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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-28 07/28/2020 Dryden Conservation Board July 28, 2020 Members Present: Gian Dodici (Chair), Bob Beck, Anne Clark, David Wilson, Peter Davies, Jeanne Grace, Nancy Munkenbeck, Craig Schutt, Tim Woods & Milo Richmond Absent: Liaisons: David Weinstein (Planning Board), Simon St Laurent (Planning Board) Guest(s): After some technical difficulties, the meeting was called to order at 7:13 PM Review and approval of minutes dated June 30th, 2020 On motion made by B. Beck, seconded by A. Clark, minutes were unanimously approved as written. Survey update: S. St Laurent: The survey is out at dryden2045.org/survey. As of today, we’ve had 268 responses so hopefully that will continue to grow. C. Schutt says he’s talked to a few people including his neighbor who have not received the post card yet. He got his last week. • It could have gotten mixed in with other junk mail because they sent it to all postal customers. • It could be in a magazine because it is small and easy to overlook. Rail Trail: B. Beck- We had a zoom meeting for the Route 13 bridge project which several representatives from DOT Region 3 in Syracuse were with us online along with several people from Erdman Anthony in Rochester. It was a really good meeting and we’re looking forward to working with Erdman Anthony as they start to design the bridge. DOT in Syracuse is being very cooperative and really trying to help. I feel as if they’re part of the team which at this point, they are because they are the ones who provided a lot of the money for it. They are great to work with and they are being very helpful. Dan Lamb had communication with Jim Farquhar with DEC in Albany concerning the trail through the Game Farm. DEC has now promised us a long-term agreement of at least a 20-year contract with all the work that needs to be done with opening the trail and renovating the trestles. That’s really important because the State’s park grant from DEC of 2017 is waiting until we get that final approval so hopefully in the next few weeks we have an official signed document from DEC. They said it could take anywhere between 3-10 weeks. We have no idea how soon though because it must go through some other departments in DEC 07/28/2020 to get approved but at least we have a verbal commitment this time. We are looking forward to that. Thanks to Dan Lamb for that communication with DEC. P Davies: If you’re going on the trail from the Ithaca end you get to the bridge, go up and over it then there’s a block where people have not given permission. So where does the bridge go to? B Beck: We haven’t yet gotten permission/agreements from a few landowners from Etna to Freeville. It’s a long story and a sensitive situation. Going east, the county and the Town of Dryden have worked for years to try to get agreements from John Leonardo who lives up near Syracuse, and his niece who’s co-owner of the big property which is about a hundred acres between Pickney Road and Etna. So far, they have said no and they have been trying to sell their land for years. They said they will not give us an easement for the trail which goes through their property even though we have told them it would increase the value of their property and not the other way around. The county has been working for a few years to protect the lower part of the property which has some wetland and goes to Fall Creek. The county and the Town of Dryden and Finger Lakes Land Trust are all interested in protecting Fall Creek and the county has made offers to buy that lower part of the property without success. Just a few weeks ago I talked to Scott Doyle of County Planning and they have decided that it is not going to happen, they are not getting success. He suggested that the town should seriously consider having an eminent domain for that particular stretch, that of course would be the last resort, but it may be necessary. It is a critical piece in order to get to 366 in Etna. We have about four owners, Etna to Freeville that we need to continue working with to get them on board. We have been working from both ends towards the middle with great success from both ends Dryden to Freeville. That trail is open besides the Game farm to Route 13 from Game Farm Road. But we hope that will be open soon. P. Davies: If you don’t have any success will you route the trail along roads between Route 13 and Freeville? B. Beck: Keep in mind that the town already has sewer and water easements on the entire length of rail bed that we’re talking about. It is 10.4 miles from the Village of Dryden to Ithaca. It can’t be built on any of those areas and I’m thinking in the end if we can’t get landowners agreements, that we will find other ways. Whether it be offer of purchase or eminent domain, but we don’t want to do that. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen but we need to continue making efforts with landowners. Three of which we haven’t been in touch with for probably three years now. They said they were not interested in talking to us, but we should get back to them now that it’s been a few years. I’m optimistic that in the end we will have a trail that will not be on the roads. I think all of our Town Board and most people working with us on the trails agree that we will not have the trail be on the road shoulders. If we have to it will be very temporary. 366 from Etna to Freeville is a very busy road and we do not want our trail users on that road. We have a lot of work to do but I feel good about the success so far. M. Richmond says he can reinforce the notion that the DEC is on board and Dan Lamb has had a very convincing day with those people. They met recently and all the regional managers from throughout the state met at the Ithaca Game Farm and discussed this issue and they were all in agreement that the Rail Trail would not be a problem with the Game Farm. I think Bob is right and Jim Farquhar was a big help in this. 07/28/2020 Conservation subdivision: Peter contacted Ray Burger and Ray got permission from the owners on Ellis Hollow Road to go and inspect the property. The owner of the bottom lot has asked to accompany me on my walk. We told them that I am not an inspector of Water Works. That is being dealt with by DPW. I just got the permission on Monday so I will be contacting these landowners to arrange a time to walk over those conservation easement subdivisions. The land is right at the bottom along Cascadilla Creek. If anyone else wishes to come I can email you when I have arranged an appropriate time. As long as nothing has changed it’s going to be a relatively quick walkthrough because we already did the initial inspection. C. Schutt: The one is a storm water issue that was identified when inspected. David Sprout is the town storm water person. Should we invite him to one of our meetings and talk to him about these issues? P Davies: One of them which has a pond with storm water directed into over a waterfall then flowing out again. Ray says they are already dealing with that. D. Weinstein: There was an issue last time of not knowing where the boundaries are. How are you going to deal with that? P. Davies: I guess I can take a map and 100-foot tape measure and see what we decide. I think what it was is we wondered whether the pond was on someone’s property or on the easement and I think it’s on the easement. Lot 5 is above that, but I will get a map from Ray and try to make a decision on that. G. Dodici: Last meeting I said that I would reach out to Ray asking him if the Planning Department could develop a check list for moderating conservation easements where they can keep track of the conservation easements and everything that has been done on them. This helps us stay in communication with the Planning Department and to centralize our record keeping. I sent Ray an email along with a follow up email and I haven’t heard back from him. So, I do not have an update on that. N Munkenbeck: If there are stakes on the perimeter to show where the conservation division starts? Pete: Yes, but there are several stakes so we’re not sure which one is the actual line. J. Grace: One thing I put into our operating procedure for future conservation easements is that the property owner needs to mark the boundaries and maintain those markings. Most surveyors will just put a 4-inch stake in the ground which makes it easy to overlook. P. Davies says he will keep an eye out for those during his inspection. B. Beck quickly added that Ray Burger is our spokesperson with dealing with DOT and Erdman Anthony and we would just like to thank him again for everything he is doing. Deer management: T. Woods: I had several meetings with Joe Guernsey talking about what we can do in the Dryden area, and he says he owns all of the property that goes down to the creek behind Klein’s Archery all the 07/28/2020 way over to the road and way down behind the new housing across from the school. He has put feeders in many times in the past. It is also where he runs his hunter safety program. He is proposing we should use it for a hunt site but there is one problem. It’s all in the Village of Dryden and you cannot hunt in the village, so he is up against the village board. I had dinner with Dan Wakeman and his wife about a month ago and they were describing to me that they have gardens on their property in downtown Dryden and they have had to put 10-foot fences around their gardens and a lot of their landscaping because of the deer traffic. They are just getting overrun from the deer traffic. Dan is on the village board, so he is all for hunting on the vacant lot that is next to his residence, but he also needs to convince the village and the board that this is a good idea. The Town property behind the Dryden Fire Department where all the wooded property is also in the village. We would have to go to the Dryden Town Board to get their permission to hunt there but Joe thinks that would also be a good place to set a hunt site in. Freeville we still have the two main sites there are on Ron Szymanski property off of Johnson Road. Joe and I have looked over that property and Joe thinks that those two properties are ideal for a hunt. Especially the one that is within the Freeville village boundaries with just about 4 or 5 acres of Ron’s 400 acres. Getting the people of Freeville to get on board with that hunt site, I met with one of the families of that lives in Freeville and have the same problem that the Wakeman’s are having. We’re trying to get Joe and his hunters out in late August. Before the avid group of hunters get out on the field. Because all of Ron’s 400 acres including the parcel where we want to hunt is in the agricultural district and he is a member so he is eligible for nuisance tags and we can do that all year around. M. Richmond- One of the things I think worth considering is you might get a better response from hunters if you insist on this early deer hunt being a doe hunt first. Shoot the females to reduce the herd from this area. Ditch management: G. Dodici: I sent an email to everyone about a positive encounter I had with Rick Young. I saw him at the bottom of Midline Road and stopped him to have a conversation with him. This was right after we had a couple inches of rain and showed him what happened to a ditch that they dug out a couple years ago. He said on a rainy day he would have a ditching crew meet with Rebecca Snyder or whoever else would want to meet with them and give them a presentation about best management practices that we could be implementing. I asked him for a list of areas that they would be working on so from that list we could come up with some possible treatments, but I have yet to get that from him. Sounds like from Milo that they are staging on Genung Road to do the operation up there. I will send him an email tomorrow and ask to see if we can go out and see if they will implement some of the great control that Milo mentioned. I sent Rebecca an email to see if she would be interested in doing a presentation, but I haven’t heard back from her. M. Richmond- I will make another attempt to reach Rebecca. She seems interested in that and has good information to share with the town on managing water and ditches. I believe that she is a good connection and would buy into this. I do understand that she is quite busy, so she may be harder to reach. 07/28/2020 Other business: There was talk about bringing another member into the Conservation Board who is very knowledgeable on these issues. If there is an opening, he would like to get his name on the board. We will look into it to see if there is room for an alternate member. August meeting: Traditionally we have not had an August meeting and have had a party instead. Do we want I have a meeting anyway? Should we try to have a party and just social distance in the backyard? Everyone agrees that it would not be in the best interest to not have a BBQ. We will talk about having an August meeting when the date gets closer. There being no further business, on motion by Craig Schutt, seconded by Anne Clark, the meeting was adjourned at 8:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Emily Banwell Deputy Town Clerk