Meeting transcript
Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission - Regular Meeting
March 7, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
It's now 07:00 and time to get the show on the road. As I previously informed commissioners, we are obliged to cancel the public hearing on account of a technical problem with notification or technically warning for the hearing. According to the regulations by, well, by state statute, we have to provide two notices, one of which has to be not less than ten nor more than fifteen days before the hearing, and the second not less than two nor more than ten. Now, the glitch here is that in counting the days of publication, the so called terminal days, that is the day of publication itself, and the day of the meeting, don't count. So, it has to be, in other words, ten days between, or ten days falling between, the date of notification and the hearing itself. Agent Wagner had the morning, the first morning in the River East, Friday the twenty fifth, which, as it turns out, is only nine days before the hearing. So, we're going to have to reschedule it. We'll get to that in just a bit. So, I'm going to now call to order the regular meeting of the Andover Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Commission at 07:01PM on Monday, 03/07/2022. I see on screen that Commissioners Monroe and Commissioner Larson are both present, as well as Agent Wagner, myself, and I see one member of the public whose business we will be attending to later, Gary McCullough.
So, with that, we can now move to the Item seven on the published agenda, which is changes in order to agenda, and in this case would be in addition to the agenda. I simply want to add a consideration of rescheduling the hearing to item number 11: Other Business. So, I'm going to make, I'm going to move that and ask for a second. I'll second.
Okay, so a motion is second. Nondebatable, so I'll ask for a vote. Can we oh, sorry, we got to set a date. The date that I would propose would be our next regular meeting, which will give us time to properly warn the hearing. We'll publish the first morning in the River Ease, not in the River Ease, but in the Journal of Inquirer, so that we can allow for the ten days elapsed time. The second notice we publish can go into the River East because it comes out on Friday and our meeting is on Monday. We still have two elapsed days between the publication warning and the meeting itself.
Can I offer a sure I was looking at it for this meeting? This isn't agent Wagner. Sorry. But it looks like if we reschedule it, I don't know. It's the the notice I was looking at the notice that you need to give DEP of the regulation updates, and it says that a public hearing on the amendment must be held within sixty five days after DEP's receipt of the amendment proposal. So that would be March 26. So that would be I think we would need to resubmit
the I think that we could resubmit the DEEP, and I can't see them offering any stringent objection to our rescheduling the hearing. You know, they do need to be notified, obviously. And the I can't remember whether the official date of receipt was when I sent them the proposed or when you sent them the date of the proposed hearing in terms of their receipt of that. We can work that out, but as I say, the earliest opportunity we have for a hearing that would coincide with the regular meeting would be the April 4 Regular meeting. So anyhow, guess I'm getting getting back up. I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself right now. We're just changing the agenda. We can discuss the actual scheduling when we get to that point in the meeting. So, we have a motion to add consideration of rescheduling the hearing to adding that to the agenda under other business. And again, we'll go directly to a vote on that change in the of the agenda.
Commissioner Larson. Aye.
Commissioner Monroe. Aye. And I also vote I also the motion carries 300. Are there any other proposed changes or additions to the agenda? Okay, seeing none, we'll look at approval of minutes. As we noted just before the meeting, the regular meeting minutes have not yet been posted, although I guess they may be in the process of being posted. Yes, we're looking at them now. We also have the regular meeting motions, which were already posted, and which I hope you've already taken a look at. I don't think that there are many huge substantive changes between the motions and the minutes per se. We'll take a moment to review those. Okay, has everyone had an opportunity to adequately review? Okay, and then I'll ask for a motion to approve the minutes as submitted.
I'll move to approve the minutes as submitted.
Second that. Okay, so a motion and a second. Are there any corrections or revisions? Okay, seeing none then we'll vote on the motion by Commissioner Larson. Aye.
Mr. Munro. Aye. And I vote aye also. So the motion to approve the minutes carries 300. Okay, next on the agenda item nine public comment, an opportunity for members of the public to inquire about actions of the board. And seeing no comments, we'll proceed then to item number 10, old business. We have before us a single permit application, IWWC2127. Applicant Gary McCullough is on the call for work at 3 Lakeside Drive. We've been through this before, of course, and I call to your attention the fact that there are new documents concerning the proposed work and posted on thehow did I get there? They were posted on the website and consist of basically two documents: One, the revised site plan. You want to open that one first? Okay. As I understand the revisions, the applicant has settled on using a stacked flat wall. We had some discussion at the last meeting about riprap versus stacked stone, and the final choice is stacked stone or field stone wall. And setting back the proposed perched beach to six feet from
the, well, from the stone wall, which would represent essentially the shoreline. Mr. McCullough, did you have any comments on on the revised plan that you want to present to the? Yeah,
sure. Yeah, so we took into consideration, previous discussions as this evolved. I also took the advice of you guys regarding a contractor. I do have Kyle Sterns dialed in while we were while you were going starting the meeting. So Kyle's on. He's experienced contractor. He's done work on various lakes and building walls and things like that. So we've got some good advice from him. He's on board here to answer any technical questions regarding the plan. And so that that's kind of where we're at. Again, we're going with the flat field stone, move the raised beach back six feet. You know, can be surrounded by, you know, pressure treated four by sixes or four by sixes, believe. And, you know, the fabric will be behind the wall or be crushed stone,
you know, in accordance with how things have been discussed previously.
I'll ask if any of the Commissioners have questions regarding the revised site plan that can address either to Mr. McCullough or Mr. Serin. I certainly have a couple, George. Well, go right ahead. Okay,
on the drawing, it shows the rock wall being 25 feet long and then it shows the beach being 15 feet wide. And I just wanted to make sure that the beach was actually 15 feet wide because the pictorial looks like the beach and the wall are the same length.
Yeah, no, there's a purpose, purposely went with 15 feet. It's really not to scale, but wanted to, you know, keep it at 15. So it's, there's some other, you know, additional protections there, I guess. And yeah, so it is 15.
Okay, so your plan would be to have essentially a five foot buffer on each side of the beach to protect the sand from going down to the lake with the rock That's right.
And then I do see that the drawing says, you know, four by eight foot beams or whatever. You had mentioned four by six as we were talking and I Yeah, think yeah, that I misspoke.
Yep, okay. Where where is the sand stockpiled at for the beach?
It's up. To really to there there's two two two places. One is is there's about four to six yards that are up by the shed, which is beyond 200 feet. And then there's some left down, probably another four to six yards. Down in the in the area of where the fire the fire pit and to the left of that. And essentially, go ahead. When were you looking to actually build the beach?
Well, I would like to, once we get approvals, get started on that as soon as possible. The same with the wall. I'm not sure when the lake's going to be brought back up to depth. So if if we don't have the runway to get it done, then it'll be done. The wall would be done, I guess, next fall. But then I was looking for guidance if we could get that beach done, you know, within the next month or so.
Okay. I guess my last question would be, is there any erosion or sediment control for the sandpile that's currently in place? Yes.
Yeah, we could refer to the photographs that were again incorporated in the record, photos taken at threetwotwenty twenty two. We were going toor actually, no, that's under enforcement actions. Agent Wagner posted some photos related to the removal of the sand, which was going to be a subject of an item further down on the agenda when he talks about enforcement actions. But yes, those siltation controls have been placed where the sand was originally stockpiled.
Right, it's still in the lake bed, but you know, once we get things straightened out here that that's moving up, you know, above the high watermark between the high watermark and the sand.
Okay. And where you're planning to put the beach, was there gonna be any digging out of dirt or was the sand just gonna be placed on top of the existing soil that's in there now?
Well, I'd like to kind of dig some out to level and then put the sand in.
And where what were you gonna do with the dirt that you took out of there?
Hadn't really thought of, I mean. I could have a couple choices, I guess. You know, spread it around the yard. Up above, probably what is what I do.
Okay, yep. I just didn't know if it was gonna be, you know, if you were gonna put that over on where the previous beach was, I was thinking we would have to have some erosion control for that until the grass started growing up there. Certainly, you know, spreading it around the yard up, you know, away from the lake works for me. Okay, great. I think that's all the comments that I had and, know, I'm only one vote, but I certainly don't. It seems that putting the beach in, you know, I like the design that you got there and putting that in this year, if you can't get to actually doing the stonewall until next year, that seems like a reasonable thought to me with the liner and the four by eight boards there. I think
that should do a pretty good job of keeping the sand out of the lake. Yeah. Good, thanks.
Mr. Monroe, did you have any questions or comments on your revised plan?
Just a comment. It's a much better plan and it looks. Looks really nice. I like it and it's going to help protect the lake there.
Yeah. Well, thank you. It's been a learning experience for me. Let's put it that way and Joe's been a big help. Kyle came on board and provided me a lot of knowledge as to how all this stuff works. And I appreciate your guys' patience as we got through this.
Okay, well, again, I'll comment that, again, I think that I agree with Commissioner Monroe that the, revision, marks a real step up in terms of presentation to the Commission and certainly has addressed all of our concerns. I would echo Commissioner Larson's concern and add that you're probably going to want erosion control in any event until the grassed area fills in. And in that case, the soil or dirt, as the case may be, removed from the sand area, from the perch beach or sand pit, if we want to call it that, could be used in the area that you're going to be seeding or sodding. Since it's now currently pretty sandy, a little bit of loam and clay wouldn't hurt the texture and might give you a better stand of grass. Yeah, no, I yeah, that's that's reasonable.
Again, the the provision there is, of course, erosion control has to be there to keep things from washing into the lake while the work is going on. Okay, and there was a photograph too of the let's see, photos just showed oh yeah, the type of equipment that's going to be used: a tracked skid steer that will be used to bring materials down to the shore that will not be intruding on the lake bed, and then again just a generic or representative dry stone or field stone wall that represents the work that's proposed for the beach wall, for the lake wall along the beachfront. I see that Jeff Hayes is on the call, and I'm just going to run by the I want to make sure that the ELMA approval extends to this revised plan.
Yes, of course, we can't really comment on the layout, the beach and all that, that's his, but the wall is consistent with what we've allowed in other places, provided there's no mortar, we're fine with it. And he had not indicated that they're going use mortar, so we were Okay.
Okay. And do you have a projected date for rising of the lake?
It's either going to be on the nineteenth or the March 26. I believe it's supposed to be the nineteenth if there is no more ice on the lake. If there's ice on the lake, we'll wait until it's ice free before we raise it. Okay. So, you're kind of dependent on the weather.
Okay. So, are there any other questions or comments regarding the application? If not, I would like a motion to approve the application based on the applicant's care to avoid negative impacts on the watercourse at Andover Lake, and with of course, standard conditions applying to the application. And with, I guess, a two year duration of the permit. I'll just make that motion. I'll second.
Thank you. Any further questions or comments or discussion on the motion?
I am concerned what the actual motion is because if we approve the application, which is nothing like what we're actually Yeah, application with the current site plan.
Could use the And conditions. Revision date of 03/02/2020 That's '20 the the date that's on that latest site plan. Right. You want to add that to the motion? Yeah. Okay. Approve the application revision then. I have no other questions. Thank you. Okay,
so we're clear that we're voting on the, again, the revised site plan is the base of the application, and that again, that standard conditions for permit approval will apply. I'll ask for a vote on the motion. Commissioner Larson? Aye. Commissioner Munro? Aye.
And I also vote aye, so the motion carries three-zero-zero. Mr. McCullough, you'll want to work with Agent Reiner. He'll issue the actual permit. There is normally a two week period for comments, but since there haven't been any so far, I don't think you need to worry about it. And hopefully this narrowing window will give you an opportunity get some of the work done
before the light rises. Yeah, thank you. I'll be working with Kyle on that, and look forward to getting it done, and we'll all be ready for spring.
All right. Yes, indeed. Okay. Well, with that, we can, I think, now move on to remaining items on the agenda? Those of you who were just here for that application can push the little red button down in the corner and leave the meeting. No need to hang around. Okay, thank you again. Thank you. You're welcome.
Okay, moving on, other business. As I know, we added consideration of rescheduling the public hearing regarding our proposed changes to IWWC regulations. As I said, out of context at the time, the next available opportunity, of course, would be our regular meeting on April 4, and we would of course have to warn the new date, but again, by using a different publication, we do have time to meet those deadlines. Does anybody have any comment on selection of dates?
Bill Monroe, I think that the next meeting would be fine. Okay. Mr. Larson, are you on board with that? Yes.
Okay. So I will move that we reschedule the public hearing on regulations to April 4, immediately prior to our regular meeting. I'll second.
Okay, so we got a motion and second. Okay, a vote on that. Commissioner Larson? Aye. Mr. Munro? Aye.
And I also vote aye, so the motion carries three-zero-zero. And again, Joe, we can work out, Agent Wagner and I can work out the details of making sure that the warning published and notifying DEEP regarding the necessity of rescheduling the hearing. Okay, that takes us then to item number 12, agent report on enforcement actions. There are two, the, well, regarding, as we just discussed, the sand at Number 3 Lakeside, and then another action on Merritt Valley. Agent Weigel, you describe those actions to the Commission?
Yeah. I've got well, if Abby could bring up the pictures that I submitted. I visited this 3 Lakeside on February 22. Gary showed me the work he had done. This Okay.
Abby, it's it's under enforcement actions, not under applications. There you go.
Yeah. So, anyway, he showed me the the soap fence they put up. I removed all, but you can see yeah. You can see in that that photo right there, photo one, that there was the the pile of sand there that he set aside. It was above the high watermark. He set that aside to use for the perch beach construction if that was approved. So that's gonna be going to that. And then the rest of it, he he pretty much scraped all the old sand, all the new sand off, and then the grade. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the grade is is
pretty much is the same between the old and the new stuff. So I did a pretty good job of removing it all. And then so he put left that pile there, and then the rest of the sand, there's a picture number six. Here's where all the rest of the sand is. He put a tarp down, and he put a put the pile there behind the shed. Any any questions with that one? No. It seems pretty straightforward.
So then, the next, enforcement action was, on Merritt Valley Road, and I have, I think three sets of pictures on there under enforcement actions. So we can go if you go to the, yeah, February 18 one. So we can schedule a little bit a bit out of order, but you can you can scroll through them slowly. That's you can see the sediment that washed down from the driveway. It's a little backwards. Well, this is actually across the street from the driveway on the property of Merritt Valley Road. So if we can scroll down to another one. Thanks, Abby. Yeah, keep going.
Agent Wagner, I wanted to ask what's the water course there? Is that something that runs into Chaney Brook or or just no? It's a
what it is that the property is a it goes up behind a couple of houses on Merritt Valley, and the guy bought it, and he's using it to plant fruit trees. And I think eventually, he's gonna build a house, but he's right now, it's just gonna be agricultural use. And the road that there was there was an old logging road because the property had been logged a couple times. So he was doing some work to reopen the road. And then the watercourse that you're talking about, it runs behind one of the properties in between the property owner's property and then the one next door. Okay.
And then it goes into a culvert and it goes out across, you know, under Merritt Valley, and it comes out into the tree farm that's across the street in between Merritt Valley and Route 6, and then it kind of peers out in the tree farm. There's all sand there, and it doesn't really You can look at it on Google Maps, and it kinda it just flows into nothing really. Okay. So yeah, what happened after there was a big rainstorm and the ground was still frozen, and it caused some really bad erosion from his work there, you can see that and some of it went into the watercourse. Because it was agriculture, we didn't have much say we had talked to him beforehand, myself and the zoning agent and the public works director about, you know, controlling the sentiment when he was when he was doing the clearing up there and straightening out that road. But then this happened, so then I sent him a letter, a notice of violation about, you know, uncontrolled erosion into a watercourse and how that could be that that's a violation. He's been very cooperative. He's been working there. You can go to the next set of pictures if you want.
It's he has to back out and I forget what the date is. If you go back into the enforcement action. This was actually taken. I think it was later on the same day that we called both the public works director and I called Mr. Penney to talk to him about about this, and I sent a letter to the property owner on record. So we could scroll through here and you can see some of the work he's been doing. And then I went by today and took some more pictures to turn the next one. He puts the double layer hay bales, double layer sediment fence. He cleaned up the road a little bit. Got rid of some of the sediment there, regraded it. Now I can go to the I can go to the next set after this one. You can see the field there. Go to this one. So this is what it looks like today. When I drove by, he's been putting putting rock down. He built it's hard to see in the picture, but on the left of the driveway and the first picture, there's some there's like a stone channel, and there's a bunch of check dams. They're working on the day I visited him. They're working on that. On the third one, visited him. And then he put extra layer of sediment, fence, and hay bales, and then he put some some rock to protect the water course. Removed all the sediment that was that was next to the water course, which you can't see in that picture. I should have provided one, but I didn't. So yes, basically he's been cooperating. He's been working real hard. He's over there the same day we call.
And then I also in the letter that I sent him, I advised him because there's a couple of streams further up on his property and I just advised him any any kind of activity which required filling across and filling or relocating water courses would have to become, you know, come before the commission. I just wanted to make sure he was aware of that we're watching and that he, you know, if had any questions to call me and that any any future work up there that that will will require any filling or, you know, temporary or permanent crossing of wetlands would have to come before us for review. So, so that's that.
Well, all your enforcement actions should be so cooperative and expeditiously addressed. That was that was PDQ and a high level of remediation, I would say, between doubling up on the siltscents and hay bales and then the gravel and all the channeling and rickrack they put in there to prevent erosion. Certainly looked like an enormous amount of erosion. Yeah, that a prime example.
Keep that in your files for future reference. Okay, moving along, there was a permit application you approved.
Yeah, this one was a let's see it was a while ago. It was a. When did I approve that I could permit out February 8? It was a. Yeah. 222 Route 6. There was a an old shed on a on an existing concrete slab that they were gonna remove and and put a new slab new new shed on there. And then the main thing was a construction of a stone patio in between that slab, and then there's another slab on the other side of the backyard. I provided some pictures of it. But it's basically, like, it was all it's all kind of part of their yard. It's clearing of some brush that had grown up in between, but there's all concrete rubble from some old old farm buildings that were that were back there. So they're basically covering that all up with a stone patio, a pergola, a raised garden, and a new shed on the slab where the old shed was. And other than that, it's been kind of slow. There was some some permit. There was one that was gonna get submitted and it hasn't. So maybe next month, I'll do one for a a wetland crossing for a driveway, but that's not it's not ready yet. So.
Okay, well we've only had one so far this year, so not exactly an overwhelming amount of business. No. But that's okay, because once in a while we can get out of a meeting early, policy, Any questions about that permit approval? Okay, then our next regular meeting will be Monday, April 4, again preceded by a hearing on regulations. And with that, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. Thomas Monroe. I'll second.
Okay, so motion and second to adjourn. That's nondebatable, so we'll go straight to vote. Commissioner Larson? Aye. Commissioner Munro? Aye. And I also vote aye, so the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you, Abby, for dialing in from all the way down to Easton, and hope that things are going as well as possible for you. Your intriguing background looks like the boomerangs on the wall especially catch the eye there. My time with the Aboriginals in Australia, yes. Okay, okay, I wondered what the connection was. Okay, all right, so I'll see you all next month, and again, Age Weiner, I'll be in touch regarding the hearing. Okay? Okay, sounds good. So, with that, I'll say goodnight to all. Goodnight, everybody. Goodnight. The meeting is over. Good night.