The Eightmile River

Wild & Scenic Coordinating Committee

Meeting Minutes – December 18^th, 2006, East Haddam Grange

Present: Eric Belt, Linda Bireley, David Bingham, Randy Dill, Roger Dill, Gloria Fogarty, Nathan Frohling (left at 6PM), Bernie Gillis, Damon Hearn, Anthony Irving, Ralph Lewis Parker Lord, Sue Merrow, John Rozum, Linda Schroeder, Sally Synder and Dave Wordell.  

1.       Call to Order – 5:00 PM 

2.       Acceptance of  November 20^th  Meeting Minutes – Anthony Irving noted a correction to be made under the report of the Project Review Subcommittee regarding the fox Hopyard Golf Course permit renewal actions. The report will be amended to reflect the request to increase diversion capacity from 150,000 gals.of water to 200,000gals. Motion to accept the minutes as amended made by Anthony Irving, seconded by David Bingham; unanimous vote to accept the Minutes as amended. Anthony Irving asked Damon Hearne to prepare a calendar of upcoming meetings for the Coordinating Committee members.

3.       Next meeting date of the Coordinating Committee will be January 22, 2006, 5PM at the Salem Town Hall.

4.       Executive Committee: After much discussion, the Coordinating Committee agreed to create an Executive Committee described as a small group of Coordinating Committee members given limited authority to act between regularly scheduled meetings of the larger Coordinating Committee in the event staff needed official direction to deal with significant issues affecting the 8mile river management practices.

            The Executive Committee will be comprised of 4 members (if a tie vote occurs,       the action will be deferred to the attention of the larger Coordinating Committee) to include the Chair, Vice-Chair and 2 additional members with the expectation that the full Executive Committee would include at least one representative from each of the three participating townships. It is expected that membership on the Executive Committee will change annually at the time of election of officers. Any action taken by the Executive Committee must be ratified by the larger Coordinating Committee at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Motion to establish the Executive by David Bingham, seconded by Linda Bireley; majority vote carried the motion; Sally Snyder voted against the motion.

5.       FY 2007 Budget: Because of the uncertainty of our funding situation pending federal legislation, a suggestion was raised that the Coordinating Committee consider seeking grants to fund the various activities of our subcommittees. This would allow us to preserve our staff salary account as long as possible in the event federal designation (and funding) did not occur until a much later than anticipated date.

       David Bingham made the motion to accept the budget as presented by Damon  Hearne; John Rozum seconded the motion; motion carried by unanimous vote. Damon was given authority to begin using budget monies now to develop a Web site, hiring consultant staff to facilitate the process.

6. Subcommittee reports;

            David Bingham,  (chair of the Project Review Subcommittee), had no report as his committee has had no recent meetings.

            Eric Belt  (chair of the Research and Monitoring Subcommittee) read a report

concerning a meeting he and Linda Bireley attended with Jane Brawerman, Executive

Director, of the Connecticut river coastal Conservation District. At the meeting, they discussed the Salmon river Mussel Report and some questions previously raised by Damon Hearne. Eric noted that past Connecticut River Watch Program monitoring activities have included Stream Walks and bioassessments on the main stem and the East Branch, on Harris Brook, Beaver Brook, Pleasant Valley Preserve stream and Burnhams Brook. Summary reports are available on the CRWP  part of Brawerman’s web site. Other monitoring activities continue to be provided by Wesleyan Professor Barry Chernoff and his students, and by UMASS profession Clayton Penniman with his students. In addition, bioassessments are being done annually using the DEP Rapid Bioassessment protocol for volunteers, coordinated by Diba Khan-Bureau. The DEP publishes an annual statewide bioassessment summary report, available on the DEP website and uses the data in its biennial water quality reports to Congress. As we progress in our work, we will need to decide how we plan to store and keep data, (eg. Do we wish to be compatible with DEP?), how do we disseminate data to the public, etc. It was agreed it would be very important to establish protocols guiding the gathering of data, the methodology to be based on good scientific practices with well-described processes to ensure the validity of the data. It is our goal to have the data available for future analysis and to be able to integrate information on a map.

            Sue Merrow  (chair of the Education and Outreach Subcommittee) shared the agenda of the recent subcommittee meeting. The group discussed the modification of the 8mile River Web site – its functional structure, items to be covered and costs of the project. Damon is pricing consultants who are available to help. The subcommittee is awaiting a final press release from NPS which hopefully can be used as a pitch to the media possibly through NPR or CPR during their focus on the environment. They are also exploring the development of a pamphlet to explain the Riparian Corridor Overlays. Linda Bireley is organizing a list of presenters who could appear at the first annual symposium to share their research project results. Budget issues were discussed in detail to determine a workable estimate to seek for approval from the Coordinating Committee.

            Damon Hearne spoke for the absent Nathan Frohling, (chair of the Tools Implementation subcommittee), offering an update on the status of efforts in Lyme and Salem to create Riparian Corridor regulations.  Salem  P&Z plans to be proactive in its attempts to pass such regulations because of the recent disappointing result from Salem Inlands & Wetlands Commission. Linda Schroeder introduced material from the Town of Bethany illustrating how Bethany has been able to successfully accommodate active use of horse trails through the cooperative efforts of several concerned agencies. Proper construction of trails has been emphasized, horsemen have been educated and encouraged to accept responsibility for the proper use of land and bans on riding during the wet Spring season have been imposed. Salem hopes to achieve similar results by stressing  that protective legislation benefits the whole community.

7.       Designation Planning:

            No significant developments in this area. Plans are in place to talk with Senator Dodd’ office and to request a meeting with Representative Courtney as soon as possible. The goal is to stress the need for urgency of action in a timely fashion to accommodate successful financial planning for our organization.

Meeting adjourned, 6:50PM.

                                                                                    Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                    Gloria Fogarty,

                                                                                    Secretary 

NB – Salem representatives met briefly after the meeting to select  their representative to the Executive Committee. They unanimously chose Sally Synder as the representative with the understanding that if a conflict of interest should arise because of her affiliation with DEP, Gloria Fogarty would attend as the identified substitute.