Reappointment of Charlie McCabe, 14 Orient Avenue, Melrose to the Conservation Commission for a term of three years, said term to end the last day of February 2029.

Transcript (~9 min @ 1:12)

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▶ 1:04 Ryan Williams: And with no objection, public comment is closed. So we have four reappointments before us tonight. First is two members of Conservation Commission, ID 2026308, reappointment of Charlie McCabe, 14 Orient Avenue, Melrose, to the Conservation Commission for a term of three years, said term to end on the last day of February 2029. Charlie,

▶ 1:28 Speaker 1: hello.

▶ 1:32 Ryan Williams: Good evening. Good evening. So tell us a little bit about your time on the Conservation Commission and what you see for the year ahead.

▶ 1:39 Christopher Park: Sure. So I've just completed my first term of three years, and we've experienced some highs and lows. So we lost our conservation agent partway through my first year. But we were able to get a great new conservation agent, and we've been working with her, Ingrid Wickler, for the last couple of years. And I think the big thing that we've been able to accomplish is getting our arms around the management of a lot of our lands and especially our lakes. I think the thing I'm probably most proud of is pulling tremendous numbers of invasives out of L Pond and kind of resetting L Pond back to what it should be or what it could be, in the longer term. So we've done a lot to encourage volunteers to come out and work with us. Both Jason and I have actually been out there in the middle of summer pulling stuff out of the woods and also of the waters, and we're looking to try to do similar things for both our other two ponds. And in terms of the work before us, probably the biggest thing coming up will be L Pond Park's efforts to rebuild and restore that. The city is working on a 25% plan right now to really kind of address the entire park on both sides of the parkway. And they're looking to do some work around water management, water treatment, as part of a grant that they got from the federal government over the last couple of years. So we have a lot going on- Mm ... but it seems to be going fairly well, and we're always awaiting the next hearings in which we have to weigh in for folks either building or rebuilding houses or other buildings or structures that are needed to get our attention under both the ordinance at the state level as well as the city level. So...

▶ 3:49 Speaker 1: Thank you. Any comments or questions from councilors? Councilor Finocchiaro?

▶ 3:54 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes. Thank you for being here tonight. Sure. Thank you for everything you're doing. It's a big commitment to be on a commission like this, and appreciate you stepping up to do another term. So just want to say thank you and...

▶ 4:05 Speaker 2: Thanks very much.

▶ 4:07 Speaker 1: Councilor Park?

▶ 4:09 Speaker 2: Thank you. I echo my fellow colleague, Councilor Finocchiaro, for thank you for your service, for your first term. And I'll ask this question also to your colleague, Jason. What do you see as your biggest challenge right now, moving forward, should you be reappointed to this department?

▶ 4:31 Christopher Park: I think our biggest challenge is managing our natural assets, both the property that we own through the city. We have had a number of infractions, I guess is what I would say, where people are either temporarily or permanently putting structures on city land. So we're going through, again, working with our agent to try to address those and get people to basically comply with the law. So that's one area. I think the second area is climate change is giving us a lot of challenges with regard to managing water bodies, and the three water bodies we have are very shallow. They're susceptible to drought. They're also susceptible to high heat. So some of our biggest challenges are just trying to figure out how we keep those as healthy as we can. We have a fairly limited budget, but we try to use it very judiciously to address treatments, testing treatments, and kind of follow through and supplement that with volunteer work. So it's a balancing act, but we're small but mighty, I guess is what I would say.

▶ 5:52 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 5:55 Kimberly Vandiver: Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you, Chair Williams. I thank you for being here and for your write-up as well-Very helpful to lay that all out there, everything that you're doing. I had a few comments and questions. One is, can you speak to the fountain in L Pond? Is that something your group is involved with?

▶ 6:12 Christopher Park: Yeah. It was actually a grant that the city got through Parks and Recreation, and they actually came to us and installed it. It's been operating, I think, for about a year now, and it does do a lot to actually help keep the water flow going, especially during the summer months. It's also, if you're actually out there boating, it's a nice cooling, refreshing, little place to go and check it out. So it has operated fairly well. I know they did have problems with the initial one, but it was under warranty, and they were able to get it up and running. So it ran for an entire season this year, and it ran for a portion of the season, I think it was in 2024, right at the end of 2024. Okay. Yeah. So it's operated by Parks and Rec, and they pull it out every year, and they put it back in. So it should be going in fairly soon.

▶ 7:10 Kimberly Vandiver: That's helpful. I know I see people asking about it sometimes, and I wasn't sure. I've heard it's for keeping the pond aerated, but I wasn't sure.

▶ 7:18 Christopher Park: Yeah. It was a grant. It was also, they refurbished the gazebo, and they did some other cleanup along the Main Street edge, too. There's been a number of memorial benches put in along Main Street as well. So continuing to try to keep it well-functioning.

▶ 7:37 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. And I really appreciate the commentary about how you've shifted a lot of work into volunteers, and that seems like multiple purposes, getting people engaged and involved with everybody out there canoeing. Sounds like a really great move.

▶ 7:53 Christopher Park: Yeah. We actually got a donation of two kayaks from a couple, so we refer to it as the Conservation Commission Navy- that help us kind of get volunteers out there on a regular basis in July and August. So it's fun.

▶ 8:09 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay, and last question. As far as communication, what are your methods for recruiting new volunteers or keeping people updated on what you're doing?

▶ 8:18 Christopher Park: So we use the city newsletter, we use the city website. That's the primary way. Our conservation agent also has connections to the high school, so we've gotten a lot of high school students come to get their conservation hours as part of that, so they've helped us with invasive species removal.

▶ 8:41 Kimberly Vandiver: Oh, that's great. Yeah. That's great. Okay. With that, I would make a motion to recommend. Sure.

▶ 8:46 Speaker 3: Second.

▶ 8:47 Ryan Williams: We have a motion to recommend by Vice Chair Vandiver, seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro. And on discussion, I wanted to say thank you, and I'll also say thank you to Jason, and thank you to Joe for coming in tonight. We really appreciate the opportunity to get to meet folks. I know Charlie fairly well, but like the rest of you, I haven't met that often. And as a committee, sometimes we do reappointments with no one in the room whom we've never met, and so it's nice to put a face to the name and also understand a little bit more about what's going on. And I'm personally really looking forward to doing another round of water chestnut pulling.

▶ 9:21 Christopher Park: It'll be there, Ryan.

▶ 9:23 Ryan Williams: Yeah. I got some new electric tools, too, for the invasives cutting, the vine cutting, and all that. So I'm looking forward to that. All right. Thank you very much. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No one's opposed. That passes. You don't have to be present at the council meeting for the reappointment. Thank you so much for coming in. Thanks. Thank you. Next up, we have ID 2026-448, the reappointment of Jason Jankaitis, 16 Tappan Street to the Melrose Conservation Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2029. Thank you again for coming in.