Conservation Commission
Minutes

The Conservation Commission held a special meeting in the Town Offices on December 18, 2001 at 6PM.

Lynne Borofsky proposed applying for a Recreational Trails grant for 2 projects. She attended a workshop with Chris Gamache from Recreational Trails. Emphasis for the grant is placed on maintenance and restoration of trails. L. Borofsky stated that both bridges on Friedsam Trail are dangerous and need repair. The repairs needed are really beyond the abilities of the Commission. Jeff Newcomer presented pictures of a bridge with steel girders at Chesterfield Gorge that the Commission would like to see built on Friedsam Trail. The other project should be the completion of a trail loop. L. Borofsky proposed to also apply to Recreational Trails to do work on the muddy portion of the Anne Stokes loop. The Commission had previously proposed to have Americore to work on this trail.

The match of the grant is 80/20. The Recreation Trails allow the Town’s contribution in soft money; i.e., unskilled volunteer labor @ $7.39 per hour, which is the resource that the Chesterfield Conservation Commission has the most of. The application is due on January 16, 2002. L. Borofsky proposed she would like to do the typing. Jeff Newcomer will be in charge of pictures. 30% of the grant money will be for Non-motorized trails. Both of these trail projects are non-motorized.

Tom Duston agreed to be the contact person for the application. The Commission needs to include length of trail in the applications. The Recreational Trails want to know the greater project, so the length of the Daniel’s Mountain loop should be included in the Anne Stokes trail calculation. Tom proposed to write the Organizational Overview for both projects. Tim Butterworth will have Board of Selectmen write a letter stating government support for both projects, showing ownership of trails by Commission and giving Tom Duston permission to enter into the grant contract. The Commission will contact McKim Mitchell as a local representative, the Historical Society, Friends of Pisgah and the school for support of the Friedsam park project. L. Borofsky proposed Steve Fisher for the Project Description portion of the application. Tom will write the Environmental Analysis for Anne Stokes project. Tom proposed to have Kathy Thatcher write the Environmental Analysis for Friedsam Trail.

L. Borofsky proposed adding newspaper articles about the Chesterfield Conservation Commission to the application. Tom Duston proposed to write to citizens for Anne Stokes loop and volunteered Kathy Thatcher to write to the list of people collected at the Friedsam trail opening to fulfill letters from citizens, trail users and elected officials requested in the application. Kathy Thatcher will be able to contact Jane Shapiro who takes Senior Walkers from the hospital out to Friedsam Trail. Steve Fisher will be responsible for finding out how the Chesterfield Gorge Bridge was built and what permits were needed. There may be one bridge that will be hard to get steel girders into the site. Part of the budget may need to be removing trees and hiring a skidder to get steel girders into the site. They will look at the issue more carefully when they do a site evaluation.

The Budget can’t be determined until the Commission decides where the bridges will go. The Commission will meet at 10AM Saturday December 22 at the upper Friedsam parking lot to conduct a site evaluation. They will meet again at 10AM Saturday January 5 at the town offices to go over the application and determine what still needs to be done. Therefore, all that will be necessary on the January 9, 2002 meeting is to hand in the pieces of the final application and send it to Concord.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amy LaFontaine

Conservation Commission
Secretary