Conservation Commission — 2019-05-16
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE CONSERVATION COMMISSION City Hall, 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4312 Fax - (781) 979-4290 Melrose Conservation Commission Minutes for May 16, 2019 Present: Susan Murphy*, Richard Doucette, Zachary Drench, Kate Hickey, Ryan Sloan, Aaron Weieneth and Mike Paiewonsky Absent: Staff present: Eric Devlin Mr. Doucette opened the public meeting at 7:30pm as acting chair. Minutes- Motion by Mr. Doucette to approve the minutes from April 4, 2019, Mr. Paiewonsky seconded the motion and it was voted 7-0 in favor. Motion by Mr. Doucette to approve the minutes from April 23, 2019, Ms. Hickey seconded the motion and it was voted 7-0 in favor. Public Hearing: 217-0204 MBTA Oak Grove station/Banks Place- Special Conditions for the Order of Conditions were discussed. Motion by Mr. Doucette to issue a standard Order of Conditions with two special conditions in perpetuity - No parking signs and granite curbing shall be installed along the east side of Banks place. Ms. Hickey seconded the motion and it was voted 7-0 in favor. Discussion Open Space Projects –The proposed 40B project off Swains Pond Ave. has generated more interest in open space acquisition. Steve Locke may be interested in starting an Open Space Committee. Healthy Melrose table –The proposed 40B project off Swains Pond Ave. was the major topic of discussion at the table. *Ms. Murphy had to leave the meeting at this point. Public Hearing: 217-0205 Crystal Street water and sewer repairs- Elena Proakis Ellis, Melrose City Engineer was present. Ms. Proakis Ellis- Crystal Street has no other water mains in the area as an alternative to restore water service. A leak occurred in the water main at some point around December 12. MWRA notified the City of a large increase of water usage on their December 31 bill. Large increase in usage noted starting on December 12. January 6 suspected leak area was isolated with large pooling areas observed near Crystal St. Shut off water service to the area via valve near street/ Tennis Courts on Crystal Street. No evidence of the leak extending beyond the existing fence on the site. All proposed repair work is expected to be outside wetland areas. City DPW will dig an exploratory trench to locate the damaged section of the pipe and cut out/remove that section of the pipe and replace it. An updated alternative analysis was submitted to the file that provides better detail on the project proposal. Knoll Study- DPW, Planning, Parks, Schools are holistically looking at the whole site for improvements. Drain line repair/replacement portion – The drain line that only handles stormwater from Crystal Street and leads out to Ell pond has been flooding the area. DPW knows there are two drain lines that lead from the street, unclear if both lines are active. Last fall, DPW attempted to clean the apparent active line that was clogged. The cleaning jet nozzle became stuck in the line and the area had to be excavated to retrieve the nozzle. DPW will re-excavate the line closest to the tennis courts (this is believed to be the active line). Erosion controls will be installed just upland from the wetland line. Plan to stop at or before the wetland line. Detail of sedimentation basin for expected dewatering is included in the submittal. Mr. Doucette- Spoke with a woman in the area that was very concerned about the nearby swan nest and swans. A resident built a wooden fence out of branches to protect the nest from encroachment. There was a tree with a DPW notice to be cut down that is in the wetland. Swans expected to hatch any day now. Staff- Catch basins on Crystal Street, are they currently deep sumped? If not, opportunity for water quality improvement by upgrading the existing CBs. Ms. Proakis Ellis- Need to check to see, not sure if they are deep sump CBs. Part of the NPDES permit will have DPW GPS all the outfalls to the pond. Special Conditions to be included: -48 Hours advance notice. -Inspect Erosion Controls before start of work -No work beyond the Erosion control line/limit of work shown on the plan - detail sheet (Environmental Protection Melrose, sheet 2). Motion by Mr. Doucette to issue an Order of Conditions within 21 days. Seconded by Mr. Paiewonsky and voted 6-0 in favor. The next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 7:30 PM. Motion by Mr. Weieneth to adjourn. Ms. Hickey seconded the motion and it was voted 6-0 in favor. Adjourn 8:30PM adjourn ____________________________ _________________ Approved Date. Pursuant to the ‘Open Meeting Law, ‘ G.L. 39, 23B, the approval of these minutes by the Commission constitutes a certification of the date, time and place of the meeting, the members present and absent, and the actions taken at the meeting. Any other description of statements made by any person, or the summary of the discussion of any matter, is included for the purpose of context only, and no certification, express or implied, is made by the Commission as to the completeness or accuracy of such statements.