Pelham
Conservation Commission
MEETING:
Members Present: Members Absent:
Bob Yarmo, Chairman
Ronald Bourque
Sanja Kakkad
Meeting brought to order by Chairman Robert Yarmo at
V & G Development,
Hearing Postponed until next meeting – Reason: Plans are not ready.
Conservation Commission did preliminary site walk; there are wetlands impacts.
Preliminary Plans for a 24-lot subdivision are presented by
Tony Valsil, Senior Project Manager with James Swanson. Tony stated he is new to the Pelham
area. This is approximately a 45-acre
piece of land located at the end of
Chairman Yarmo asks the names of the abutters and whether there are any town-owned lands that abut this parcel and how many wetlands crossing. Answer: there are 2 wetlands crossings. Member Bourque asks if there are any plans for an alternative road. Answer: this was looked at and by putting the road down the right-of-way it created a bigger wetlands impact. The wetlands have been flagged. Soils testing are currently being done. Conservation will sign off on the wetlands permit once a site walk has been done and an environmental report is available. The Planning Board needs to take possession of the plans before Conservation makes their recommendation.
Map36,
A site walk has to be scheduled if date agreeable with the
consultants. (Aug 29 –
OLD BUSINESS:
Meeting minutes not available, we do not have a recording
secretary says Chairman Yarmo. A
recording secretary is coming onboard within a couple of weeks.
Road Salt Proposal – Things that can be accomplished now
are not to salt near the bridges. Mr.
Pitts will be working on this with us.
New Wetlands Map now available but is rather small. Mr.
Bourque will email his comments to the chairman.
NEW BUSINESS:
The Commission finally got the no cut, no disturbance
signs that had been requested. The
intent is to post these along the WCD so as to advise the builder/developer of
these areas. This involves erosion
control. They should be posted at the
same time as the wetlands flagging takes place.
Signs should be made of metal. A
proposal will be requested from Hammar Sign.
The signs will be made available to the developers for a cost.
The Conservation Commission has received notification that
hydro-seeding discharge had taken place on Gumpus Pond twice. A truck had discharged the remains of their
load into the pond then proceeded to fill their tanks, then left. This happened near the Tibbett’s property.
The truck had identification on it as N.E. Landscaping.
Hydro-seeding trucks are allowed to take water out of open
waters unless the town specifically states otherwise. They are not to disturb the soil in the water
or at the water’s edge.
Chairman Yarmo says currently there are five (5) wetlands
violations filed with the state. One was
off
Member Ron Bourque had reminded that while out on one of the
site walks he had commented that it would be nice to have a camera and
recommends a small digital camera. The
pictures can go right into the document where a violation is found says Mr.
Bourque. We could do a before and after
picture says Mr. Bourque. Mr. Yarmo
agrees and says there should be money in the budget to purchase a camera. Storage of the camera was discussed. There is no developing nor is there any
developing with this type camera. Mr.
Bourque agreed to look into this.
Chairman Yarmo discusses the issue of the Conservation
Commission getting involved with site walks, etc., before the Planning
Department takes possession of the plans.
The town attorney had written a letter to the town planner explaining
how and why the Conservation Commission can take on projects on a preliminary
conceptional consultation phase.
MEETING ADJOURNED at
Respectfully
submitted,
Glennie
M. Edwards
Recording
Secretary