Agricultural Commission, February 21, 2017
AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION MEETING
MINUTES
February 21, 2017
Attendance: Steve D’Aquila, Jim Dunn, Eileen Charbonneau, Denise Cummings
Absent: Maleah Gustafson
Others Present: Amy Parker
Meeting called to order @7:32 PM
A motion was made (Steve) and seconded (Denise) to accept the minutes of the Nov 15, 2016 meeting as presented. The motion was passed unanimously.
A motion was made (Steve) and seconded (Denise) to accept the minutes of the January 24, 2017 meeting as presented. The motion was passed unanimously (Denise abstained).
Steve update the group on recent activities with the Community Garden Committee. His motivation was desire to start a small garden at Rice School. The CGC has had a large turnover recently and has had some delays getting re-energized. Town Manager Lukes has been assisting. There is an issue with the quality of the water available to the group at Davis Hill.
Regarding the Open Space Preservation Fund and the $50K contribution in the Town FY18 budget, Steve noted that he had gone to the Board of Selectmen meeting and made a request to up that amount to $100K. He did not feel that he got great support for the request from the members. We could still go to the Finance Committee and make our case. Discussion led to a plan to have Ag Comm members speak to BOS members individually.
Steve asked what progress has been made recently to prioritize the Chapter 61 properties in town. Answer: None. We need to re-invigorate this effort. We will start at the next meeting (March) and do a Property (Dunn) to see how well the score sheet works.
Jim reported that he will speak to the Conservation Commission on March 1 and the BOS on March 6 regarding the changes to MGL Chapter 40A Section 8L.
There was no significant progress on scheduling the poultry raising speaker. Venue and scheduling conflicts abound. The idea of combining with a Red Barn event was brought forward.
The Ag Comm’s page on the Town’s web site has not been updated. Jim will check on reasons why.
The next meeting will March 21.
On a motion made (Steve) and seconded (Denise), the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM
Respectfully submitted;
James Dunn
Acting Secretary