it doesn't happen, we'll push it off.
Hopefully, Michaela can make it.
I'm sorry a week in July, but that's okay.
The second Thursday year, do you think it'll be around?
Me? I'll be here this, the second Thursday year.
Okay.
I'm here that week, too.
I'm surprised.
I don't know you around?
Do you travel as much as Jane?
No.
I work too much.
Hmm, good.
Are we talking about the 9th?
Yeah.
I would really like to not be around that.
Okay.
That week.
Where are you going?
I'm just trying not to go anywhere and do anything and just sit at the lake.
Oh.
Do you have the main?
Yeah.
Well, Laura and I will talk.
Yeah.
That week is good.
The next week is not good.
No, I'm going to 16th.
Yeah.
There is four.
You can get away from the lake for one hour.
That's what everybody said.
Wow, that's the four.
The doctor says that.
The library said, like, everybody wants their hour or two.
there, hour or two.
Go to the doctors, the libraries,
and the Library and Conservation Commission.
All right.
I really want to make a motion for adjourn.
I make a motion as we adjourn.
Okay.
Seven and five.
Okay.
Okay.
I would want to second that.
All right.
All in favor of an adjournment.
All right.
Thank you all.
Thank you all.
Thanks, my name.
It's too.
I've got so much nicer outside now.
Oh, yeah, pulled down a little bit.
Does anybody want watershed walks?
Do you guys want the watershed walk?
I think you can find it if you go into the other stuff.
stuff.
Yeah.
We can put it on the board.
They left them a bunch of these.
Yeah.
We can take them out.
I'm interested in that change makers.
I think I'm going to set that.
Yeah.
And we could put that up.
You want to get that up.
I think I got it.
Some things went to a great base
every center.
The lady can love to talk to.
Oh, okay.
That's not.
Can we, like, have
they originally wanted to do a presentation
for a fall for the bay.
Yeah.
I said, so would that, he said that would include 30 people
and people, I said it's not going to work.
I know.
Cheryl, do you bring books still?
Yes, you do.
Okay.
I will bring it next time.
It's on my bed.
I don't know.
Oh, look at it.
Yeah?
I want to add it.
Yeah?
I want to add.
Cheryl, do you want to stop the other
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
I was a little in place today.
I have a lot of house.
I have like
stacks of that same kind of
as well.
Like,
different, you can tell
how we were in the other
like that's right there.
But it was sports.
Not going to have a baby.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's just a prejudice.
Yeah, I will.