MINUTES OF THE BETHANY CONSERVATION COMMISSION

 

April 9, 2015

 

Present were: Brian Eitzer, Cathy Rives, Matthew Popp, Bruce Loomis, Patricia Winer. Dorothy Seaton was absent. Shaukat Khan arrived later. Ray Pantalone, Bethany Tree Warden, was also present.

 

The meeting was called to order at 8:10 by Bruce Loomis, Chair.

 

Patricia Winer was appointed to be a voting member in place of Dorothy Seaton.

 

Ray Pantalone gave a report on the status of the ash trees in town. On the basis of a list made up from reports by residents, injection of those trees considered worth saving has already been done. This will need to be repeated in two years. Some trees were done too late and are already dead.

 

Ray brought up the possibility of replacing the Bradford pears at the Town Hall. Bruce suggested preparing information for a future grant for replacement of those trees or of the roadside ashes, so that we would be ready to apply for grants that might come up. We might have to apply for separate grants for different purposes. Species of trees to replace the roadside ashes would have to be chosen according to site conditions and homeowners' preferences.

 

Minutes of the March 12 meeting were reviewed and corrections suggested:

     Paragraph 2, capitalize Water Company

     Paragraph 3, change "Conservator" to "Conservationist"

     Paragraph 5, line1, change "comes in" to "comes up short"

     Paragraph 7, change "Board" to "Town"

The minutes were approved as corrected. Bruce moved to approve and Cathy seconded the motion.

 

There were no bills. Correspondence was a letter from BCS regarding Conservationist awards to two students. Bruce made a motion to sponsor these awards in the amount of $60. Brian seconded it. The motion passed unanimously.

 

There was a discussion of the Bethany Horsemen's proposal to expand and redesign the horse rings at the airport. There has been an informal discussion with P&Z on the issue. The Commission reviewed the proposed site plan. Bruce will formulate a list of specific questions that the Commissioners had and will submit them to P&Z. A site walk was set for Sunday the 19th at 10:00 at the airport property.

 

Bruce gave an update on the proposed Woodward subdivision. Mr. Woodward has withdrawn his most recent application, and his has no plans to come before the CC until his engineer has made changes and he is ready to resubmit.

 

The Commission went into executive session at 9:04 to discuss the issue of Conservationist of the Year and came out of executive session at 9:07. Matthew Popp volunteered to design an award certificate before the annual Town Meeting.

 

There was a discussion of the necessity for doing some house keeping of the closet housing old CC materials.

 

Shaukat Kahn reported that he had received an email from Jennifer McGuire of the CT Department of Agriculture concerning the Connecticut farm map. They have no plans to update the map at present. Shaukat will get more copies of the current map.

 

At 9:22 Brian Eitzer moved to adjourn. Cathy Rives seconded the motion. All voted in favor.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Patricia Winer, Secretary pro tem