Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAC Minutes - 08_13_19Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 6 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes of monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 13, 2019 Danby Town Hall, 1830 Danby Road, Danby, New York Council Members present: Matt Ulinski (chair), Joel Gagnon, Clare Fewtrell, Don Schaufler, Ruth Sherman Council Members absent: Bill Evans, George Adams Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (secretary), Bill Keokosky (Danby resident) Meeting opened at 7:06 pm Agenda Review (Additions or Deletions) Ulinkski added CAC approval of a conservation easement that he has been working on Public Comments/Privilege of the Floor (later referred to as PoF) Keokosky(sec.) asked about appropriate email since some people had no Danby email and/or weren’t receiving minutes. Asked to standardize on something. Ulinski said he preferred people use their Danby email. Many people use two emails so one shows up in their regular email program, which is not linked to Danby email program. Gagnon noted that if a freedom of information request was made than it would have to go to people’s own computers. Ulinski said that if only one Danby email was used than the email showed up on Danby server. So as long as email is sent to Ulinski Danby address it will be recorded. Ulinski also reported problems with Laserfiche server not linking to town website and for Agenda and Minutes. Keokosky has been putting files on Laserfiche and Ulinski said this is sufficient. He suggested Keokosky work with Town Clerk since it is a town issue not a CAC issue. Townofdanbyny.org is official website. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 6 Approve Minutes MOTION for Draft July 9, 2019 minutes Gagnon moved to approve Ulinski Seconded Unanimous approval Reports and Updates 1. Updates to discussion steps on becoming a CB • Ulinski asked if CAC wants to discuss this. Group has mixed feelings and some reluctance due to the difficulty of loosing and replacing members (Ulinski and Gagnon automatically eliminated since they cannot be on two boards). Ulinski says the process of becoming a CB has slowed down because of the pre-requisite to create an Open Space Inventory that identifies spaces we think need to be preserved. He didn’t get an article on it in last DAN. • PoF:Keokosky(sec.) reported that link (https://www.dos.ny.gov/lg/publications/Local_Open_Space_Plannin g_Guide.pdf ) in Ulinski’s handout on “Conservation Advisor Councils and Boards” was excellent. Comprehensive plan and Open Space Inventory complement each other. Thinks an article should be put in DAN that invites readers to tell us where their favorite open space in Danby is – one that they enjoy walking in and think should be preserved. Made her realize that Deputron Hollow issue was really an open space issue. That people thought of it as an open space but it wasn’t treated that way. Ulinski sees the open space inventory as a zoning recommendation – creating conservation zones in which development would be looked at more carefully. Gagnon says that Planning Board is looking to CAC to help with zoning. • Ulinski said perhaps we should dedicate next three meetings to public help with Open Space Inventory. Ulinski asked everyone to read Open Space Planning Guide (referred to above) before next meeting. Because of Ulinski time constraints, Keokosky offered to write article for next month’s DAN advertising these meetings, with Ulinski editing and OK. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 6 • The question was asked should we let people know about meeting with Gretchen Salm? Ulinski said we could just announce it in DAN. • Ulinski reported that temp town planner, Czamanske, has been involved in reviewing applications of 16 people for full time planner. Deadline for application is this Friday. After that more work involved in selection. So he has not had time to work with county on getting Natural Resource Inventory available on a browser on county website. Ulinski will follow-up with county on status of this. • Need some way of projecting maps by October meeting; alternative is using ArcGIS on a laptop. 2. Schaufler gave assessment of ash trees on Town Land in W. Danby. He had created a spreadsheet of trees by chest high diameter and number of trees. It gave two estimations of value by volume at $600 and $650 per MBF (thousand board feet) Total values could range between approx. $8000 and $9000. A dozen to fifteen trees, whose removal might be difficult, weren’t separated out of total value. Decisions need to be made soon since Emerald Ash Borer can quickly ruin saw timber value and provide an entry for fungus, which stains and degrades the wood. This estimate can hold up for perhaps 6 months. Fewtrell asked how we can make sure work crew would take what we recommend. Schaufler said he would volunteer his time to provide oversight to logging crew. Group discussed report to Town Board. Ulinski said report would have more force if management plan was complete but resolved to go ahead. Ulinski proposed a Resolution to move on a recommendation to Danby Town Board to do a preemptive harvest of ash trees on West Danby Water District property, to be supervised by CAC, using best forest management practices -with Schaufler’s Inventory attached. Schaufler moved to approve Fewtrell Seconded Unanimous approval Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 6 3. Annual Walk of easements – (soon to be 5). Ulinski found documents on easements on his computer. Schaufler and Fewtrell will be walking them using Dryden monitoring forms sent by Bob Beck, edited for Danby. Side discussion of email exchange with Alanna Congdon, administrator for Laserfiche server. Access to Laserfiche server is limited since charges of $140 per person for read/write capacity makes it prohibitive. Current solution is sending conservation easements information to Secretary Keokosky to upload. (note: Eric Palmer has purchased Melchen easement). Adams was previously concerned about a CAC library. There is currently a CAC private folder that has a link that was sent earlier. As noted above, this can be read from, but not written on. Some question rose about email sent containing link, and what current password was – Ulinski will follow up on that. 4. Update on Gretchen Salm, Land Conservation Support Specialist from Finger Lakes Land Trust Ulinski reported that she will be coming to September Meeting to let us know what FLLT is doing. 5. No progress on Management Plans 6. No new information on pipeline update on alternatives to spraying Adams had offered to do research but he is absent. 7. Prism Class for Invasive Species Management Discussion of best time. Ulinski will follow up with Highway Department. Fall is good but Spring might be the better time to give the class since it would immediately precede when the season information might actually be needed. Ruth said she would follow-up with PRISM people for good times and that it might be a good idea to invite other highway Departments as well. 8. Review of Curtiss Easement (previously discussed in Executive Sessions) Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 6 Ulinski presented 3 draft documents defining and describing property to the council for editing. They are: • “Deed of Conservation Easement” • “Schedule A: Joan and Richard Curtiss Conservation Easement Land Description” • “Schedule B: Joan and Richard Curtiss Conservation Easement Baseline Documentation” The address is 29 Durfee Hill Rd. and the part of property preserved is described in Schedule A as Parcel B. Ulinski accepted CAC suggested changes to images and references to parcels and locations to make documents more clearly understandable. Parcel contains dense bushes, wetland, and a section of Buttermilk Creek that is part of Cayuga Lake Watershed Curtiss’s questioned Eminent Domain section – concerned that they might be “dinged” twice. Appraisal is of property given town so it eminent domain also occurs??? (needs Matt to fill in) Fewtrell was concerned that the “Deed” had many references to “Proportionate Value” (value of part of property represented by donation) that referred to a definition noted as “below.” But actual definition was hidden away and still not clearly defined in “Article IV: Federal and State Tax Items: 4.05 Property Right.” Ulinski acknowledged that the template needs “work”. Should be cleaned up, but not comfortable changing it here since it requires re-approaching landowner, who has already accepted deed already. Ulinski proposed a motion that CAC recommends accepting the Curtiss easement, with changes discussed and subject to overview of town lawyer, Guy Krogh, to Danby Town Board Ulinski moved to approve Gagnon Seconded Unanimous approval Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 6 of 6 There followed discussion of another possible easement that was “off the record”. Next Meeting is on September 10 at 7p.m. Adjournment The meeting ended at 8:30 p.m. _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)