Meeting transcript
IWWC Regular Meeting
July 11, 2023 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
And if. Looks like. We don't have enough people for a quorum yet. So I can see if I can give Shannon a call and see if she was going to join us. I haven't heard from her that she wasn't coming, so I know. Bill Warner isn't coming. So I'll give her a call. Okay, she's coming. She said she wanted about five minutes. I can do that, you bet. All right, thanks. It was just one of those afternoons.
Well, it's 07:06 and I would like to call the Inland Wetlands Watercourse Commission regular meeting to order. I am Joe has asked me to go through the agenda because we don't have a chairman or a vice chairman at the moment. Okay. And so I will try to fill in that role. So roll call and seating of alternates. There's only the three of us. Commissioner Maskey, Commissioner Fife, and Commissioner Larson. No alternates are here and none. I guess, Jan, you're here and is an alternate now. That your status? Okay, so you're seated as a commission member, that gives I you know
if George told you why I did that. I mean, if there's an issue that you don't have enough people, mean, will try to make sure that I'm here all the time. Okay, yep. All right.
Thank you. Changes in the order of the agenda or additions to the agenda. Agent Wagner, did you have I saw there was another application that showed up in the online file that wasn't on the agenda. Did you want to add that tonight?
I'm not a. It's a wall. It's in. It's not on the in the wetlands, so it's it's an upland review area. Okay. I'm waiting for some more information on that, but as far as I know, it's an agent approved approval one. Okay, so then we will not add that to the agenda.
And barring that then, I see no need for any changes or additions to the agenda. Anybody else have any thoughts on that. Hearing
none we'll move on to item four, which is the approval of the Minutes. And I will make a motion to approve the 06/05/2023 regular meeting minutes. I can second it. Okay, thank you, Jan.
Hopefully everybody, And has everybody had a chance to review those minutes? I did. Okay, and I see Duncan's nodding his head as well. I have no comments on the on the minutes. Anybody else have any comments? Comments.
Okay. Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Jan? Aye. Duncan? Aye.
And I vote aye as well. The minutes are approved by a vote of 300. Next item is public comment, and I see nobody from the public here tonight. And so. We'll move on to. Old business which there is none. This down to. New business. And we've got permit application 23Dash7. William know let 760 E Street relocation of pond outlet partial relocation and excavation of intermittent watercourse which drains into tributary of Burnout Brook. Agent Wagner, you want to try
and. Yeah I was kind of. Hoping mister Nolet would be here. He had I think he had to work. Appreciate. Yeah. He had some kind of training at work, so he was gonna try to come, but he didn't think he could. So I've been working with him to get this application together Kind of on short notice, but, yeah, it's it's part of, it's related to the violation that's also in the agent report enforcement actions. I don't know if you guys had a chance to take a look at, any of those materials.
I looked at the application. If you had something under the enforcement action, I forgot to look in that place. Thought I had everything I needed in the application, sort of. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's basically the same information.
But anyway, so so this application is, let's see. There's, there's a man made containment pond on 760 East Street on the, let's see, that would be the south side of the property. And then there's a intermittent stream that flows from into that through a culvert from two to two containment ponds at let's see what the address is. That Hearst it's at Hearst Farm, which is 746 East Street. So two two ponds at the farm flow into this third pond on the applicant's property, 760 East Street, and then it flows into a stream, intermittent water course, which flows across this property to the north, under the driveway of 768 East Street, and then into a pond on 780 East Street. So over the years, all agricultural activity uphill of 760 East Street has caused a lot of sediment to go into the pond and into the brook. That during heavy rainfalls, the basically the stream overflows because the channel just doesn't really exist. It's very flat. It's maybe only a couple of inches at certain spots. There's a photo, couple of aerial photos I found that kind of demonstrate this. Let's see. I can share the screen if see if I have access. If, Marina, maybe you could share the or or get it up on the screen for me if you want. Where was it located?
It's it's under the inland water courses commission submitted pending applications and its existing conditions.
Okay. Can I just ask a question while we're bringing this up? Is there any issue so when Bill bought bought that property, I was a real estate agent, and I I know Bill. Mhmm. Is there any issues that being on, you know, being on this committee?
It's kinda up to you to decide if it's a conflict of interest.
I mean, it's not. I I certainly can make a fair decision, but I just wanted to, you know, I wanted to put it out there just to know. Yeah. That this is a small town. There's there's a lot of, you know, people that know other people in here. So,
I mean, if if you feel like it, then, I mean, by all means, you know, I should Okay. Okay. I just wanted it out there. Which link, Joe?
It's existing conditions prior to homeowner site work. Got it. And so this map here is a total map, so you can see that it's basically downhill from, 768, and then from the farmland at Hearst Farm into those two containment ponds, which eventually flow into this one. So I think that's where the majority of the silt came from over the years. What is a containment pond specifically? It's
I don't know. It's it's actually that's what I'm another guy that was that sent me an email for the enforcement action called it. It's actually just a man made pond. So I guess in the agricultural use, it would be, you know, used to store water for irrigation and stuff, which which probably was what it was for at one point, and it's not 760 Street isn't being used as a farm anymore, so, we could just call it a man made pond.
Okay. Yep. Just look familiar with that term and used it in
those. If you don't mind scrolling down one map, I think. Yes, you can see in this one, actually, if you go down to the one below this, it'll be better. So this map is the 2016 aerial photo. And, this shows the channel to the brook it's kind of starting to split apart. And you know, through the years, it kind of goes through various stages where it's like a single channel and then it splits off and braids and stuff because it's getting filled in with the sediment. So if you don't mind scrolling up to the second one. So this is 2019, where it's a really good example of the stream channel just kind of spilling out into the yard. You can see there's kind of a like an L shape in the center of the photo and then it kind of branches off. And it actually flows out of the stream channel down the hill and across the driveway of 768 East Street below the culvert, which was designed to carry the water across the pond. So what the homeowner was trying to do, which is the enforcement action was to fix this problem by excavating basically a new stream downhill of the existing one. And that's all the pictures that were on the map and everything. That's when I went out there and got involved in it. And he's been very cooperative. He wasn't sure he was taking advice from his neighbor, which is who was a farmer,
and kind of did a lot of things that had agricultural use of right. And he was just following that thinking that he didn't need a permit. And I informed him that he did. So that's why we're here. So his plan is to we kind of came up with it together, is to leave the new outlet that he created, which is at the western end of the pond. So the original outlet came across on the, let's see, the eastern side of the pond, and went straight across to the northern side. Is north up on this photo? Yeah. So it came across on the the let's see, Southeast side, like south southeast, and then exited the pond on the Northwest side. So basically, it was like a straight line almost like where that property line is, it's a little bit to the left of that. But, yeah, kind of left that western edge of the pond stagnant. So we decided to keep his excavated trench that wraps around and then bring it back in to the original existing stream about halfway across his yard and then fill in the
the other trench that he created. Marina, if you don't mind, we could probably go back to the pictures and I can show them what what we're talking about. So if you wanna back out and go to the applications submitted materials for this application. Let's see. We can do proposed condition. That would probably be the best one. So, yeah, basically, here's a drawing of outlet that he already excavated, which is in orange, kind of looks brown in this. So his plan was to leave that move his culvert into a section where he can access it with his lawnmower and then bring it back bring the you know, the excavated part back into the existing stream, and then he would have to remove some vegetation and clean some of the sediment out in that stream, which is basically what should have been done years ago, but hasn't been so that would be like normal maintenance, something like this that has held heavy siltation. And then fill his excavated channel that he had. And I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at all those pictures, you can see you can kind of see what I was talking about with I haven't printed out. It's Maria, if you don't mind going back to the pictures on there.
Before we leave before we leave that Okay. This drawing that you're showing us, Joe, and it says excavated channel to be filled. He wasn't originally going to go into the existing stream
quite as soon as you guided him to. Is that? Yeah, yeah, because his the the part that we were going to leave has a nice like it has an outlet at the western end, which would be better for the pond because it would kind of allow more circulation. And the way he designed, he kind of dug that out and had some rocks in there and it has a nice curve, which would slow the water velocity down. But then the channel that we're going to fill is just basically like, it was like a straight shot. And it was just there was no stone or anything in there. It's just like a real big erosion risk. Okay, so as a thought I thought it would be better to just join the regular stream and then clean that out up to the point where it reaches the property line near 768 E Street.
And then I think the the write up that sounded like you probably wrote that for him. Yeah, the it talks about a temporary DM that's installed.
Yeah, I had him the day I went out there to look at it. I asked him to basically close-up his new channel because he had water flowing through it. I asked him to close that up until the Commission had a chance to review the application and see what they wanted to do, both with the permit application and with the enforcement action. Okay. Now I'm ready to go to the photos.
So yeah, so this first one is the pond outlet, the existing old pond outlet, and you can see how basically how flat it was, where it exits. It's just filled with silt and then there was a bunch of rocks that were placed in there to kind of raise the pond level, I guess. Yeah, this is the basically old stream channel. So if you go on to the next one. Yeah, here's another shot of the existing stream outlet and all the vegetation, it's really hard to tell there's even a stream there this time of year. Just the topography is just kind of flat there. So it's got a little bit more of a U shape further down, but not much. But this area is definitely the worst, which kind of makes sense since it's the closest to the stream to the to the pond. Probably receives the most felt from the pond. But if we go down on to the next picture, we let's see if the area near the pond outlet his dam and new channel that he built would be to the right of this photo a little bit. So you can go to it keep going down if you don't mind.
So next photo. Here's a picture of the pond standing to the off. Let's see. Yeah, we're on the, like, southwest, west southwest, basically. So the driveway of Hearst Farm would be on the right. The pond outlet is to the left behind that tree, and the inlet is to the right almost directly across from it. And then you kind of see in this picture how silted the water is probably from because most of his work was downhill, all of his work was downhill this so it wouldn't have been that it was probably the work at the farm upstream that contributes to this. Now we can go down to the next picture. So here's his graded area that he added basically. So the existing stream is up in that area, like kind of in the center top of the photo, you can see like there's a light colored band of vent, like leafy vegetation that, that's basically where the old stream channel is. So part of the plan was to leave this graded area that he put there and then seed and stabilize it because it kind of helps provide a, you know, it raises the level of it without having to disturb the stream channel too much. So help contain some of the water during the high flow.
So if you go on to picture six. So here's the this is the canal, basically, channel that he cut. He dug this first. So the at the far end of the picture is where it goes into the woods and goes over to 768 East Street and then into the culvert there. This is the section that's going to get filled according to our proposal, his proposal. And then leave the leave the grading that's to the right of the photo in place and then basically just fill this and see it everything. Marine, if you don't mind scrolling down to the next photo. And then this is a picture of the culvert that he was gonna move closer to the pond outlet. And then right at the culvert, where there you can see it kind of caught away, that's where the stream is going to bend back and, and enter the existing stream channel, so then everything everything to the north will be filled in, if you don't mind scrolling down again. So this is a picture of the channel that's going to remain and it's, as you can see, it's very steep, it's very prone to erosion. So he's going to stabilize it by basically creating like a U shape two to one slope. And then stabilizing it with rock on the bottom and then use like a like a mat or grass seed as necessary to basically build up the bank and stabilize the bank. And then all that would be completed before, flow would be restored to this area. So it'd be still running through existing stream channel while this work took place. And then once it was stabilized,
I would come out there, verify it, and then you would either put you would, start letting water in through it, finish stabilizing the outlet. So let's see if we can keep scrolling down. Here's another picture of the stream channel that's going to remain and you can see the rocks that he put in there to kind of slow down the flow. So those will remain and then rocks and gravel will be placed in that area. And then the banks will be carved out two to one.
Question. Are those rocks in there going to cause like a silt buildup and eventually water overflow?
Well, they could but but the my thought is that it's an accessible portion of the yard. It'll keep it from flowing downstream and it'll give him a place to clean it out. Because it's going to keep receiving silt from the agricultural use upstream, you know, as long as that's there, it's probably going to see a lot of lot of silt. So that's one of the reasons I thought about keeping this area because it'll slow the water down and kind of give it an area to build up where he can see it and perform as maintenance as necessary to prevent this from happening in the future. That sounds good. I was surprised,
Joe, that the outlet stream sealed it up so much, but the pond is still not sealed itself almost full. You know, you would think all that stuff coming down from the upstream farms would. Deposit itself in the in the pond and just fill it. Yeah,
and just fill it up. Yeah, I don't. I'm not sure how deep the the thing is, but yeah, it's. Something I was thinking of too. Was he getting a lot of flooding?
Yeah, he gets during heavy rain, it'll it'll actually flood. It'll overfill the stream channel and then spill out spill down. Onto his yard and then flows across the driveway of 768 East Street. Oh, okay.
That was one of the reasons he was trying to do this was to help out that homeowner because he was getting kind of annoyed that his driveway was getting washed out all the time. So, at least, Miranda, you can keep scrolling down, and I can see if there's anything else we need to know. There's another another picture looking this one's looking see what direction would that be? It's like looking south, southeast, back towards the Hearst Farm Driveway. And then you can keep keep scrolling down. So this is the pond outlet. This is the area that he eventually, filled in while I was there to to
prevent the water from going in, and then it actually breached during the, July 4 heavy rains that we had, and then they filled it in with more dirt and rock to prevent that until the permit was reviewed. So you can keep scrolling down. Think there's a picture of the dam. Oh, this is the area that the proposed stream will rejoin the existing channel. So clean that mess up and reattach it there and then stabilize it and then reopen the open the channel that he dug. And you can keep scrolling down. Let's see. This is the existing stream channel. This is just upstream of the area where the new stream will rejoin the old one. So this is part of the one that's going to be abandoned. Now you can keep scrolling down. And then this is looking downstream. Picture on the left is a little some of the sediment, some of it is from him with his tractor and other and a lot of it is from the from the stream. So this is the area where the new stream will rejoin the old one. And then he's going to have to clear some of the vegetation out to maintain the old stream. And then his his idea was to plant some native trees in that area and
try and prevent some of that invasives and grasses from growing up in that area as much with some of the shade. So you can keep, they keep going down. I don't know how many pictures are left. Yeah, so this is standing near where the stream will rejoin. And then so behind me, would be this that stream will be reused eventually. Then this looking up ahead, this is the area that's going get abandoned. Thought about if one of the alternatives obviously would be to just fill the whole thing in and restore the area that he excavated. But looking at the trees and the terrain to try and get in there, it was a little more difficult. So I thought it would be a little bit less destructive to work with what he had in there rather than try and get into this area to clean it out. So I'm even keep scrolling down, Marina. Think that might be it. Oh, there's one more. Oh, this is the dam that he created. This is in progress. So he put a little bit more in there before he was done, but I was taking the pictures as he was working. So, yeah, so that's that's basically it. It's kind of a kinda caught me off guard, but I'm trying to work to solve the problem that he was trying to solve and try to free a little less of an erosion risk at the same time. So please ask some questions if you have one.
Well, it sounds like that's a fairly significant undertaking to put the proper slope that you're asking them to do on that channel. It looks like it's kind of a U shaped channel now straight down with the sidewalls. To get that done, it looks like there's going be a lot of material taken out of there.
Yeah. That's that is something that I was looking at. And then but I think it would be I mean, it definitely needs to come out a little bit,
to to provide I agree with you. I'm just wondering what he's gonna do with all the material. What's he done with the material that he's, removed so far?
He's just spread it. I mean, a lot of it went into that area that I was showing that was gonna remain the area that he kind of built up that was next to the stream channel that, you know, the new one that he dug that was gonna get filled in. I think he put a lot of it there.
Now, I looked on the GIS map, you know, and I looked for the wetlands, because that was the only tool I had at my disposal here, it does show there's a strip of wetlands going through each of those properties over there. Was that in conjunction, do you know, with the previously existing stream Or are there other wetlands on the property?
Don't see any. That the wetland map is kind of a I don't know it's it's it can be inaccurate at times. Sometimes I I don't know. It has a. A large, you know, area where it displays it. I forget what the disclaimer on it is. But anyway, yeah, it's it's pretty sandy soil, so it's kind of limited to the area around the existing stream.
No, I was just trying to make sure we weren't depositing material into some wetlands or something over there. Yeah, no, it's it was,
I mean, it's just basically part of the watercourse that as it changed. I mean, so it's yeah. It's it's basically, it looks looks too sandy, though. It's a good sized property anyways.
Mhmm. I mean, if I recall, I'm trying to think how long he's owned that property, but I I I'm thinking the only wetlands at the time that he bought it was that pond. That was Okay. Yep. To do anything. Mhmm.
Dan or Duncan, did you guys have any questions for Joe at this point?
I think that all sounds pretty good to me, to be honest. I mean, from the pictures, it looks like, you know, there's a plan. And and from what Joe was saying, it sounds like, you know, there's definitely a plan that sounded good to me.
Okay. Yeah. I agree that it it seems to have been an improvement from what the property owner was trying to do initially.
Because he's really doing it for his neighbor. Right? I mean, that's where the bigger issue is.
Yeah. I mean, that's what he he was telling me. He was trying to trying to fix it for his neighbor, and he was just trying to make his property nicer. You know? He has no plans to build anything there. So it's basically a landscaping, you know, trying to improve the health of the pond. He was talking about, you know, he has had fish tanks in the past, and he knows that, you know, having an outlet in the inlet right on the top and nothing on the, you know, on the other end of the pond can create circulation issues. So he's trying to make it healthier. He was just kinda going about it in a in a kind of a crude way.
Duncan or Jan, do either of you think there would be value in taking a site visit to go out and actually look at what's really there? I know Joe's done a pretty good job of, done a very good job of capturing what's going on with the photos, but sometimes seeing it all in one picture, you know, as opposed to the little pieces that we look at with photos helps better understand.
Yeah, I certainly would not be opposed to going and taking a look.
Yeah, I always think it's a good idea to go actually, you know, put eyes on the work site. So. It's
a good idea, I mean I'm going to tell you that's that's why I backed off of this committee is because right now I wouldn't be able to do a site visit. Okay,
yep. So. Okay, I'll hold that thought for a minute. The other question, Joe, that I had when I started looking at the magnitude of the excavation going on is whether or not this fell into the category of a significant activity. I think you can certainly build a case that it does. I know that if we deemed it a significant activity, that would require us to go and hold a public hearing. Which isn't the end of the world, but.
Yeah, I was trying to think about that. Because the amount of work, you know, relocating it would be I mean, relocating water for us. Yes, it's could be considered it, but at the same time, nothing, you know, there's like no development of the property that's going on right now too. Which was the, you know, the other thing I was thinking about, which would make it less significant, but it's it is the decision of the commission as to whether or not this should be considered a significant impact.
So when I look in for Duncan and Jan, this is on page five of our regulations under Section two twenty nine, Item B, any activity which substantially changes the natural channel or may inhibit the natural dynamics of a watercourse system would be viewed as a significant activity. And I could probably do any activity involving disposition removal of material, you know, that kind of thing, but it almost seems to me that we do meet the requirement for a significant activity impact, although it's for a good beneficial reason. And it's not changing the start or the end, right? It's just the middle that you're just moving.
Yeah. I mean, no water is getting removed from the system or, you know, it's like it's it's the same system. It's basically just being rerouted so that it can it can actually, like, flow the way it's intended and into the tributary and then into Burnout Brook instead of across the Right. The lawn and into the ground.
So it's not Significant, that word significant, if you were changing, like, at Hearst Farms to change it so that it's Yeah. If you were, like, diverting it. Heading to to Bill's property or whatever.
Yeah. I don't think, you know, he's not increasing the water flow or
Right. You know, adding another body of water to it or anything like that. Not adding a pond and not adding an inlet or right. There's no there's no changes. Just that curve really on his property.
Which I think is beneficial because it would be slowing down the speed of the water anyway. Yep. Which will help with reducing erosion. Right.
So I think we are moving in a positive direction, not taking a step back for sure.
Okay. I think I agree with all that discussion. We're certainly heading in a positive direction. Whether or not that takes away from it, be it significant or not, I don't I think the end result is going to be better than it is starting out. I guess the only other question that struck me as strange as you were going through that with us, Joe, is it seemed like you had mentioned where either this owner or the previous owner had built up the outlet stream to keep the water level in the pond higher. And my question was, when I saw the depth of the ditch coming out of that, you know, it's certainly going to lower the pond, guess, since he's not using it for agriculture, he maybe doesn't care, but that that is going to be a consequence. Whether or not it's an intended consequence of what he's doing, I don't know. And I'm not sure I care one way or another.
Yeah, mean, doesn't have animals on the property or anything like that, so he's using it for. Nope. But where does the water go that that leaves that pond, Joe?
So that goes down goes down through what kind of follows East Street and then crosses Boston Hill Road. So it goes under there and then continues along East Street and eventually flows into Burnout Brook near the bridge on
East Street. Okay, so we're not creating a problem for a different neighbor by increasing the flow out of the pond.
Well, it should be the the same amount of water because you're not you're not increasing the amount of water flowing into the pond. It's just like full it would be flowing through the pond quicker. I think that sounds reasonable as well.
Are there any issues from Hearst to Nolet? Is there any issues with that stream, whatever?
Oh, the The farm, right? Yeah. No. It's it's all in a culvert, which I'm not sure. Right. So it's not there's no effect to anything. Yeah. It shouldn't it goes from pond to culvert to pond to culvert to seven sixty. Yeah.
Do any of the Commission members want to make a motion that we hold a sidewalk? And if we're convinced that it's not a significant activity and we've got it well documented, I'm not sure that I see as much necessity for it as when we first started out looking at that big trench there. Guess the real crux of the thing, and it would be Agent Wagner's to make sure, is that we get the nice slope that he was talking about on the side so it's not going to wash away all the edges that sort of thing. And you say he was gonna line line the edges with some kind of stone or something there, Joe? Yeah. He's gonna use
he has a bunch of stones on his property from doing doing the landscaping work, he's gonna use those and he was gonna put those around on the bottom of the stream channel to kinda slow the water down and create riffles in the water course, and then, probably bring in some gravel to fill in the rest of it. So the the base of the stream will be gravel and the sides of the grass.
I'm just gonna say from knowing Bill, as long as I've known him, he's not gonna do it half assed. He does, he's a perfectionist. He really is a perfectionist. If you saw the inside of that house, you would know what I'm talking about.
Okay, nope, I just, you know, I've got a little stream running on one of the sides of my my property here. And when it gets flowing heavy after really big storms or in the spring, I do get some erosion where I don't have stones lining the bank and that sort of thing. But if he gets it all grassed in and that ought to, well, guess he'll find out. If it doesn't work, he'll know. He'll just go out with his tractor again. Yep, he'll do that. Okay, very good. So It's up to you on a site visit.
I feel more comfortable, you know, having this discussion now, you know, understanding, you know, Joe's plan and what they want to do now.
Okay. Very good. So no motion to declare it a significant activity and there's no motion to schedule a site visit. And so I think at this point, that's probably, unless we have other questions, that's all the discussion on this application. We can't act on it at this meeting. We'll end up doing that in our next meeting because that's just the way the rules work. Okay. Anything else on this application for us, Agent Wagner? Nope, I think we've covered everything. Good job, Agent Wagner.
Thank you. Okay, Very good. That completes new business. We'll move on to item eight, the agent report and enforcement actions.
Alright. So I did have one application that I approved was, a new house at 88 School Road. The house is outside of the Upland Review area, but the foundation drain, about 45 feet of the drain and the drain outlet are within the 100 foot upland review area. I think it was about 60 feet from the wetlands or something. It's it was a pretty minor activity, but the amount of clearing and stuff I was you know, that to construct the drain and and the trench and stuff and the erosion controls. I had them fill out a an application and go through that process just so we could get it documented and, and then I could keep an eye on it when it's getting bill. So that was it. I have a couple others that I can talk about too. And then the notice of violation that I sent to Mr. Nolet. I had considered doing a
cease and desist in order to remediate. But since he was being so cooperative, I decided to just file the notice of violation, which didn't re require the show cause hearing that the order to remediate would would require, but we still have that as an enforcement tool, if we do need it in the future, at the property. So, so basically, yeah, I got, it was a couple weeks ago. So let's see if I can look it up. I was working on it. The notes for this. So it's June 18. I received a complaint from. 850 E Street or no, it was it was somebody down there. It was below 850 E Street. They had they had complained about sediment in the brook at about 8PM that night. And they had sent me a few pictures and then I talked to both residents of 850. They didn't know where it was coming from. And then I got. Another issue. Sediment that ended up on their property from yeah, so it's getting washed down the stream. Okay. Figured out about all this. So then I kind of followed it up with with help from the 850 E Street resident, which he sent me a picture after another rainfall. And then then I looked at the aerial photos, of traced it back to July, and then contacted him. And what the sentiment was was when he it was Father's Day, dug the whole trench, and then at the end he just like blew out the dam and then like flushed the pond now onto the stream, and that's what caused the big discharge of sediment in there.
And so I got the report and it took a while to figure it out because it was a totally different color than anything that was in that area. So I was kinda glad I figured out where it was coming from. And, obviously, I instructed him not to do that. And, you know, I would like to be present when he lowers the pond the next time once this is all restored. Do it a little more a little more controlled fashion. Watch to see what happens. Okay. So and then other, other stuff we've been working on the community center, which was approved by PZC, are require wetlands permit for activity in the Upland Review area because some of the modifications required by PZC was a rain garden, and a tracking pad and the fueling area, which were all in the Upland Review area of the wetland that was behind the fire station. Eric Anderson said that they're planning on moving the fueling area out of the Upland Review Area, but I was waiting until the plan got updated to require the permit application
once they had the updated site plan. So I'll do that. I have the 196 Lake Road one that I just got last it was the end of last week. So I'm working on that now, getting some more. I needed a before picture and some sediment and erosion control. So basically, they're rebuilding an existing retaining wall at their property that goes down the hill towards a dock that's already on their property. So then there's a wooden and gravel staircase that they're rebuilding, also an upland review area on the shoreline at Andover Lake. So that's on the website if you want to take a look. 31 Lakeside, I'm going to be getting a septic system repair application for that soon. That's also
Upland review area one, but that'll be on the website. And then I spoke to Ryan Fitch from the Fitch family farm, the Christmas tree farm about cleaning up the trees in that vernal pool area. He said that his crew was planning on starting doing that this week. I'll keep you updated on that. It's obviously very visible. So we'll probably know if they're working on it. But yeah. So I've been bugging him to to get going with that. Now that it's past the vernal pool season, it's a good time to do it. Be nice if there's a little less water around, but kinda it is what it is. That's it for my report.
Okay. Any questions by the Commission for Agent Wagner at this point? Okay, that completes Item eight then. Moving on to Item nine, other business, which includes the annual report, election of officers, review of bylaws, and membership and recruitment. I think, you know, without having Bill Monroe here, who might be one of the candidates for chairman or, I think I would like to hold off on all of the other business items until the next meeting. There's no, we're not in a hurry to get the annual report out, although, yeah, I think it looked very good. Without Bill here, I don't want to hold an election of officers. And I will let whoever is the new chairman lead the review of bylaws and the recruiting there. So with that, move on to item 10, which is next regular meeting, Monday, August 7 at 7PM. And before I get to adjournment, any comments from anybody that's here tonight? Good job, Jed.
Well, thank you. And my goal is to get done by 08:00. That is not quite as fast as we did on the last meeting, but Okay. We had a pretty substantive application to talk our way through today. And I think we did that okay. I'm not sure what will be left for us to talk about next month, but that's okay too. So with that, I will make a motion to adjourn. Second.
Okay, I heard Duncan first on that and all in favor, you raise your hand and Okay. I see three hands up, so that makes it unanimous. The motion passes three-zero-zero. Thank you for attending tonight. Thanks for the good report on that application, Joe. I think that made a hard one fairly easy, made a lot of good sense there. And we'll see everybody next month. All right. Thank you. Good night, everybody. Good night.