Wallingford
Conservation Commission Minutes*
*These are
unofficial Minutes subject to the approval at the next regular meeting.
February 26, 2007
Attendees: David
Klock, Ralph Nimtz, Tim Chila, Peter Upton, Kim Royar
(1)
David alerted the group to a meeting in the library tomorrow night
to discuss an Orton Foundation grant to investigate build out scenarios for a
village growth center.
2)
Agenda and meeting minutes approved.
(3)
Walking Paths Brochure: Brochure is on hold until Tim repairs his
computer hard drive and finds out
whether he can recover his data including the brochure.
(4)
AVCC:
(a)
The AVCC requested a
copy of the WCC entry to the town report. The
group agreed that we should forward a copy to them for their website.
Tim will forward.
(b)
Wetlands Protection and Restoration Program:
April Moulert with the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation is the
contact person for the Program. Kim
will call April (241-1054) to find out if we are eligible for funds (towns must
be in the
Lake Champlain
Basin
). The WCC is interested in having
her come give a presentation with a focus on the Otter Creek.
We could contact appropriate landowners and invite them to come.
(c)
Legislation (notified by AVCC):
*
Wetland legislation: Two
wetland bills are proposed in the Vermont House.
Tim will call Kim
Greenwood
to find out the background on the bills
and whether the WCC should take a
position. If so, we will write a letter to Gail indicating our support for the
best bill.
*
Tire Legislation: The
Commission supports the general concept of creating incentives to turn
in tires to a centralized location rather
than have them litter our woods, lakes, and streams. We
will include support of bill H 27 in our letter to Gail Fallar.
*
Funding for Vermont Housing and Conservation Board:
Include support for funding of the VHCB
in the letter to Gail Fallar. Kim will
write a draft letter and email it to the rest of the committee for
review. Tim will send it out.
(5)Tree Warden Meeting:
There is a workshop March 24th (Saturday) at
Vermont
College
in
Montpelier
for Conservation Commission Members and tree wardens. Debbie will call Rob
Barker to see if he plans to attend. She will also ask Rob for specifics about
the town forest (if we have one, how big it is, and where it is (see town forest
issue below).
(6) Town Meeting Day:
Tim will make a presentation at town meeting alerting
attendees to the upcoming events of the WCC (well done, Tim!).
(7)Water Quality Testing: Ralph talked to Michael Byrd.
Through out the summer months Mike tests the water weekly in
Elfin
Lake
. The Upper Otter Creek Watershed
council tests different reaches of the Otter Creek.
The
Wallingford
section was tested in 2005. Ralph
feels that the waters of the town are adequately monitored at the moment.
(8)Calendar: How
to encourage attendance to our programs? The
attendance at Forrest’s talk was low. We
should make sure it is on the
Wallingford
Town
website. We may need to put more
pressure on the papers to insure that our notifications are printed.
Notices should also be included in the Wallingford Newsletter.
Possible future workshops:
*
The group thought it would be appropriate to invite Jens Hilke (Vermont
Fish and Wildlife Department Conservation Planner) down to present information
to the Wallingford Planning Commission and the WCC regarding tools that are
available for planning for wildlife. Peter will call Bob and see if he would ask
the Planning Commission if they are interested.
*
Kim will talk to Mary Beth about hosting a presentation on WHIP in April.
*
Kim talked to George Gay (Northern Forest Alliance) about our
participation in the town forest project. The
WCC may have an interest in participating if we have a town forest and it meets
the criteria Kim will get back to
George once we find out.
(9) Meeting
adjourned at
8:50 p.m. |