Conservation Commission Meeting - 07/09/2026

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

July 9th, Wichfield Conservation Commission meeting.
I call the meeting to order at 634.
Let's start with the pledge.
The budget leads into the fight of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All right, so we only have a,
should do roll call first start John McKibbon, Secretary.
Harry Manzogi member Matt Huffman, Vice Chair.
George LaVash Chair.
Jason Brennan, member.
All right, so we have five members here, so we have quorum.
I know Joe couldn't make it, and Josh couldn't make it.
Steve Gannon's on vacation, so I don't know about Aiden or Mike,
but if Mike shows up, he'll be able to vote, and if he doesn't show up,
We can afford Aiden when he does come.
So at 635, I'd like to open up to public input.
Is there anybody here who has public input or something that's not on the agenda,
or even if there is.
Okay, there's no one here for public input, so we'll close public input at 635.
And now we'll move to new business, and we'll start with the Olson Mobile Home Park restoration plan.
This one, you know, I can't see that.
How you doing?
Now, do you have some hard copies that you can pass out?
Yes, I do. Would you like me to do that first, Mr. Chairman?
Why not?
Yeah, just so we can look at them while you're talking.
It's the same thing.
It's easier to see all the individual playing.
It doesn't matter.
Okay.
You're going to look there?
Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
And I guess, state your name.
Sure.
Good evening.
For the record, my name is Chad Brann.
I'm a civil engineer and principal owner with Fieldstone Land Consultants,
and I'll be representing Litchfield Estates and the owners, Patriot Holdings, LLC,
and Olson Mobile Home Park LLC.
As the commission may recall, we were before you last discussing a restoration plan for some area
that, unfortunately, was cut over the winter.
At the last meeting, we talked about a number of.
of topics.
There was a lot of detail shared through GIS aerial imagery relating to location of
salt fence, additional areas that may have been impacted that we were asked to include in
a revised restoration plan.
And, you know, just a lot of discussion about, you know, what was the initial intent of our first
restoration plan.
And then we took a lot of comments from this commission.
We also took comments from the Board of Selectmen.
And we regrouped and have a revised plan to present to you this evening.
I think you'll find and hope you'll find that the plan that we have now is significantly different and much improved.
So just to take a step back, the silt fence, and to give the commission an update,
the silt fence has been revised on site.
So our survey team went out.
We laid out the approved location of the silt fence.
It's my understanding that that that silt fence has been relocated to the appropriate location.
And so if anybody's had a chance to go out there, you will see that.
We have field verified that through stormwater inspections that it has been installed.
We also located the survey located the limit of disturbance so that we
we could better depict it.
I mean, we were utilizing, you know, kind of aerial imagery as well.
And what we noticed, you know, really in the last meeting was that we needed to dial in the details
and make sure we were accounting for all the areas.
And so the plan that we have before you now is a survey field located limited clearing line where you can see the existing tree line.
If you recall, we were proposing only 24, and I have the original plan.
Yeah, 24 pines.
24 pines.
It was really just a perimeter, you know, defining the perimeter of the perimeter of the buffer area,
and then we were proposing signage, wetland buffer signage along that perimeter as well.
We have maintained the plan of the signage, so the signage hasn't changed.
But we've significantly increased the.
the volume of plantings that we're proposing.
So the new plan, through much feedback from the Commission, includes a variety of trees.
We have 25 red maple proposed, 25 red oak, 30 white pine, 10 Japanese tree
black plants. We also have, those are considered shade trees. We also have a number
of understory trees that consist of seven serviceberry, eight eastern redbud, seven flowering
dogwood, and five pagoda dogwood. And then we have a number of shrubs, 15 high brush
blueberry, 15 winterberry, 15 winterberry, 15, red oyster,
dogwood and 15 arrowwood vibrum.
And so the planting plan now totals 90 shade trees, 27 understory trees,
60 shrubs, which equates to 117 trees and 17 trees and 177 total plants.
Very significant modification. We include some of those flowering species that was a
request by the members of the commission. I would also like to point out that the
commission, in a couple of the presentations, referenced this, the piece of property
in Hudson as a kind of an example property. We hired the landscape designer and ultimately
the code enforcement officer from Hudson to prepare this
restoration plan. And so it was, you know, this is done by the same individual
that created the restoration plan for that Hudson project. Sort of a coincidence. I think just
a location, you know, we ended out, you know, soliciting services from, you know, the same person.
I thought that it's relevant just because there was some connection to that project.
We think that, you know, this plan hopefully satisfies, you know, the concerns.
were raised previously and we're hopeful that the Commission will support this plan
so that we can go before the selectman next meeting requesting, you know, essentially
approval of this restoration plan. The selectmen have already approved a restoration
bond amount about, I think it's $156,600. That amount was suggested by the owners
through some research on their end.
And it's about, it's a very conservative number after working with the landscape, you know, designer.
So we're very confident that that number, you know, will be a conservative bond.
They've agreed to post that bond.
The bonding companies only need a letter from the town requesting a bond so that they can secure that.
So I don't, I would ask this commission, if the commission
could provide a letter or an email just stating that they would like a landscape bond
and we'd be happy to try to have that bond secured for the selectman's meeting next week.
Yeah, I think we just need, I mean, we just received the plan, so we need a minute to review it.
I'm sure we can have some questions.
One question is for the monitoring that's going to be put in place.
I saw that there's plans to have water for it and stuff too, but is there, I assume that you're not
expecting 100% survival rate for the trees planted, right?
Is there a way to replace them at 10% of the trees don't survive?
I mean, what is the monitoring?
Yeah, so typically there is a monitoring plan that would accompany, you know, this restoration.
So normally, you know, plants are warranted for at least a year.
And so, you know, the success of any planting will be, you know, what,
what is the, you know, the climate and the watering ability.
We've talked about watering.
There's actually a well on site that used to service an old home right in the same area.
And so the plan would be to try to utilize that well to water these plants.
But we're happy to provide, you know, a formal monitoring plan as part of this whole thing.
We just, you know, want to do at least hopefully.
come to an agreement on the plan.
And I will say the plan that's new is just the one that's more legible.
We submitted the color rendering, which, you know, which detailed everything, you know,
I think a couple weeks ago or, you know, whatnot.
Yeah.
It is, yeah, that's one of the questions I have.
So a plan came in at five o'clock today, and that just, like, didn't sit very well with me,
getting in an hour before the meeting.
is there any difference between the plan submitted earlier and this plan?
There's no difference.
The only thing, and I spoke with George when we submitted the color plan,
and I essentially just stated, it's a little bit difficult to see individual plantings
on the color plan, and so I've asked the landscape designer to come up with a plan that doesn't
have color that shows kind of the node of each plant.
and I did that for two reasons.
This plan has to be laid out in the field.
So all the landscaping will be, you know, we typically provide the CAD file to, you know,
the landscaper and they lay it, they stake it in the field or the, you know, the contractor.
But we wanted the commission to have confidence that these are the plants and this is how they're located.
And the color version is great.
I think it looks good.
But if you're going to.
count every single tree. It's a little bit hard
to, you know, to place.
But the plan is exactly the same.
The layout.
That's good. And I did just look
in it. It looks the same. Okay.
Yeah, so we weren't sure.
I understand. Yeah.
Getting it, you know, at five, what had
changed or what the difference was, you know.
So. There's no change. There's no change.
There's no change, which is good.
It's, and I gave it to as fast as I could get it.
It's the holiday and people
on vacation. It was
hard to secure.
Can you tell us, I'm looking at some of these plant types.
Japanese tree, lilac, redwood, bud.
Can you tell us the logic that the landscape architect went through to choose these trees
because some of these are not familiar to me, familiar.
I don't think that.
there were any Japanese lilacs on the site at the time of the cutting.
So is there any logic to the way that this was laid out?
Did you talk a little bit about that?
Yes.
So when I, so first of all, the landscape designer reviewed the minutes of prior meetings.
We shared our notes with them.
Lilacs was a species that was openly requested at one of the
one of the meetings. And so
I think...
No, it was, and Joan.
There was Joan?
Yeah. It was mentioned
so Diane, it wasn't
it wasn't, it was at our meeting.
Okay, gotcha. You can see that the lilacs are
all in that.
Are those normal lilacs? Japanese
are those? I'm not sure, but
the request was for some flowering
trees to be in that area because they were close to
to the... Right, and so
when I just, and I was
hoping that the landscape
designer was able to make it, but he
had a commitment
until
7.30, so I wasn't able to come
this evening. But the
what was explained to
me is that these are all
kind of very
tolerant species for
sandy soils.
And looking at the
test pit data and the soils for the site,
that's in large part what drove
the selection of plants.
Speaking kind of directly,
to, you know, the success
and the monitoring, you know, we want to
create a plan that's going to work.
And so that was primarily
what drove, you know,
these species. And then trying
to have a blend, you know, the primary
trees are the trees that were
on site, the maple,
the red oak, and the
white pine.
And then the, there really wasn't
any understory before.
I think, you know, you can kind of
see that. You know, once the mature trees
were taken down. There just wasn't
a lot of understory
in this area. We were on site
prior to the cutting, so
I can say that from first-hand knowledge.
It was just a
mature stand of
forest, so it didn't have a lot of understory.
But now we're trying to create a
restoration plan that's
going to create, you know, that's going to
kind of come back in a more natural
form to try to blend
the different types of
landscaping together. So you separate
the mature trees that are going to grow
taller by having some
infill understory and some
brush. And that's how it was
explained to me how this plan was created.
Right. And we did
have the
logger
called the
county forester. And
he also suggested that if we
were going to have these dog words or the liwa
blacks or the flowering trees that they'd be
on the exterior and closer
to the houses. And more visible
rather than hiding them in the middle, and they are, if you look at the, you know, on this picture, they are the red ones, some of those.
So the dogwoods and the lilacs are more on the outside, I believe.
And the forester stated that by putting in these understory stuff like the
Winderberry and the blueberry that would help keep out invasives because we'd be, you know, planting in these.
bushes that would take room
and help keep out
the invasives. That's a good point.
That's also what the landscape designers
shared is that you try to blend
that in to prevent evasives
from trying to take hold.
Is there, in regards
to the
monitoring
plan? I'm not seeing
a note on the plan here.
I'm happy
to add a note to the plan to
address the monitoring.
What
I can say the bond estimate included, you know, costs for monitoring and such.
So there was, you know, wetland scientists and engineering oversight.
It was like $8,000 put in, you know, to that five-year monitoring and reporting.
$15,000 was put into that.
And so that definitely was included in the bond estimate.
So we're happy to articulate that
on the plan as well.
How does the reporting work for the monitoring?
A report that's submitted once a year?
So typically with the
landscape monitoring, you do it more frequently than once a year
because you try to prevent the plants from
dying off. So you might do it
quarterly, you know, where you go out and just seasonally
check, you know, how are things looking.
You know, there might need to be some pruning
done if there's some, you know, some, you know,
some issues with certain plants just to try to get them back.
You may need to do increased watering or, you know, some treatment of some kind if we're having
insect issues.
So there are, you have to do it a little more frequently, especially that first year.
The goal is, is to have this be successful.
The management company that will ultimately manage the property was likely to take over that
responsibility in subsequent years.
but that, you know, we've allocated monies for that to happen.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess I was asking for, will we get updated reports on that when that happens?
We certainly could make that part of any, you know, approval of condition
that the commission gets copies of those reports.
And you said that was a five-year plan?
The plan, the bond estimate that was submitted says it's a five-year plan.
And again, the frequency will change.
Like, if the first year is a second,
successful and you see that these plants are rooting, then the frequency might be annually
for, you know, subsequent years or as needed, depending on what.
But definitely, you know, those reports could be provided to the commission.
I have a question.
This management plan that you said was going to take over to do the monitoring.
Have they monitored this type of situation?
So it would be the management company.
So it would be the company that manages the park.
It would be handed to them once the landscaping is kind of taken hold, right?
And so the first year is going to be the critical year, and then there's going to be some loss in plants.
It's inevitable, right?
And so then you'll, like, you'll do some replacement.
But the critical nature.
the monitoring will change over time.
And definitely, the monitoring plan will outline, you know, what are you looking for in report on certain bullet items?
And that will be able to be done by the management company over time.
I mean, ultimately, we're bonding that this plan is going to be successful and is going to take hold.
And so the bond is what really kind of is the security blanket over, you know, the plan happening.
But I guess you haven't.
really answered my question, this management or the company that's going to take over,
have they experienced this type of situation before?
I don't think that company, I'm not sure if that company has been selected yet.
I was trying to answer your question by saying the first year, maybe two years, is going to be done by
a landscape architect or done by somebody.
You haven't picked up.
You guys have not picked up.
company, yeah.
For the management of the park?
No.
I don't know if that's been selected.
No, for the management of the planning area.
Yeah, we'll probably have Chris Sullivan do the inspections on the landscaping plan.
He's the one who did the design.
So my suspicion is he would be the one that would do those inspections over probably the first two years.
And then it would likely transition to the management.
company of the park.
And the commission would be informed of that through those reports.
When we met with the county forester, correct me if I'm misquoting them,
what he said about the understory trees is as the main trees start developing,
they will be shading out the understory trees.
understory type
like the service berries
and the shade will cut down
and eventually they'll be
gone.
Right, but I don't think that'll be within five years.
I mean, that's probably a long play.
But it's natural.
Natural. Yeah. Okay.
Just like the pines.
But they're there.
The understory stuff is in there first
to help, you know, establish the beachhead.
Okay.
protect the invasives is basically what the foresters said.
So they will eventually, you know, get or die out because of the shade and whatnot, but it'll take a while.
So my question is, we have this plan.
Do we need to have the maintenance written on this plan?
I would think so.
Joan, what happens to the plan?
Does the plan get?
filed with the site plan?
Yes.
So I know it should be on there about the maintenance and management.
I would think we would want to add anything that we want them to do to this plan.
Right.
Just so it's not buried in the minute somewhere, that that's what you're asking?
That's what I'm asking.
You know, we need to have a formal way of going back to find it, you know what I mean,
rather than referencing something else.
Yeah, we agree with Jason, that the monitoring should be on.
this definitely we can add a monitoring note to the plan no problem I mean my hope this
evening is that the you know we meet with this selectman I think on Monday Monday so it's
you know kind of a tight time frame but we're happy I mean I can submit a monitoring note
tomorrow to the Commission I'll have Mr. Sullivan prepare a you know the monitoring
portion but our hope is that
There could somehow be a condition that the commission supports the restoration plan
subject to an approved monitoring note being added to the plan.
And I think that at least puts us in a good spot for Monday night's meeting.
Just another quick question.
On the shrubs, are the shrubs going to be planted among like an understory type of situation?
They are.
Yeah, the shrubs are kind of intermingled.
you know, within that whole area.
And that was really a question that the commission asked, I think, was, hey, you know,
we understand that your focus was the perimeter, but how do we prevent evasives and how do we
ensure that there's going to be infill growth over a more expedited time frame?
And so we did that by coming up with a design that kind of blends some shrubbery in.
as well. Now, the shrubs are typically kind of cast around the understory trees so that, you know,
they're going to last for a period of time. I mean, everything is going to take a cycle,
but I think they're along the perimeter a little bit more.
Kind of easier. But there are blueberries, I think, like, there's 15 blueberries. There's 15 blueberries, but
it's kind of, let me go to this other picture and I'll show you where they are.
And that's why we've prepared this.
picture. This one is a little easier to see. So the high bush blueberries, okay, is this,
so see this where my arrow is, this thing that looks like, it's like a half moon by, see that,
it's got black on the bottom right there. So that's a blueberry bush, and then there's a bunch of
them up over in this area. So they do have these high bush blueberries spread out, and they're
15 of them. So that's just one example of the spreading around of the different plants. So those
high bush blueberries aren't just necessarily in one spot, but they are spread around. Now,
you asked for us to write a letter saying that we require a bond. I'm not sure the Conservation
Commission has the authority to require a bond. Okay. We just need something on.
So the boris selectmen voted to require a bond, but there wasn't a formal letter of any kind.
And so it's articulated in their minutes.
We will ultimately have to ask them for that on Monday night, probably.
Our hope was that maybe the commission would agree to it, and maybe we could even have the bond posted by Monday, just in good faith effort.
But I understand that maybe the commission can't.
We just provide.
Yeah, so we can provide a recommendation that, yeah, you're an A, but we have,
we don't have the power to require you'd have a bond, so we can't really.
Understood.
And if we could, we would, but we can't.
Oh, I appreciate that.
Can we get a note on here about the signage as well?
The signage is detailed here on the side.
Oh, on the other side. Okay. Yep, I see it. Thank you.
And then we do have it labeled on the plan.
Okay.
Good.
Okay.
That's good.
And then I guess my question is, when would planting start?
So there's a note here, and I think this is just kind of boilerplate about fall plantings, you know, being done in the spring.
Our hope would that it would all be in before the fall, right?
Well, we definitely don't want to, we typically don't want to plant during the heat, and so there's going to be,
a window in the, you know, towards the end of the summer season where we could, you know,
certainly probably, you know, do the, get the plantings done.
Availability of the plants is going to, we really have to work on securing the plants.
And that's part of the reason why we're looking for, you know, concurrence.
By Monday night, hopefully if everybody has approved it, we can reach out and, you know, order,
my client can order, you know, the plants and then,
have them delivered in an appropriate time.
Towards the end of the summer is nice because the, you know, the cool nights are actually a form of watering
for the, you know, the new plants.
And so, like, a late summer, you know, early fall planting often is a successful time period.
I agree. You don't want to plant now.
No, I understand that, but I'm not looking forward, you know, to seeing a lot of, this mostly get done next spring.
Do you know what I mean?
So this planting season would be good this summer, or fall, whatever.
And I just saw that there, and I think, like I said, it's typical boilerplate.
But I would hope everything would be in this one.
I had a couple things.
Firstly, this plan is way better than the one that was presented at our last meeting.
So that's, like, greatly appreciated.
I had three comments based on what I'm reading here, what I'm reading in the notes.
Number one is the monitoring plan, as we talked about a second ago.
And in the monitoring plan note, I think that we should include something in there for invasive species monitoring and extraction if it's found over that five-year monitoring period.
just to pull that stuff.
That would be number one.
Number two, I'm not a huge fan of note number seven.
All plant materials shall be guaranteed for one year.
I think that should be five years because there's going to be a five-year monitoring.
So you just want to be careful there.
I mean, we're guaranteeing the owner of the property is guaranteeing the plant for the five-year term, I would say.
But the install.
So if he hires a landscape installer, the installer would be guaranteeing it for one year.
And that's just kind of an industry standard.
I understand that.
We could clarify that.
I think the monitoring plan notes and then the bond.
I mean, the bond is probably what's really guaranteeing it for the time frame that we're talking about.
I don't disagree with that.
However, if this plan becomes.
the record, and we go to the record, and you look at note seven, all plant materials
shall be guaranteed by the installer for one year following the data acceptance.
To me, that means if half the plants die off at a year and a day, and you look at the note,
someone could say, nope, we only guaranteed those for a year.
We can expand upon that.
Yeah.
Yeah, if, to me, that note, seven, is between you and the installer.
It's for bidding purposes on the project.
Gotcha.
And, but we need to cover ourselves on our side of the fence.
And so I think that note should say that all the plant, you know, whatever you, however you want to word it,
but I think it should be, if we're doing a five-year monitoring, we should do five years
on replacement of any plant that dies over those five years.
I'm really more worried about the trees, but with it.
And then the third thing,
15, 15 gallon trees are only about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter from what I understand.
Okay.
Yeah, like a, like, that's, those are the ones you get like at, at Home Depot and you can.
Five or six feet tall.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, I greatly appreciate the effort gone through, but I think seeing that these trees are smaller and over 100 were cut,
100 pines, oaks, and maples were cut. We're replacing them with 80, 80 pines, oaks, and maples, and they're going to be small ones.
I mean, up to the board, but I wouldn't mind seeing a few more sprinkled in there. I'm not talking double or anything like that.
I think we just might be a little, in my opinion, we're a little bit light.
And I'm just nervous that they're very small trees.
Some of these are going to die off, so I just thought, I think we're like a little bit light.
But that's my opinion. It's up to you.
But wouldn't you have more success with the smaller tree?
That's what I was going to say. The smaller trees are going to take root and be more successful.
And the die-off is not really a concern because of the guarantee that you're looking for for five years.
and then the bond.
So I got you.
So I'll retract all that statement.
I just think we're a little bit light.
I wouldn't mind seeing a few more trees out there.
That's just my opinion.
Not double.
Like 30 maples, 30 oaks to match the 30 white pines.
Okay.
So sorry to throw that curb ball in there.
No, that's...
There was 110 trees cut.
It's being replaced by 80 trees.
Put a high tree.
177 total totals.
I mean, those are three gallon.
Those are little ones you can buy down at the farm stand.
It's still expensive.
I mean, this is not a...
Oh, I don't, I'm with you.
So your suggestion is that we bump the red maples and red oaks from 25 to 30.
And that would give us, that would give us 100 trees.
How many?
From 25 to 30.
But it's up to you, folks.
I mean, these guys have done a good job.
I just think that we're a little bit like on the big trees.
And the Japanese lilacs, those are more like ornamental types.
They are.
Yeah, so.
And that's in that area, like, graded.
So that's where, what all those are.
And there's one and two make one.
Looking at that, I'd like to see that bump by at least 10 each.
10 each?
Yeah.
I mean, I like to see that.
His recommendation.
I'm fine with 10.
I'm total 30, 30, 30.
That sounds reasonable.
Would you say 30?
So there's...
Five additional maples and five additional oaks.
Yeah.
We would agree with that.
I think that's...
Joe, yeah.
All right.
Five is okay.
Yep.
So it would be a total, Harry, of...
They proposed 25 maples.
It would go to 3.
30. They proposed 25 red oaks. It would go to 30.
They proposed 30 pines.
It would stay at 30.
That makes more sense.
We should probably get the wording down for the monitoring plan, so there's just no
fumbles at the one yard line for Monday.
You said you could get us a draft for tomorrow, right?
We could get you a draft for tomorrow. Yes. Absolutely.
Well, just make sure we're clear on the direction for the east.
guys. So five-year monitoring plan.
Quarterly inspections for the first year?
That sounds good. Invasive is part of the monitoring plan?
Monitor for invasive species. And if invasive species are found, removal.
We'll give recommendations on removal for invasives. I mean, if we're capturing them that early,
they're easier to monitor.
to turn and remove. So, yeah. I think that would be that note for me. Go ahead.
That's that note, if you want to. Well, since we're talking about the five-year monitoring plan,
so during that five-year period, replacement of any dead trees.
That gets into my second bullet. Yep. Right. The trees were worried about if a couple of the bushes
die after a couple years. I don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm with you there.
We're mostly concerned about the large trees.
Okay.
I mean, you're going to guarantee those bushes for a year, at least, right?
But in year five, if a blueberry bush dies, not as concerned.
But there are some smaller trees down the bottom here, the dogwoods.
Yeah, I think if you use the term tree, I'm good with that.
So it's the first two categories, basically, understory and shade trees.
For five years.
With the dark woods, they have, they're not particularly tall, but boy, they like to spread out all over the place.
Which is great.
Yeah, which other thing is what we're looking for in the eye every time I'm going on.
Just looking at the notes again, so note one is dig save.
Now, just not a curiosity.
is in the actual park itself, what about, is there any kind of rules about feeding birds?
To be honest, I have no idea.
I think so.
Well, the only reason I ask that is that if people start to move in and they start to feed birds, there'll be birds.
There'll be bird seed all over.
the place, there'll be birds that will be spreading the evasis species.
Well, you're going to get that anyway.
I can't control the birds in the notes.
You can't control them coming in here or there anyway.
I thought you're saying that.
It would just cause more.
Sounds good.
All right.
So we could have a motion that says that we approve of this plan with the condition with the condition set on the monitoring that we've discussed.
I don't know if we have to spell out those conditions or in the actual motion.
We should just for the minutes and that'll go to the Board of Selectmen.
And then once we do that, then we can agree to write a letter to the Board of Selectmen with our approval of the plan with these modifications.
We also have to mention adding the extra five folks and maples.
Okay.
Okay.
So once we do that, we can vote on that.
I do have a separate issue that I want to bring up.
While we were there, it was found the forester noticed there was a bunch of knotwood,
Japanese, not wheat on the property.
Has that been conveyed to you guys?
I have not.
It's not in this area.
It's over beyond.
It's unrelated to them.
It's unrelated to this, okay, but it's still a pretty major issue.
Like, it's going to get very feet deep or more than eight feet deep or something going to deal with it.
And it's, so, it has nothing to do with this, but it's an issue that probably would help us prevent it from being here.
Well, it has nothing to do with this, but it's in the back, you know, and it's on the sides.
It's a huge stand of it.
Huge.
and that it needs to be dealt with.
And he mentioned to John...
Heavy sides.
Yeah, heavysides.
The person that should be talked to at DES about how to deal with it and how to treat it,
because I guess it's extremely...
Yeah, you can't move it.
You have to bury it.
So you know.
Okay, so anyway, so it's there, and I just want to make sure that was also brought to your attention
because the Forrester, you know.
Actually, Harry said, what's that over there?
And the Forrester said...
Thanks a lot, Harry.
I said it's not.
Can you share, can you mention that maybe in the, or share with me in an email, you know, where, I mean, I can send somebody out and we can, I just feel like we should connect on this topic separately.
Looking out, it's where it hasn't been developed yet for, for the new part of the plan.
It's not back, back corner, right corner, back, what a share.
Back corner?
Yeah.
Here, I'll get it.
down here? No, it's like due east.
No, it's, uh, yeah, it's a, so a little bit off.
You have a pile of it right here.
You've got a mound back here, okay.
And it's all along over in here.
Oh, it is.
Oh, okay.
So, um, and so, you know, he pointed that out.
I just, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't lost.
Okay.
Can you flip the A.V?
Mr. A.V., you flipped that.
You did it before.
It was up there just a minute ago.
I think when you're unplugged it.
Did you want to plug it?
Oh, no, it's on.
It's just not on the main screen.
Oh, there you go.
Thank you.
All right.
Where is it, George?
Okay, so.
Go ahead.
Do you have your mouse?
It's a touchscreen.
Okay, so here's what, so there's a pile, right?
I think that's,
Yeah, you can see it right there.
That mound, okay.
So it's, there's not weed in here, okay, and there's not weed over in here.
Okay, so he said this was not weed in here and over there.
Right, where the old septic lagoons were.
Perfect.
So, he was mentioning, you know, while you're still in construction,
that you do have the opportunity to bury it, as you know.
and like I said, I did not want to cloud this discussion, but I wanted to make sure, you know,
it was brought to John's attention, and he seemed to be on top of it, but I want to make sure
in this meeting that we bring it to your attention, such that it gets handled.
Yeah, we may go out and flag the limits of it and have a meeting on site to talk about where
we can bury it.
And like I said, I did not want to hijack this.
I want to make sure that this got through, and that's a separate thing, but it's, you know, equally invasive or equally an issue.
Okay. Are you going to make the motion?
I'm going to try. I think I got some notes here.
So, Harry, can we waive the bird missile defense system?
Joan, is the term that we approve the plan?
Approve the landscaping plan, yeah.
Okay.
I am going to make a motion that we approve the Litchfield Estates Restoration Plan as presented with the following conditions.
Condition number one is that the number of oak trees and red maple trees gets increased from 25 each to 30 each.
and that fieldstone will provide an updated plan related to that.
Item number two would be to add an additional note to the plan saying that Fieldstone or whomever will provide five years worth of monitoring.
And monitoring will happen on a quarterly basis for the first year.
for the first year, and then on a annual basis for the following years.
The monitoring plan will also include invasive species monitoring and removal within the project area.
And then the monitoring plan will also include a note that says that any tree that has died over that five-year period will be replaced.
That's my motion.
Does that sound?
What about getting us getting a report?
Note number, additional note number three is that Patriot Holdings will provide an annual report
detailing the results of the yearly monitoring plan, monitoring activity, I should say.
Okay. I second.
Okay. Is there any further discussion?
on this motion?
Did I get everything right?
I think you did.
Did I get everything?
You covered everything I had written down, so I think you did a good job.
Okay.
Okay, so shall we vote on this?
All in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Okay, so the motion carries five zero zero.
So you say that we're going to write a, we approve it, right?
If this happens?
Yes.
Okay.
We will.
We don't need to make a motion for me to write a letter saying that we approved.
No.
Okay, so I'll just, so I will write the letter.
I will also be at the Monday meeting.
We're going to count the trees again to make sure none dropped off.
So if I don't mind, you can share the letter with me.
I'm going to try to revise the plan and I'll submit electronically a revised plan to prior to meeting Monday night.
That sounds acceptable.
Can I get it, when you get everything,
Olin knows, going to get a full size, black and white?
We've got another four.
Okay.
Yes, and I can send you a copy of that letter.
That's good.
And that will need to come out tonight or.
Perfect.
Okay.
You can add in that letter that we need to post a bond
for a hundred and, I'm just, I'm just joking.
Oh, good point.
I would.
What was, sir?
Are we good on the bottom?
Two or three guys, three's die.
You're not going to hold them.
The selectman approved the bond.
Okay.
Right.
I got.
I don't think I guess.
I know, I know, I know.
Okay.
Split in here.
All right, good luck.
Hopefully, get this.
That plan looks a lot better.
It takes care of the understory.
It's got a mixture of things.
I think it's going to be pretty good.
Agreed.
five years.
Yep.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right.
Good luck.
Okay.
So the next item we have
is the community garden
guidelines.
Oh, again?
We have never finalized.
We tabled them.
So let me see if I have them
here.
I created these
just
off the top of my head.
I just wanted to
put some kind of formal structure
around the community garden
such that we have rule
if the people follow
and it doesn't look like
a shanty town.
So
I just run through these
quickly and then we
can weigh in whether we like them or not.
First, new
plot assignments will happen in the spring of
each year.
Existing gardeners must convey
their intent to return and keep their
plot for the fallen year by
the
end of the fall.
So when we do fall cleanup,
let us know if you're coming back.
I would just say
November 30th or whatever
the date is.
Okay.
Let me see.
Do I have a
November 15th?
So each gardener is responsible
for cleaning their plot by November 15th
and it's under fall cleanup.
So I think it's covered
by the fall cleanup.
Okay.
put it in here. Is November 15th a good time?
Perfect.
30th, it probably maybe. November 30th?
Yeah, like 30th better.
Okay. Because the end of the fall is actually December 20th.
Let's push it.
Astronomically speaking.
Okay, so if a plot
becomes vacant because somebody leaves,
I think we give existing gardeners
and may place an exchange request for it.
So if somebody wants to, you know,
if some plot
are more sunnier.
Sunnier or, you know, better than others.
You know, I say we let people who are in the garden get first dibs.
And I thought it should be based on how long they've been there.
And then after that, go by coin flip.
Okay.
New request for plots will be signed at a first-come-come-first-served basis.
Each year, an optional $20 donation.
The Conservation Commission is suggested.
And that started this year, and that money went towards our land fund.
Yeah, a question on that.
So how does that get submitted?
Because I have money from one of the gardeners,
and we actually haven't done our donation.
I submitted it to Karen and it goes into the land fund.
Okay.
So just like, okay.
Okay.
Each gardener should provide a name, phone number, and email address.
Right now, all our communication is through a Facebook messenger group chat,
and I don't know if everybody needs to know everything all the time on their phone.
It would be great if we could handle some of that through an email chain.
But it's kind of working like we have it now, but it would be great to have everybody's email.
We don't have everybody's email address.
We're getting there.
So plot fences.
I said here, fence material should be black, I guess the black or silver.
Or green.
How about or green?
Or you could just say not orange.
I mean, there's just a green.
chicken wire, so that's what, silver.
It's looking pretty good right now.
Yeah.
Fence material shall not be orange.
Yeah.
Black, green, or
silver.
Silver is, I guess, I'm just going to say,
it should be black green or silver.
Okay.
We had the orange last, too.
We switched over to black this year.
Yeah, yeah.
The orange is just an eyesore.
The front fence line should be even across all plots.
It's just to keep it easier for mowing.
Fences are meant to contain the individual plots, hand tools, hoses, et cetera,
should remain within the fence, no gardens, outside of the fence.
The movable benches, we allow them to be outside the fence because we can move them.
I have here that fences and fence bows should be taken down each fall.
I think this allows us to, you know, have Corey come in and do blanket rototiller.
I think some of the gardens want to keep their fences up and they don't want road-tilling.
Right.
I said existing fences are grandfathered for us.
Are you saying I should remove this altogether?
If they want, if they want a rototill, they're going to have to remove the fence.
If they take care of it themselves.
So what happens if there's just, say the top row, everybody leaves their fences up except for one,
is he going to go in there and rototild after one?
Yeah, yeah, he will.
Yeah, he can get him there and do that.
Okay.
All right, so I'll change this.
I'll work on the warning of this, such that if you want your garden rototilds,
you must take the fence down.
Yeah.
Okay.
Under water, they can use their battery-powered pumps to transfer the water from the tank to the plots.
No sprinklers are allowed.
I put this in, no gardener may permanently connect a private hose directly to the water tank.
I didn't want to start having multiple connectors.
Yeah, that's good.
It seems to be working, I think.
Gardens are recurrents to run the pump while at the garden to keep the tank full,
and they've been doing a pretty good job with that.
Yeah.
It seems to be full.
And shut it off.
Yeah.
Does it have a shut off?
It doesn't have an auto shutoff.
It doesn't have an auto.
Might be something to think about it.
Like, is there a timer?
we can put on it.
A floats, yeah.
We could, well, once we build the tower.
Or like a hot tub, you know.
When we build the tower, we'll make it better.
Tower, we have to get through the 275th.
Before it gets a shower.
And then we'll get on to the water tower.
275th?
275.
Yeah, is it some time?
All right.
So the removal of a post and fence for fall cleanup is now that's optional.
All snakes, cages, ropes, et cetera.
I guess, well, they have to be taken out if we, that's if we want it to be rototilt, I guess.
So I'll, I'll clean that up.
But dead plants definitely should be moved to the designated compost area.
Lack of clearing by the deadline, if they don't remove their dead plants, we can boot them for the following year.
And just people, yeah.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
On the compost area, is it the compost?
just available to everybody?
Well, right now.
It's not composted yet to be able to use.
It's just compost to put your dead stuff there.
It hasn't been there long enough to tarians or something.
I put in some steaks and some pallets just to designate an area
so that everybody knows where it is.
Because we were having piles all over the garden.
So now we, when we have two piles, eventually we'll move the old compost.
to the new area.
Okay.
And so fence posts and plot access is restricted until after the garden can be rotot tilt.
Should we put a date for?
No, because it's too variable, I think.
Variable based on weather.
Okay.
And again, I'll put a caveat in there.
You know, if your fence stays up all year round, you're not actually
beholden to this.
So I don't think these are that
wrong, rigid, but it just puts some
expectations on keeping it kind of
clean and clear. And
we can send these to
the gardeners in some kind of
action. Somehow or another.
Right.
And I can actually put that on the
Facebook page. I can
put this right up in the
header of the Facebook page
there. In the about section.
Okay.
You guys all...
I think it's all good.
I like fall cleanup
seed, dead plants move
to the designated compost area.
Yeah.
Just make sure that that's, like, clear
because last year,
somebody
pulled up all the plants and, like, just
dumped them in the pile
near the bench that's facing pinecrest.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we might have to have a sign that's just
compost here or something.
Yes.
So we'll make sure they know where it is.
And I might even make it bigger.
I might get two more pallets.
Make it a little deeper so that it can hold everything.
We're at capacity now.
I had one more person, but I didn't have a tilled area.
But he was kind of weight.
Oh.
There's not an area before.
Corey wasn't going to come down.
Oh, and just run till for him.
No.
Because he was busy with the,
the parade and he said it's kind of late to be starting out.
Was, is there a rototiller in the shed?
Yeah, there is, well, mine is kind of dead.
But if he wanted to, I'm sure we could get, there's a couple of gardeners,
their own personal rototillers.
I'm sure they'd be able to help.
But it would be one of the, would be the area that's just been grasped and hasn't
been touched.
Would that work on that?
Oh, a brand new area, not one of the existing.
Yeah.
Yeah, so maybe, yeah, that would be a little rough.
Yeah, I think so.
So maybe next year.
And then we'll have to figure out if we're going to start another set of plots where we put them.
Well, I think.
Or extend the second row, we could extend that, how quite of that?
Do we know how many people have signed up for?
About nine, I think.
Nine?
Yeah, nine of ten.
I mean, there was a lot of activity on the emails where people had requested, you know, I had noticed.
So, Joan, who was on plots 10 and 11?
Mario has 10 and 11.
So, those numbers in order?
Yeah.
14, 13, and 12. I think Mario kind of stretched out.
Yeah.
And then I have somebody in 8, 9, and 10.
And I think 11.
Wendy.
So Wendy's on 8.
Carries on 9.
Carries on 9.
10 is a gentleman, I forget his name.
I'm supposed to be pretty close there.
And they've got like 5.
I think that's ours that's actually split up across.
Yeah.
I've got doing two.
Yeah.
5A and 5B.
So is a total of 9, Ken Paul?
9 or 10?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
Well, these people down the bottom are only there.
Mario is the only one there, that last 14, the 2 in the middle, 12 and 13 aren't there.
Okay, these guys are not here.
Okay.
It's looking pretty good.
All right.
So, moving on.
What's our next item.
Next item is muster field signage.
Yeah.
Update?
Update.
Update on musterfield signage is, do you have actually a pitcher or no, I do.
I do.
I don't.
Yeah.
I'll get it.
So, we don't have to do it.
Okay.
They'll see it soon enough.
So we created signage for the muster field at six historical occasions.
So we're going to be installing six posts at the muster field in specific sites where they're of historic interest.
There is an example of one of them.
Actually, if you scroll down, George, maybe to the.
Can you zoom out a little bit?
I'm trying to.
I'm sorry.
Freaking you out.
Under pressure.
Yeah, no.
Can you go to the Thorntons Ferry one?
Thornton's Ferry one?
Yeah.
All right.
So.
So at the musterfield, we're going to have six posts.
And on those six posts, it's going to be, it's going to designate six historical locations at the musterfield.
One of which right there is Thornton's Ferry.
It's going to provide a brief write-up of the history.
It's got a photo and it's got a QR code.
When you scan that QR code, it brings up a website that gives you more detail.
So the six sites are going to be the cellar hole that's right at the front of the property.
Thornton's Ferry, the old schoolhouse, where the old meeting house and the burial ground was,
the muster field itself.
And then we have a general one for a lot of the buildings that were along the road.
And so there's a corresponding website with all that stuff.
The website has been built.
The signs have been designed.
The signs have been sent to the printer.
Hopefully we'll get them back next week.
And I just scanned that QR code and it does work.
That's why I try doing it from there too.
That'll be pretty cool.
So where's the school one going to be?