The Eightmile River
Wild & Scenic Study Committee
Meeting Minutes – April 24, 2006, Lyme Town Hall
Present:
Anthony Irving, Eric Belt, Sally Snyder, David Bingham, John Rozum, Nathan
Frohling,. Also in attendance: Damon Hearne.
- Acceptance of April 4, 2006 Meeting Minutes – Unanimous
- ERWSCC – The Committee discussed the details involved
in forming the new Coordinating Committee (ERWSCC). Detailed discussion
on potential committee members resulted in a preliminary list of names for
submission to the Selectmen of each town. Current committee members were
assigned names in order to check on willingness to be involved with the
new committee.
The timeline of startup and fist meeting
of the new committee was discussed. Damon Hearne presented a draft timeline
of startup of the committee and the potential commissioners summit which has
been in the conceptual phase for the last several months. Tony Irving suggested
that we move the first ERWSCC meeting up to June 26 if possible and look at
October or November for the possible commissioners summit – The committee
agreed that this seemed like a good idea. The committee also discussed the
fact that more detail on the commissioners summit is needed - why do we need
it? What would it cover? How would it help? Who would present/coordinate?
Damon Hearne suggested that he could draft his ideas on these topics based
on his discussions with the town planners and commissioners.
Tony Irving then discussed the fact that
the committee had received a copy of the Farmington River Coordinating Committee’s
by-laws and that the Study Committee should start to read them over and edit
to suit ERWSCC. He then stated that Sue Merrow had indicated that she would
lead a working group/sub-committee on these by-laws. Sally Snyder and Eric
Belt agreed to help her with this task.
- Funding - Damon Hearne gave a brief update of
the funding situation stating that he was attending a workshop on grant
writing and stated that after the workshop completed he would begin to draft
a letter of interest and grant pre-proposal for review by the committee.
- Hamburg Cove Dredging project – Tony Irving and
Damon Hearne gave an update on the Hamburg Cove dredging project that is
currently under review by US Army Corps. It was noted that the National
Marine Fisheries Service had reviewed and approved the plan as had Ken Metzler
of CT DEP. The Committee discussed the how to best go about reviewing and
commenting on this type of project – and also discussed the precedents that
would be set by various responses. Comment from the NPS would come from
Jamie Fosburgh at NPS and go directly to the Army Corps.
- Study Report Update - Tony Irving reported that
the Study Report had been submitted to the regional NPS office and would
soon be submitted to the national headquarters. Once the national NPS director
signs off on the bill, it will be sent to the Government Printing Office
for printing. He also noted that we are attempting to coordinate the report
review with initiation of the designation bill in congress.
- Management Plan Update – Damon Hearne stated that
he and Kevin Case were working to finish the details of the management plan
and were hopeful that the plan could be finished by the designer by the
next meeting.
- There was also some discussion of remaining activities
– Bill Moorehead had yet to complete his report. The Stream Flow study
was discussed in some detail. The committee was interested to hear in what
Piotr and Kevin Case thought about the next steps for the project. Damon
Hearne stated that Piotr and his graduate students would soon be finishing
their phase 2 reporting and would also be submitting a condensed summary
of the phase 1 report.
- The next meeting of the Study Committee will be
May 22th, 5pm in East Haddam.
Submitted D. Hearne