Meeting transcript
IWWC Meeting
August 7, 2023 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Thank you, Marina. I'll call the regular meeting of the Inland Wetlands Commission to order. First up is roll call. And I see we've got Bill Monroe, we've got Jan Maske, Duncan Fife, and myself. And that is all that's present after Ed Smith declined to attend tonight. So, everybody is seated as a regular member at this point. Next item on the agenda, changes in the order of the agenda. And I would like to shift items 9A and nine B around so that the election of officers is A and the annual report is B, because there were some things that I think once we have the election of officers, hopefully we'll be able to fill in some missing information on the annual report and get that done tonight. And that is all I had to change. Does anybody else have any changes or additions? Hearing none,
I'll make a motion to modify the agenda by shifting items 9A and 9B around. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Bill? Aye. Jan? Aye. Chair Duncan? Aye.
Chair And I vote aye as well. The motion passes four-zero-zero. Next up is the approval of the minutes from 07/11/2023, regular meeting minutes. Does anybody have any comments on the meeting minutes? And I had none. I had none. Bill or Duncan? No, no corrections. Nope. Should be all set. Okay.
Then I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from 07/11/2023 as presented. I'll second. Thank you, Jan. Any other discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. Bill? Aye. Jan? Aye. Duncan? Aye.
And I vote aye as well. The minutes are approved as presented by a vote of four-zero-zero. I don't think I see anybody from the public here tonight, so we will pass on Item five, public comment. Item six, old business, we've got none, which takes us to Item seven, the permit application 20 for William Nolette, 760 East Street. Agent Wagner, do you have anything new for us on that particular application since the last time we met?
No, nothing new. I did go over there and, walked the property with him again, kind of went over the same stuff we talked about, make sure everybody's on the same page, check the the dam that he put in place that's still holding. But, yeah, other than that, nothing new. He said he was thinking of phoning in for the meeting. Was gonna try, but apparently he's not here. Okay.
So what is going on with that? So is it is it is it continuing? Or What's what's that?
Yeah. Well, I mean, I know you'd started, you know, digging the trench and all that. I mean, so and I know you went to see him.
Yeah. Can he continue or not? I well, I I had told him to wait till you guys approve the permit before he didn't make work. I just had him put the the dam in and restore the flow to the Okay. The stream that was existing and and basically dry out his his man made brook until you guys ok'd everything.
Okay. And so if we approve it, he'll go in and put the slopes on the ditch that he had and do all that. And that's in the application in your narrative. He's going to execute in accordance with your narrative. Yeah, stabilize everything, seed it, and then after inspection, it'll slowly release the water.
Okay. Should there be any conditions of approval other than your standard conditions, Joe?
Let's see, I was thinking, I mean, we could do periodic inspections. I think I put that in the application description, that I would inspect it before the water was released from there.
That was the only condition that I was thinking we might add to the list. Yeah. Put it in when he
gets rid of the dam. Yeah. I put it in the project description so we didn't have to add it as a condition, I mean, we could add it in there anyway just to reiterate it if you want. I mean, it wouldn't hurt. I think that's the only thing because that's the important part is making sure it's stabilized and doesn't cause any more erosion before the water flows through it.
Could we add a condition that he creates the new stream in accordance with your narrative? Because I don't think your narrative was actually part of the application.
Yeah, was. Yeah, it was a project description. Okay. So it'll be in the permit that it's, know, this project description dated 07/03/2023. That'll be the one referenced in it. So basically have to follow that if the permit's granted.
Any other commission members have any other comments on things that we might want to add for conditions of approval?
I just have a quick question. If, I don't know, it washed out or something happened, you know, down the line on an inspection, does that get brought back in front of the board or is that something that, you know, just you deal with? It would be
something that I could deal with. If it wasn't if it wasn't addressed, then we could take a, you know, a new enforcement action or something. Like, say, the the permit wasn't followed and, you know, was it was unstable and it was causing more erosion, then we could do a separate enforcement action and bring that that back because the permit wasn't being followed. But I think if everything, you know, everything in the permit is followed, it shouldn't shouldn't create a problem. But if it does, yeah, it could be a it would be basically, it'd be a new violation. Okay.
So just so I understand. So if we give him the okay, he goes and does whatever he needs to do Mhmm. Without releasing that water. And then you go out there, inspect it. Yeah. And then at that time, if you say, okay, is there any other do we get involved again, or is it just from you?
No. I mean, you should be you should be okay. I mean, I could I'll I'll brief you with a report and probably take some pictures and present them to the commission later, so you can see what the then result of it. But as far as you needing to come before the commission anymore, no, it shouldn't need I to mean, I'm just new to this, so I'm just trying to understand. I
think it's kind of a go no go, Jen. It's either meets the conditions that Joe spelled out in the project description or he doesn't release the water until it does. Joe goes And for
if there's something that you think needs to be added, can you can make a motion to add a certain Yeah. No. I mean, that wasn't the case. It was just to understand how it's gonna get to the end.
Joe, I had a question on that man made pond. It was my understanding that it's a man made pond, and there's a stream that runs through it. Mhmm. The stream got backed up. The the silt got backed up and was creating a a flooding situation into his yard near his home. Is that correct? Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. It was it's silted up the stream outlet, and then the stream was basically had a really shallow channel. So then the channel would overflow, and then it would spill into his yard. And then there was a wetland crossing on the drive, the next driveway down, and it would the water would basically flow downhill before it reached that crossing, and then it would just flood across the driveway instead.
I'm just wondering, since it is a man made pond, can he do anything about that? I mean, is that like a once it's a once it's a pond, it's always a pond. Or can he do anything with that? Yeah. Like,
you even if you create a water course, it still kind of falls. Once you create it, it falls under wetlands regulations. So even if it was a previous owner, or if it was a grab a pit dug upon and it filled up, then they would they would have to go through wetlands commission if later they wanted to fill it in or change it or something. So just kind of falls under manmade or natural still.
Because I was thinking of it, if that pond is getting all back, I don't know how what the situation is there. But there's got to be other ways to aerate that pond. I mean, there's ways that you can get that water moving without it. You know, and to keep it moving and maybe it won't clog up on you.
Yeah, I think it just gets a high sediment load from because basically there's a farm uphill of the pond. Over the years, I think all the sediment running into the because there's two other ponds that flow into culverts and then into the next pond and then into a culvert and then into his pond. And I think they just collect sediment over the years and it kind of ends up in his. I
think, yeah, you weren't here on the last meeting, Bill, but, you know, one of the things that kind of surprised me is how come the pond didn't fill in but the outstream did? You would think the pond would fill in first. Yeah.
Well, I think I think the pond did fill in. Mean, it didn't completely fill in, but it definitely was a lot of fine sediment. And that's when when he blew his damn out. And then I got the complaints was was all that fine sediment that collected into the pond and then and then he released it down into this stream.
Oh, so he already had water flowing through the new trench.
Yeah, that's what Yeah. I got you. When I saw it, that's what was. And then he you know, we I asked him to dam it back up, so he did it when I was there.
But it does seem that, you know, the end condition here is going to be better, at least for his neighbor who keeps getting flooded out than it was before, you know we we did what we're doing so.
Yeah, it should be. That's all should be better for the pond to place in the outlet and. In the stagnant end so. Should should improve that water quality too.
And nothing has to be done with like at the Hirsch farm that no changes have to be made there?
No, I mean, some of that falls under there's there's some agricultural exemptions that he's subject to, so we don't have jurisdiction over a lot of that, but he's not it's it's just like gradual sultation through the agricultural use. It'd be hard for us to assert jurisdiction over that with his agricultural exemptions. That's kind of where Mr. Nolet got into trouble where he was taking advice from the farmer. He kind of falls under a different set. They're allowed to do quite a bit more than a homeowner.
Any other questions or comments? And again, I like having the discussion. All good stuff. Don't want to shortchange that any. So if you got questions, please bring them up. Okay, hearing none, I'll make a motion to approve the application twenty three-seven of William Nolette at 760 E Street with the standard conditions of approval and adding the additional condition that agent Wagner be present to inspect the new channel before the dam is removed to release water into it? I'll second it.
Okay. Thank you, Jan. Any other discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Bill? Aye. Jan? Aye. Duncan?
Aye. Can I vote aye as well? The motion passes four-zero-zero. Okay. That is it for new business. We are going to move on to item eight, agent report and enforcement actions.
Alright. I had a couple of applications come in. I don't remember if I discussed the 196 Lake Road with you, but it was removal and reconstruction of a 50 foot stone retaining wall and a wooden gravel staircase. So the staircases, it's like wood four by fours, and then there's gravel filled in it. And that's not directly on the shore. It's a few feet from the shore, like it kind of wraps, slopes down the hill at the guy's backyard. There's pictures online. Yeah, slopes down, and then it ends up about three feet from the shore. So yeah, so that came and then the other one was 79 Lakeside as a new septic system repair. So 1,000 gallon concrete tank and a new leaching system. That was think it was about 25 feet from the lake. They had some issues with because they had to keep it a certain distance from the well. So they had to put it basically, they had one spot they could put it the area, but it was all well drained, so it shouldn't cause shouldn't cause any problem. And then we have our notice of violation at 7 68th Street, which should be resolved with the permit approval. Then there was another one I'm working on that's not on the agenda. Was 31 Burnout Brook Road. When I was looking at another permit, he had applied for a carport that was actually didn't fall under our jurisdiction. But I was looking at the aerial photos, I noticed he did a bunch of clearing and put a bunch of asphalt millings down in Bloemer View area. So I sent him a letter, and he responded right away, applied for a permit, paid for it. So I just visited the site in the rain today
to look it over and working on that one now. I'll probably put that on next month's agenda to tell you about it. I haven't posted any of the materials for it yet. And I also spoke with Ryan Fitch from the tree farm, and they've been the past couple weeks, they've been working on clearing the brush and limbs that they caught from that pond that's off Route 6. Having them leave some of the big limbs and trees in the pond rather than drag them up the hill just because it's I think it would do more damage to the pond. I'm trying to bring him up, but he's working on going down and dragging stuff up. And he's got a big pile up in the tree farm that he's gonna chip. I guess he's on vacation right now, so he's gonna work on it when he gets back from vacation.
I was kind of hoping he'd get one of those big cranes down there and just lift those
Yeah. They need those out of the pond. The distinctive one that you see along the highway. Yeah. Yep. We all need one of those. Anything else, Joe? No, that's it for me, I think.
I have one question for you on 409 Lake Road, and that's where they're building a new house over there. And I remember in his application, had a detention pond that he was going to have on the property. Was that the rain garden?
The rain garden, yes. Yeah. Yep. And I didn't know if that was something he was actually building in there. Whereas I walked by there, you can see where there's a natural depression in on the south side of the driveway there. And I didn't know if that's what he was counting as a rain garden or if there's something else that I haven't seen him actually doing anything to create a rain garden. So I didn't know if he was taking advantage of the natural conditions there or I had missed something on his application.
I don't know. I haven't actually have to go visit the property. Haven't been there in a bit. But I think it was further. I think the rain garden was further in, like a little closer to the house, in that clear area that I had. Okay, yep. I know there's a big clearing on
what I think is the north side of the driveway. Well, anyhow, I hadn't seen any groundwork done to create a rain garden.
Yeah. I wonder if they're waiting till they've finished landscaping to do that. Because from what I remember from the plan, I think it was a swale, kind of like a swale going up and they're going to use that to infiltrate the water. It might be just something they're going to do with topsoil when they're done, but I'll have to look at it.
Any other questions for Agent Wagner at this point? Okay, that completes that. Marina, going back, I was looking at the minutes from the previous meeting instead of the agenda. And so the discussion on the application should have been old business and not new business. So, I got those turned around. I thought from looking at the minutes, it was new business on the application, but that was from last month's meeting. This month, it is now old business. So if you put it in the right spot on there, I'd appreciate it. Sure, I will do that. Thank you. Okay, moving on to other business. And we will start out with the election of officers. And I will start by, I would nominate Bill Monroe to be the Chairman of the Inland Wetlands Water Coors Commission. And I don't hear Bill hitting A comment? Tooth and nail.
I was actually going through all that work that George, our wonderful George Elliott did before he retired. And the bylaws, the Andover chairmans, Andover wetlands and water courses. Commission's bylaws and. I don't his he's got a lot of chairman has a lot of responsibilities besides. This what you did here going through the list. And. I I I don't know how to put this any other way, except that I'm not really plugged in on the computer world, if you will. I don't this is about as much as I do on computers. This is one hour Zoom meeting once a month. I don't have any experience on computers. I I don't send out emails. I don't do text messages. I don't do any of that. You'd be surprised that there are people still like me out there in the world. I'm like, I'm in still in the '19 seventies, maybe '70. Yeah, '74 when all that started to change. That all came out. I was I just was working so many hours every day in my every
single day that I never actually I never got plugged in and I'm still not plugged in. So I would be Okay with sitting doing like an acting chairman if we needed somebody to come in and just do it like what you did tonight, Jed. But it's the other responsibilities that I think I'd be negligent on. Just I wouldn't even be I would have to get all different kinds of computer equipment, which I don't have. And I just I don't know if I'm the right pick. Would that's
all I got to say. Wanted to let you know.
Well, the I so I'm hearing that you would prefer not to be the chairman.
I would be okay with doing something like, I don't, you know, I realize that even being an acting chairman is like putting a pronoun before the word chairman. What about putting two pronouns before that? How about like acting co chairman and maybe have two chairman for a little while? And that somebody that can do all the computer work that needs to be done, sending out information and to different parties, and then somebody that can just kinda run the meeting a little bit or at least, like, run the meeting until it gets hung up and then ask you, what am I supposed to do now? Well,
you know, one of the things that could be possible is that I know before each planning and zoning meeting, I get together with Jim Hallisey. And, you know, I get a lot of training by him, and we do a lot. I think, you know, Agent Wagner would be very amenable to working with you there. You go back to the bylaws, and it says we have two officers. We have a chairman and a vice chairman. And so we probably ought to go with that. One of the things I was going to talk about a little bit further on when we look at the annual report talks about two people did the state's inland wetlands watercourse training. I think, I know I was one, and I thought it was very helpful. And probably, I don't know if George was the other one or if somebody else had done that or not. But unfortunately, my memory isn't very good, so I don't remember a lot of what I got done in training. But I did think it was very worthwhile when I was going through it, And maybe it put a couple of nuggets in there. So that would be something, and I don't know what your time schedule is, Bill, to support that. I do think it's, you know, at this point, you know, it's probably not
fair to nominate Duncan. He's got, you know, the smallest amount of time here. But if you look at what I did for this meeting and the last one, all I did was run the meeting, you know, and it went okay. So, Joe did a pretty good job of getting all the stuff ready to go. And I'm sure that there could be some on the job trainings you go through. But I'll just throw another rock out in the pond and nominate Jan Maskey to be the chairman.
Oh, no. No, I mean, we talked a couple of weeks ago, and I said I could help with the computer part of it. That doesn't scare me. So if that was the issue, you know, if if you're going to struggle with the computer, I could help on the computer side and maybe as a team, we could get it done. I mean, I'm very green. I'm the other one that took that course. There's a lot of information. It it certainly didn't sink in.
Yep. I know exactly what you mean. Yep. Yep. But
I'm willing, you know, I'm willing to to to take on the challenge, not chairman, though, not chairman. But I guess I'd be willing to help. Pickings are slim.
Yep. I think that's the situation we're in really, even though I've been on the commission for a couple of years now. It's all been on Zoom.
And yeah, and you and I talked about that and I said, why are we still on Zoom?
Well, it's I was going to go like it's isolated, you know, on a Zoom thing. It's really not all that helpful for developing, you know, skills as a commissioner, you know, when you're just learning to be a commissioner. It's it's a real a little bit for me anyway. It's it's it's. I don't know. Get I get the I you know, I kind of didn't get the gist of a meeting and all, but I think we're missing out on some stuff that to to improve our skills that we only we have three members now and I consider myself a newcomer even though I've been doing it for a couple years because it's been all on Zoom all the time.
But don't you think I mean we're both on that other committee, I mean don't I get more out of the other committee being face to face with people. Is it that January appeals zoning appeals. Okay, yeah.
Right. You can, you can have a conversation, you can have a side conversation with someone and you know, pick up a little bit more than kind of here you got a one at a time thing.
Well, think we are still on Zoom meetings because George found it easier to hear. So I think, you know, the calendar for the community room is probably show to have to check out for us there, but I bet you the space in the community room is available on our standard meeting nights because I don't see a lot of other stuff on the town calendar for them. So that is something that the chairperson could change very quickly. We went back to in person meetings with planning and zoning and actually we're doing it hybrid now and it works pretty well. We do, the So Commission does meet in the community room and there are a lot of advantages to that.
Would the two of you, and unfortunately, know, Ed Smith gives inklings that he might be coming back to full membership and he might be the most knowledgeable on this stuff. I'm not sure if he'd be willing to do it and he chose not to attend tonight, so I can't put him on the spot. I was hoping to twist his arm and put him in some pain there after he had whatever else replaced, but it's going to work, you know. If we were to have Bill as, you know, the chair and Jan as the vice chair,
would that be acceptable to make it go? And you're not there alone. Joe's got the obligation to make sure you guys are ready to come in and succeed. Can I add something too? Yeah. Yeah. I
know, like when I first started here, Megan Lowley was the chairman, and she was very hands on. She was always calling, talking, emailing me. We're going back and forth a lot. She would draft the agenda, she would do a lot of emailing. So then when George took over, it was basically like I draft the agenda and then check the links, and and then I send it to him the week before. And they're like, hey. Review this. Let me know if you want me to add or change anything. And he would, you know, add this, delete that, whatever. It's good. So it kind of took much more passive role. So I basically never met with him. Don't think I ever met with him outside of the meeting. Really? I mean, it really depends on what you want to do as a as a chairman, you know, if you wanted to draft the agenda, if you wanted to have a hand say in enforcement actions or, you know, a lot of that, you can kind of take a more active role if you wanted to sit back and, you know, just proof it before it gets posted and and stuff like that. And, I mean, that's kind of what George was doing. So he basically just ran the meetings and
and he would he did the annual report. But, I mean, that's kinda kinda work off the previous year. And, you know, I had the stuff and check with it, I'd be willing to help with that too. Yeah, it's kind of you can kinda customize a little bit to suit your skills. I mean, again, running a meeting like a chairman, you don't really need, you you need to know how to run the meeting efficiently and legally, it's not necessarily you don't need to have the most wetlands experience to do it. It's more of the procedural aspect of it that that is good there.
I mean, I just my personal I don't wanna be thrown to the wolves. I I you know, like, sink or swim kind of thing. That's what I'm, I would be nervous about. Megan is my neighbor. So, I mean, I could reach out to her and, and, you know, ask her for a little help. But, and I'm sure she would. Yeah.
You know, that that's my fear is, you know, how much help will Bill and I get?
Yeah. I mean, usually, I mean, if I'm here, I would I mean, that's basically I I did a lot of the meeting prep and stuff. And like I said And I gotta tell you, that's another thing with these Zoom meetings. Like, you you say you're here.
I I'm sure if you and I walked past each other, you know, we wouldn't know that we were Yeah. You know, and that's what I don't like about the Zoom meetings. I I understand through COVID, you had to do it this way.
It would be nice. It would be nice to see people. I'm a fan of in person meetings too. We we went back. I'm on Wyndham's Wellings Commission, and we went back quite a while ago to and we do a hybrid one, so people can phone in or log in if they need to, but everybody is pretty much there.
Yep, that little owl camera that Eric's got in the community room seems to do a pretty good job for the hybrid beatings, you know, and Marina knows how to work it. She's a pro. Nice. And so, it goes well. So, I think, you know, it's an easy transition. We just have to have Joe check the calendar to make sure the room's available before go that way. I don't know, Bill, what do you think?
Oh, I'm all for, even if it's just temporary, at least until, like, whoever this transitioning period. If we screw up, then we're out. No, no, that's so easy. Easy.
Yeah, right. I'm going to stay on the commission one way or the other if I'm chairman or if I'm a just a regular member, I would rather I would rather, you know, through this transition, I would rather see us go to the community room. I think it would be really helpful for, because you we really have three, three little ducklings here. I still consider myself a newcomer. And I think it would help us a lot. And it would I think it would solve our little dilemma for the moment, and then we'll work from there after so many meetings if we feel like, Okay, I got this. If we don't
know, Ed, how long has he been on the this commission, this group? Who?
Ed Smith. Oh, well, he's been on longer than I have, and I've probably been on, you know, maybe three to four years. I can't remember. Was And you just don't want to be chair?
No, I've got, you know, planning a zoning chair keeps me fully engaged with more hours per week that I should be putting into to down stuff. You know, I'm on this commission as the liaison because I find it helpful to hear what's coming down the road so I can get a step ahead of it and figure it out from zoning perspective. Not something that I'm going to be chairman of the two different commissions. We've got enough people, somebody else can be the chairman of this one. Bill, it's up to you.
Well, so I don't know. Would be I would accept that chairmanship, but with conditions. Conditions of approval?
Yeah, I'll it's like one thing is we we need at least temporarily to have some live meetings. So that just to just even to little things like, you know, when you ask a question, I was listening to your let's make a motion. Is there any discussion? It was like, when are these questions exactly? What, you know, what, just the time that you ask them, and you know, it's like that. And I am totally no help when it comes to emails. I don't do that stuff. You know it's
I that's why I was kind of how many emails did you get from George?
Well, went out emails, I get emails, but I don't send them out. Know I gotcha. Once in a while I'll hit that little arrow there and then you can type something in and then you can send it back. That that part.
That's about all I really know. And if anything doesn't go perfectly the way it's supposed to go, you're not going to get any information.
Something there's a hiccup, I'm done, know, it's like, okay, no, I
understand. Think, you know, that's solvable with the help of Jan or Joe. You know, nobody's nobody's going to hang either. Of you out to dry on that. There's nothing to be gained by that.
Yeah, mean, could work with that. If you wanted a paper draft agenda to work off of, then
I could print it out and we could I print it out and I have to look at I'm one of these guys. I have to look at that. A No, I
I'm not a loaner, Bill. I print out all that stuff to review it. I don't want to review it on the screen. I like to make notes on my paper copy and all that kind of stuff.
I also have something that I remember Megan sent it to me. It was like a slideshow on how to run legal and effective public meetings, and it goes through a lot of that procedural stuff that you're talking about, Bill. That one's pretty good. I'll find it. I think I have it on my computer. I can find it and send it to everybody. It's good information to know.
It is good. And sometimes, you know, I know I've been known to goof it up every now and then, but Marina makes it look good in the minutes. Yeah, you should see us in Wyndham. Yeah, okay.
Maybe we can get some glass out of it if something else. And I do think
that both you and Jan would be surprised how fast you learn when you start doing it. And Bill, we can make it so that you can do more than just get email. We can teach you how to send one out. I'm absolutely confident that we can get the whole thing set up in your directory. All you have to do is type in IWWC and all the members show up. It's all set and ready to go out.
Yeah. Okay, well, so where do we go from here? I mean, do you, it sounds like you need to have some kind of an established chairman and established vice chair. I again, think if we can, our next meeting should be live.
Okay, well, you know, in and I'm not computer smart enough where I'm willing to go out and check on the town calendar right this minute to see if there's anything else going on. I am confident enough to know that we can vote to go back to live meetings. Joe can check if he's not doing it even as we speak to see what the calendar's got there and go live. You know, we'll take that up as an item under miscellaneous tonight that we're going to we'll vote on going back to in person meetings. You know, I don't think Joe's already at town hall, it's no imposition for him.
No one's in there now. I don't usually see anybody on our meeting tonight. So tonight, it just says Board of Fire Commissioners,
regular meeting, seven to eight. Yep. They do that over. They do that over the firehouse. Alright.
So then there's nothing else on calendar? I think it is open for us. We just choose not to use it. Like Jed said, I think George was happy doing the meetings from home.
Yeah. And in the winter, we might decide that you have time to go back to doing it from home. Don't know. Absolutely. Yep. Absolutely.
When the weather is nice and it's late, late, you know, reason not to go over to town hall and benefit from the in person meeting. Yeah, that's what it says.
Okay, so anyhow, we've got, I have nominated Bill for chairman. I haven't heard of any other, I haven't heard Bill say, No, I won't do it. Haven't heard anybody else says, yes, I'd like to be nominated too. Do you need a second? I'll second it, Bill. She's helping you out. Thanks. Aye.
Okay. So, there we have the motion. It's seconded. And I'll call for a vote. I'll let you start, Bill. Aye. Jan? Aye. Duncan? Aye.
And I vote aye as well. Motion passes four-zero-zero that Bill is the Chairman. Okay, next up is vice chairman, and I nominate Jan Maschke. I'll second that. Okay.
So, first, do I have to become a member first? Because now I'm an alternate. Alternate.
Oh, yes. Member? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we did talk about that. Yeah. And
So, I go back or can I just forget I was ever an alternate?
It was only for a month. Joe, you have any sense on that? My thought to Jan was that if we have an opening on the Commission, we can fill it, and we can fill it with an alternate from the Commission. Well, guess if I'm chairman. I remember joining even on the on the website
It's still listed as a regular number, and it's still because it was just when it it was just last month I switched to the alternate.
Yeah, and Ed Smith is an alternate. He still hasn't said that he doesn't want to be an alternate, so there's still.
A We've got room for some member vacancy anyway because guards five room for five members. Yeah. So everybody could be a full member Everybody could be a full member. And and I'm looking forward to having Ed be a full member here after he finishes his recovery. But as far as I'm concerned, Jan, if you have no objections, you are now a regular member. I will make the annual report reflect it as so. That's why I wanted to do the That's why, yep. After. Okay. Okay. Any other nominations for vice chairman? You sure, Duncan?
I think maybe once I spend a little more time on the board and understand the flow of everything we'll see how it goes but I'm definitely open to it in the future.
Good. Good. So, can I ask? Is there a term on this or is it can it be changed at any time? Are we locked into something? Let me Let me ask it to the chairman.
I think it's for a year. I think it's in Well,
and I was going to so when we talk about the bylaws, we're not there yet, it does talk about a one year term. I thought it should be a two year term just so that, you know, and I also looked in the bylaws for this. Nothing that I could find in the bylaws discussed how long our terms are. But George, you know, said that we were nominated for two year terms with the Board of Selectmen. And I thought chairmanship should maybe run with that. But right this minute, I think it talks about a one year tour in the bylaws. So if you voted not to change that, you know, that one year goes by before you can blink an eye.
Yeah, think that's a good thing, especially right now because you might not want me on there for two years.
Okay. Well, we'll take that one step at a time. Okay. Sounds good. A year from now, you'll still be the most experienced guy on the commission.
Well, you never know. Some things change. Was a little surprised that everything is in the wetlands is appointed Or we volunteer and then we're appointed? There's no election or anything like that, not like the other committees.
Well, most of the commissions are appointed. You know, if you look on the website at all the different commissions out there, there's probably 23 or so. You know, there's a bunch. There's a handful that get elected Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, Planning and Zoning, Board of Ed, Zoning Board of Appeals. I don't know if any of the other ones do or not, but those are the ones that are elected. Oh, I see. And
all the rest are appointed by the Board of Selectmen. Okay. Okay.
There was a question out there somewhere. Guess the term, it was on the term length and right this minute, it is in our bylaws is one year. Okay. Let's run with that. Okay.
So, I think we're any other discussion on Jan being the vice chair? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Bill? Aye. Jan? Aye.
Duncan? Aye. And I vote aye as well. The motion passes four-zero-zero. Congratulations, Jan. Congratulations, Bill. I'll do my best.
I know you will. And it'll go fine because, as you say, you know, it's there's no advantage to any of the Commission members to have you not be successful. That just means one of the rest of us would have to go do it. And I really appreciate you guys stepping up to take that on. Okay. That completes the election of officers. The annual report, now we can talk about that a little bit tonight or we can put that off and Bill, you'd be able to take approval of that as an action at the next meeting. But as I read through it, you know, there weren't a ton of highlights in there on what went on, but there are some to be determined and vacants that we can fill in and we can get Jan up in the regular commissioning spot and
straighten up that little membership block. But other than that, I did not have much in the way of comments. Now, there's no due date for submitting this, so it's not like we got a time crunch. We could maybe get report tweaked up with the with the membership things and then vote on it next month, if that's okay with you, Bill.
Yeah, I would think so. That way we can. Right now I'm running blind. Can't even turn on anything else to to look it up or or whatever. Who
right now? Who who's the author of the annual report? I think George. Yeah. Yeah. George. George wrote this one. Okay.
I think he just kinda goes off of goes off of the previous year, and then you change, you know, whatever, add whatever you want. I think there's been there was more detail on some of the other ones, I think. But it was kind of a slow year last year, and this year is kind of slow too. So
Oh, okay. Good time for some new leadership to take over.
Well, was gonna say, so, I mean, I don't have a problem updating this. Who's got that file? Well, wasn't it? Didn't Joe send out the file
that he sent out? I sent the draft to everybody. Yeah. So, So, that's it. There's nothing else. No.
So, if you want to update that in preparation for the next meeting, Jan, that'd be great.
Well, was gonna say, does it just need updating with the names? Yes. And that's it?
That was all that I saw needed to be done in there. Okay. I can do that.
And so, yeah, on that second line where it says, Vice Chairman, vacant to be determined, now it says, All vacant Jan
right. Bill, I'm putting you in highlighted. All right. But everything else, like the application received, all that, that's All that's
good to go. Okay. There's no changes. Unless somebody has some stuff that they wanted to add to it, but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me that we should be adding to it at this point. Okay. And then where does this go? Just
to Joe? Once we approve it at the next meeting, I would say that you will help Bill forward that to Kate, copy to Eric, you know, so that they can, they build an annual report that's a compilation of all the different commission reports. Oh, okay. But we have to approve it first. Yep. Okay.
And I don't know that we have to approve it, but that's what I do. You know, I think that's you want to have it be the consensus of the Commission that Okay. So, mean, I
fix it, whatever, update it, and then we attach it to the meeting, to the agenda going out for next month? Yep. Okay. All right.
Okay. So, that completes our discussion on on the annual report. Next up is the review of the bylaws. And I don't know if everybody's had a chance to review the bylaws. Bill, did you see where those are online?
Well, I'm using my wife's iPad and George sent the email out like 21 and it's still on here for some reason. And I said, well, that's a great thing. I it's on my iPad. That's how I got it. I don't know how else you get it. Okay,
well, so you have to change the search date, right? Marina, if you allow me to share my screen, I'll get brave and try and call up the website. Okay. Okay. Did it work? Well, let's see. Not yet.
Well, it did work, but it was on the laptop that I was prepared to share that and not this. It's not going to work tonight.
Is it just the town website? I have it open here. Do you want me to pull it up? Yep, that'd be great. Thank you, Marina. Right. There. You'll just have to tell me where to go when I get here.
Okay, so that's the town of Andover website, Marina. If you click on the government thing there, now we come down and we'll click on appointed boards and commissions. And then scroll down until we get and we were talking about which ones are appointed and which ones are elected. All these are appointed. And we clicked on inland wetlands there. And this is the inland wetlands homepage. And if you see over on the left hand side in that little green box, you click on the bylaws, that takes you to the bylaws and that calls them up there. So So, that's how you get to the bylaws. So, the bylaws haven't been updated since '21?
That's correct. And that's, you know, essentially two years ago from the last appointment, you know, and I didn't, I don't recall when I looked in there and there's 27 pages, so we won't find it. Well, maybe when we're coming down to the table of contents here, we'll see. Yeah, I don't think there's anything on there on updating them. But, you know, what it says in the planning and zoning is after each election, chairman can update the bylaws. So my assumption was that after each appointment, which we've just gone through, we're all recently appointed by the Board of Selectmen, That would be a good time to oh, actually, scroll down to Section seven, Marina, under Election of Officers.
Maybe that's where I saw something on there. So, yeah, under the 07/2001, first meeting July will be the annual organization meeting, which time officers will be elected and bylaws reviewed and made part of the minutes of the meeting. So, I don't know. I would have thought that it would say something about updating the bylaws, but we're reviewing them and we can update them as appropriate. But that was all that I recalled seeing about the bylaws as I read through this earlier. It does say one year too on there. Yeah, no. And that's why when I was reading that, I said, that should be two years because we should do it after we have a reappointment by the Board of Selectment. But we can certainly keep it, you know, at the one year point at that point. So, my recommendation would be that, you know, the next meeting, everybody take a look at that.
When I reviewed it today, I had two comments on the bylaws. And one is on page 13. So if you scroll down one more page there, Marina, and it talks about, I think, where it talks about holidays and it might be in the first paragraph. Yeah, the fourth line down. If at any time the regular meeting date is a holiday, the regular meeting will be held on the following Thursday unless otherwise scheduled in the early calendar. And since I've been on commission, we've always met on the Tuesday of the following week. And so, I would say we should update the bylaws to reflect that's our practice. But other than that, I thought the bylaws were in pretty good shape. So, we already talked about the one year term versus two year term. We want to keep that. My only comment would be that we put in the bylaws that we will, you know, for a holiday, we'll meet on the following Tuesday. But I think, you know, we should review it as we get ready for next meeting,
and then Bill can, you know, act on any updates desired to the bylaws. And I don't think there'll be very many. I think they're in pretty good shape. Sound like a plan, Bill? Yes. Okay. You can close that out, Marina. We're done with the bylaws for tonight. Thank you very much. Last item is membership and recruitment for the twenty twenty three-twenty twenty five term. And, you know, we still do have some spots available. If anybody's aware of people that, you know, would like to do a little volunteer work for the town and join us, I think Ed will pop up into a regular meeting as early as next month so we could use three alternates, and that's a very easy way somebody to start participating in the town stuff. And it's important to the town, so it's good stuff there, but I don't have any other leads now. I gave all my leads to George and
I don't think any of those came to fruition at the present. But if you guys know, ask if they want to join, you know, have them show up, watch a meeting or two, and we'll go from there.
Good. Can I ask a question? Yep. On the annual report, you know where the names were? Going through that. You need just have the planning and zoning representatives there on this agenda or on this? Do you have your name? It says regular commission plus and then it says planning and zoning?
Yep. So In the bylaws it says that planning and zoning will nominate a Member to be a regular Commission Member so. Oh okay. So. That's me.
Okay, but so it needs to be there Yep. It needs to be identified. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Any other questions on any of those topics? Okay, next item up is the next regular meeting, Tuesday, September 12, because of the Labor Day holiday at 7PM. And this is a good time to discuss. Does anybody have any concerns about meeting in person over in the community center? Certainly.
And I guess we've heard from Jan, heard from Bill. Duncan, you're the I don't know you can't have to travel more than 15 miles if you live in Andover, so you can't be too far away from the town hall. It's not that town Yeah, we are on all four meetings
in person. Okay. Haven't met everyone yet, so I think that'd be a good thing. Yep,
think And it so we will do that, Joe. So make sure that you go in and make sure that the town clerk has the meetings on her calendar because that's the official calendar. And as we saw in our last planning and zoning meeting, I had the only thing listed on the town calendar for the last Tuesday, but on Carol's calendar, it was something different. She had the Republican caucus in there. And so we ended up meeting online last month for planning and zoning. So check out her calendar and make sure that she knows that we're planning on meeting just so there's no hiccups with that.
Okay. Is this, so would this be a hybrid meeting or would it just be a full in person meeting?
I would say hybrid if we need it. If somebody can't make it, like, say, Ed I know I I saw them using that at at the caucus, and seems like it's pretty good. I mean, was there except there was a few people that couldn't make it, some handicapped people.
The other advantage to doing the hybrid is that it makes it easy to record. I don't know how the Commission's well, I'll ask Bill, how does the zoning Board of Appeals record their meetings? I think maybe you should ask Marina. Okay, I'll ask Marina. I am the recorder.
The last one I did a couple of weeks ago was just in person. No Zoom, no hybrid, nothing. So I just took the minutes while I was sitting there, took some notes and Yep. It was a pretty short meeting. Okay.
But, Marina, do you know how to do like, if we did wanna do a hybrid, do you know how to set that up? Oh, shoot. Oh.
Yeah. I've I've been doing it for planning and zoning with Jed when they switched to hybrid.
So I mean, could you just show us our next meeting or Yeah. Yeah. And I think Eric actually bought a laptop
strictly for hybrid meetings. It's locked to a cart in the community room, so it connects right to the big screen, the big TV that's on the wall there. And then there's the camera for the hybrid meetings there too. So pretty easy to set up. Yeah.
For us that attend, all we have to do is show up, you know. Right. The owl camera focuses on who's ever speaking and projects you onto the screen. So it's really easy from a participant standpoint. If you wanted to present something, that would be a little different. You'd have to, you know, bring in a laptop or send it to Joe or Marina so that they could, you know, put it up on the screen. For us to show up much easier than Zoom.
So, it may be nice. I mean, hopefully we all can attend next, you know, next meeting, but it'd be nice while we're all there. If Marina, if you could show us. Like I said, just in case Ed can't make it and he wants to dial in or whatever. Right. Yeah, we can do that. Yep.
Okay, so that's the next meeting will be in person hybrid from the community room on September 12, 07:00. Anything else that anybody's
got on their mind here before we adjourn? Chad, I was just looking at the calendar quick to see if there is anything that night and there is a recreation commission meeting, but I think they normally meet in Carol's office. So I don't know if Joe, if you're there tomorrow, if you wanna check with Carol and see Yep. That's it. What your plan is?
Yeah. I'll have to look. I'm actually leaving leaving town tomorrow, but Oh, okay. I'll I'll send her an email tonight. Yeah. Leave here.
Just I was gonna say, Joe, I could call tomorrow. It doesn't matter. Do you want me to take care of it? You wanna go on vacation? Yeah. I mean, I can call her about setting up the meeting, you know, on the calendar and stuff. Okay. All right? Yeah. That'll work. And then I'll just I'll verify that September 12 deal. Sounds good.
Okay. Got it. Anything else before we adjourn? Well, again, thank you, Bill. Thank you, Jan, for stepping up. And we'll make sure that we succeed there with the help of Joe. And I make a motion that we adjourn. Second. I'll second it.
Duncan, did you second that? Yes, I did. Okay. Duncan. Think Duncan got in there first. So Duncan was the second. All in favor say aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion passes four-zero-zero. Thank you very much everybody for attending tonight. We'll see you in person next month. Good night, everyone. Good night, everybody. Good night. Bye.