MILTON CONSERVATION COMMITTEE PO Box 310 Milton, NH 03851 Meeting Minutes July 8, 2013

Members in attendance: Chairman Cynthia Wyatt, Charlie Karcher, David Levin, Tom Gray and Steve Panish. Also in attendance was Kimberly Ladisheff Recording Clerk.

Cynthia called meeting to order at 6:30

No public comments

Status of Nute conservation easement – Attorney received check and will start work on reviewing the easement and possibly have comments for the next meeting. The Commission will meet with Board of Selectmen after next meeting, aim for second meeting in August.

MOTION: Charlie motioned to approve minutes of June 10 meeting with changes. Tom seconded. Motion passed 5-0.

Lancey property - Tom spoke with Attorney Sessler about giving the easement back and the Board needs to see how the easement is written. Cynthia stated they may not want to go that path because they could set precedent for reversing conservation easements. To reverse an easement is a process, very expensive and needs to go to the attorney general. Charlie asked Berry Surveying for a price to do the survey. The cost would be $650. Steve mentioned it should never have been a legal subdivision, it’s very wet and there was probably some illegal filling. Cynthia stated they should go ahead and get an opinion, if it’s not too expensive they should consider getting rid of it. Town doesn’t own the property they only have an easement on the property.

MOTION: Tom motioned if the Town attorney has the opinion that we should not reverse the easement then we approve the scope of services in the June 17 proposal from Berry Surveying for $650. Charlie seconded. Motion passed 5-0.

Discussion on shed encroachment on Jones Brook property. Mr. Tournas has returned the certified letters. Board needs to know when the shed was built and when the Town acquired the property. Mention of proscriptive rights happens after 20 years. Just the corner of the shed is on the property.

Discussion on Lyman Brook encroachment. Charlie mentioned it is kind of the Town’s fault they didn’t have it monumented when it was surveyed. All the houses were already built. The owners didn’t know where those lines were. Cynthia stated in their defense this was done before this Board. The developer did fulfill their obligations under the subdivision regulations.

Charlie and Cynthia are scheduled to walk the property on Casey Road Map 41 Lot 69 with UNH Coop Forester Andy Fast on July 12 at 3pm. David Levin may be there also.

Cynthia mentioned she hasn’t done anything on TownForest yet.

Discussion on the Conservation Fund Report. David stated Pam, Town Treasurer, was in Federal Bank and they have a new type of account called a nest egg account and are giving .6% interest. He mentioned he also found out that where the Commission just moved their funds to at Profile Bank, they have lowered their interest rate down to .25%. The Treasurer suggested they put their money back in Federal in the nest egg account. They would get .6% interest until such time as they have to make a withdrawal then they go to whatever the market is. He stated Pam assured him it didn’t need full commission approval. Profile Bank did charge $10 for closing each account. What they have now is two accounts at Federal Bank. One is the monitoring/Stewardship account with $9,995.73 and the other is the unrestricted account with $30,016.66. That along with the two CD’s there is a total of $67,289.45. They are still awaiting the $100,000 from aged LUCT. Added new this month is a line for active invoices. David said he developed a flow chart with the help of Pam and the Town Administrator. David stated tht when the MCC receives an invoice they have to wait until the next meeting when they approve the minutes in which they approved the payment of that invoice before he can even submit that invoice. Pam came up with a couple of suggestions to speed up this process. One being as soon as they get a draft copy of meeting minutes they can hold a special meeting to approve the minutes only. The Committee will have to meet, the meeting cannot be held electronically. Another suggestion is if they know they have something coming ahead of time they can approve up to x amount of dollars. That way the minutes are already approved when the invoice is received.

There was a brief discussion on updating the Master Plan. The commission decided they will wait to hear when the Planning Board is ready for their input.

Discussion on the 2014 proposed budget. Cynthia mentioned she had forwarded an email she received from the Town Administrator asking that the Boards breakdown their individual budgets under Land Use. This way everyone can put in what they need and come defend their portion of the budget. Cynthia mentioned the Town had put TPPA under outside appropriations but it should fall under Conservation. She will email Mike to get figures for water monitoring. They also discussed the various organizations they pay dues or membership fees to such as $265 to NHACC and $100 to Moose Mountain Regional Greenways. Cynthia also mentioned SRC because they have helped facilitate easements. They discussed budgeting for mailings, outreach and education and conferences. The Board questioned if they should be paying dues to TPPA. Cynthia feels they are important and they should be supporting them. She asked that as Treasurer, if David would like to take on the task of the budget with her help. He stated he could do that.

MOTION: Charlie motioned to adjourn. Tom seconded. Motion passed 5-0. Meeting adjourned at 7:24 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Kimberly Ladisheff Land Use Clerk