Vassalboro Conservation Commission June 9th, 6: 30 pm Minutes

Present: Peggy Horner, Steve Jones, Holly Weidner (chair)
Absent: David Jenney, Paul Mitnik

1. Lake Smart program: the recommended programs that the China Regional Lake Alliance (CRLA) has proposed were passed at the Town Meeting on Monday June 6 for a total of $12, 500. This will allow the start of 4 programs in Webber Pond and Three Mile Pond that will be administered by CRLA. There are 2 Lake Smart volunteers from Vassalboro who have started their training and will be working with CRLA. A report from CRLA says they have had some difficulty hiring enough workers for their Youth Conservation Corp program. Scott Pierz, director of CRLA, said that they will do the home evaluations done this year and next year start work on the projects. He also asked if there were other “shovel ready” projects that the town would like for the YCC crew to work on. We talked about some other possible projects but decided that since the town approved money specifically for Webber Pond and Three Mile Pond projects, that only those areas should be considered and there is currently no “shovel ready” projects that VCC knows of.

Action: Continue to check weekly with CRLA on updates on the Lake Smart projects. Assist our Lake Smart volunteers as needed. Check with the Webber Pond Association and our volunteers to see if they are aware of any “shovel ready “projects on that lake that they might notify CRLA.

2. Community Resiliency Partners: Peggy had taken the lead a few months ago but needed to step back for a few months. She had discussed the CRP with some board members and some people in the community interested in applying for the grants for the town. This is a timely proposal as the grants that would be available are only approved for the next few years and the next grant applications are in September. First step is for the town select board to approve becoming a Community Resiliency Partner. Then a team of selected people with diverse historical knowledge of the town would fill out the state questionnaires and hold a public meeting(s) for review and discussion of the answers to those questions.
People to be on the team might include: a past select board member, past or present public works manager, a longtime member of the emergency services ( fire, rescue, police) , a past member of any of the long term planning group, past member of energy committee, a member of the VCC and the town manager.

Action: Holly will have this put on the Select Board agenda for June 23 and prepare a statement.

3. Eagle Park: The town approved $20,000 for development of Eagle Park as a recreation area for the public. Mary Sabin suggested that the VCC resubmit and discuss possible draft plans to the select board.

Action: Holly will bring the plans that were presented last winter to the new select board.

4. Annual appointments for VCC: confirm that Steve Jones will stay on for another term and send this to the Select Board for approval.

5. We have $85 left in our FY 2021-22 budget.

Action: Holly will ask select board to be carried forward to pay for our annual 2022 Maine Association of Conservation Commission Dues
Next meeting July 14 may be cancelled if we need to present #2 and #3 to Select Board.
Respectfully submitted, Holly Weidner, chair