Meeting Room A
Town Hall, 260 Commercial
Street
Time: 4:30 pm
Members
Present: Kerry Adams, Alice
Brock, Heather Bruce,
Gerard Irmer, and Philip Scholl
Members
Absent: Mel Cote – excused absence
Advisory
Staff: Doug
Taylor (Rex McKinsey excused for 3 mos.)
Others: Noah Santos
The meeting
was called to order at 4:30 p.m.
REVISED AGENDA
Review/amend/approve
minutes of 3/1/06
Alice asked a question regarding the licenses of Elena Hall. Heather Bruce explained that licenses used
to be issued as a lifetime license according to the state. (Thus the references in the minutes to
“licenses.” Alice Brock wanted it changed
to: “several licenses or her property had been previously licensed.” Jerry will change.
Motion: Accept the minutes of the March 1st
meeting as amended.
Motion by Kerry
Adams, Seconded by Philip Scholl,
Approval vote 5-0-0.
Noah Santos (Francis
John’s son) of 1 Good Templar Place
talked about a ramp at Flyer’s Boatyard which has washed out. It has to be fixed and is in need of an
emergency repair. He needs it fixed
promptly. Noah had pictures of the
decaying ramp to show the Harbor Committee.
After a bit of discussion the following motion was made:
Motion: The Harbor Committee will send a letter to the DPW, the Board of Selectmen (BoS), and the Building Commissioner regarding the need for an emergency repair for the boat ramp at Good Templar Place.
Motion by Kerry
Adams, Seconded by Philip Scholl, Approval vote of 5-0-0.
The discussion on this ramp continued for a bit more and it was
found that the Harbormaster had decreed that the Personal Water Craft (PWC)
launch ONLY FROM THIS RAMP and the Harbor Committee supported this ruling. Doug Taylor advised Noah to see what action
came from the letter mentioned in the above motion and then if there is no
response, Doug advised Noah to approach the BoS meeting and present his case
during Public Statements.
Unfinished
Business:
Alice had unfinished business…… i.e……. how do you apply for a
license, etc. Doug Taylor is working on
this issue.
Old Business:
Review 2005
Amendments to the Harbor Plan status
Jerry hasn’t been able to contact Truman Henson, as yet.
Jerry hasn’t heard back from Town Counsel.
Jerry sent a letter to the Boatslip and requested that they survey
their property line and possibly open up their bathrooms to the public as a
condition of their license.
Heather and Alice agree that the Boatslip is not under Chapter
91. The state hedged their bets and did
not make a definite statement on this issue.
There was talk about drafting yet another letter to the Boatslip telling
them they don’t need a license???? This
was not firmly decided upon.
Waterways
Application W96-8204-N, 47 Commercial St.
Waterways
Application W96-9001-N, 437-439 Commercial St.
There was no action taken on the above two applications.
Nothing has been done with this.
Kerry Adams got an e-mail from Rex and he felt that the whole job should
be scrapped until May. Alice has many
ideas on beach cleanup. Jerry asked for
a definite schedule and none was provided.
New Business:
Jerry talked about an updated data base. Heather unsuccessfully tried to correct Jerry about the data
base. The list is all amnesty. Alice thinks it should be updated as much as
we can from our records. Heather says
it depends on how much of a person’s property falls within the tidelands.
Kerry said he attended the last BoS meeting and represented the
Committee on the harbor fees. The BoS
wondered why local and non-local fishermen would have different rates. They were told that this is currently being
decided definitively by the state.
Michelle Couture also said (on the issue of putting dye tabs in
vessels’ holding tanks) that she wanted “with the permission of the boat owner”
added to the regs. KA mentioned it to
Rex McKinsey and Rex said that it was in his regs. but he’s not going to make
waves by telling the BoS about their blunder.
Motion: A letter will be sent to the BoS stating that after a review of the regs (specific # of the reg will be obtained from Rex) the phrase “with the vessel owners permission” will not be added to the regs regarding the dye tab. Also a copy will be sent to Keith Bergman (KAB).
Motion by Kerry
Adams Seconded by Heather Bruce Approved by all 5-0-0.
KA will be at the BoS meeting on Monday to answer any problems
that may arise.
Announcement from state re: Elena Hall. It is ongoing.
Doug Taylor is going to put together a flow-chart regarding
procedures for anyone who wants to do – ANYTHING – that is harbor related. Everyone is asked if they have a Chapter 91
license if they want to do anything harbor-related and then they have to
present the proposal to the HC. Doug
wants it to come before the HC BEFORE anything is decided. KA says to make it very important. The applicant can go to the DEP originally
but it will only hold them up because it must be presented to the Harbor
Committee.
Doug also suggested that the HC put together a boilerplate letter
– so that when an applicant receives his/her O.K., it’s consistent. Alice gave a bit of ancient history on her
application. She also felt that the
applicants should have an engineer do the presentation.
Discussion:
The original plan made no differences between amnesty and
non-amnesty.
Heather Bruce worked very hard to author a two sentence statement
that can just be put at the bottom of each Chapter 91 license application. It was decided after much discussion that
the whole issue would go back to the drawing board.
Jerry got copies of the maps from the state…… Barrier Beach Inventory Project….. Kerry said that the seashore had tons of
maps. Jerry picked 12 maps to order
from the state.
Alice had a question: How
does the Dept of Environmental Protection determine that people need a
license? Where is the map….. so if the DEP is using this to make
determinations why can’t they give us a copy of this “mystery” map so we can
all see the basis for their determinations?
Motion: Jerry will write a letter to the DEP and ask for the map that they’re using to make determinations on Chapter 91.
Kerry Adams made
the motion Seconded by Phil
Scholl Voted 5-0-0.
Adjournment happened at 5:45 p.m.
Next meeting:
April 5 in Town Hall at 4:30pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Approved by ____________________________on ______________, 2006.