Planning Board Minutes
May 12, 2009
Members present: Terry Silverman, Suzanne Gray, Robin Haynes, Mac Landy, John Tommila and Carmen Yon, Selectmen’s representative.
Others present: Tom Parker, Selectman, Nancy Carney, Deputy Fire Chief, guests.
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
Master Planning – Education. Silverman noted the Board was continuing it’s work on the Master Plan and he welcomed guests Karen Craig, Principal of Emerson School, Dr. Kenneth Dassau, Superintendent MRSD SAU #38, Winn Wright, school board member, and Sherri Walters, home school evaluator. Mac Landy took the lead for the discussion of education, asking the guests to discuss their five and ten year plans, any long term problems they anticipate, the possibility of shared services, and information supporting their views.
Dr. Dassau began by saying he hadn’t seen the Fitzwilliam master plan, but as a resident of Marlow, who served on and chaired the Planning Board there, he is familiar with master plans produced by Southwest Regional Planning Commission. He referred the Board to the MSRD website for statistics on population trends, the annual report and capital improvements plan.
Dr. Dassau said the population of the state seems to be declining in part because NH graduates leave the state and towns have zoning requiring very large lots, which limits housing. He said the school population is decreasing. If trends continue, schools may see populations shrink to the point where their students are moved to another school. He noted that Fitzwilliam has about 238 students now, including students from Richmond. If Swanzey’s school population continues to decline and Emerson’s school population increases or stays the same, Richmond students may be transferred to Swanzey to balance school populations.
Ms. Craig noted that according to federal law if a student has been in a school that “needs improvement,” as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act, they can transfer to a school that does not need improvement after a certain time.
The number of students in a classroom at Emerson is between 18 and 22; they have 10 classrooms and combine grade levels/age groups. They offer a pre-school program and K-6th grade curriculum. Another federal mandate requires that when special needs children reach the age of three, they can enter pre-school without cost. The Emerson pre-school serves Fitzwilliam, Richmond and Troy children and when special needs children turn three they can enter, any time during the year, so the population fluctuates. Emerson serves a higher population of special needs children than schools without a pre-school program because they tend to move into the Kindergarten program directly from the pre-school program, as do children without special needs. Dr. Dassau estimates there are about 170 home schooled
children in the district and many of them take advantage of the art, music and physical education programs offered at the school, and some come in to take standardized tests. Home schooled children are not eligible to participate in special needs programs.
Ms. Craig noted that the school population has been steady or increasing slightly over the past 8 years. She expects about 30 children in next year’s kindergarten class. She added that she doesn’t see the school population decreasing, noting that there are a lot of families who are hurting in this economy. She thinks many of her families are self-employed, many in small businesses or the construction business.
When asked about infrastructure changes in the future, Ms. Craig referred to the school capital improvements plan. She said they are blessed at Emerson to have a facility that is in good shape, but they can always use more space. With an increasing number of children with an autism diagnosis, they could use a dedicated occupational therapy space (600 sq.ft.) for the equipment and therapy sessions.
Class size is affected by children returning to Emerson after they complete private kindergarten. Since Emerson’s program is not a full day, kids attend a private kindergarten and return for first grade and beyond. They have to watch class size so they don’t get too big. They have adequate space in a multipurpose room and outdoors.
Yon asked if they had programs for other age groups in town. Ms. Craig said that is not on the front burner now because everyone is so busy. They do work in tandem with the town recreation department and the PTCO but always need more volunteers to staff extra programs. Community groups using the school need to have an insurance binder. They do not offer many programs for the tween/teen age group but agree that there is a great need. There is a steel drum program and recreation programs for that age group, but, again, it’s a matter of volunteer staffing.
Landy asked what the school district would do with a 10% increase in the number of students. Dr. Dassau said it depended on what grades they go into. There is an average drop-off of 4.6% a year in all seven towns served. He added that there is a master plan in place, architectural plans for expansion ready and a plan to come off probation (for accreditation) as soon as possible. It is hard to find people to serve on the various committees. Their priority for buildings is the high school and middle school at this time. Winn Wright, school board member, concurred, saying there are plans ready to begin some aspects of the work this summer.
Ms.Walters, who evaluates home schooling sites in the state, said that she recalled that during the Community Forum in 2006 several young people, including a home schooler, made it clear that they wanted a place to gather in the community.
Gray asked what lessons the school district learned from the ice storm last year, which she described as a community catastrophe. Ms. Craig said it was huge, but they worked with the police chief and PSNH to find a generator and get the power back on. Dr. Dassau said Fitzwilliam was hit the hardest and was the only school to lose even a day. Emerson was closed two days. Ms. Craig said PSNH responded well and she would have liked to be a community emergency shelter since Emerson is a community building. She said having the kids back in school so quickly helped them understand what other families were going through and that it was very hard on most families. She said the school really needs to have its own generator. They had to get one from Maine for the ice storm. Tom Parker
said the Selectmen have approached the VFW to be the community emergency shelter. Ms. Craig said she’d like to be a part of the emergency planning meetings.
Landy asked about outreach to the community. Ms. Craig said they have lots of programs and the public is invited to all of them. This month veterans have been invited to a school program. The parent/teacher organization, articles in the newsletter and collaborative efforts with neighboring groups all extend the reach of the school, but there is no director for public outreach – but it is a great idea. Dr. Dassau said logistics pose the greatest challenge to outreach efforts, in that transportation, scheduling and other considerations are significant, for instance, to move a school band performance to different sites. He suggested providing a link from the town website to the school website, so communication about events reaches a wider audience.
The Board thanked them for coming.
Public Safety. Silverman welcomed Wayne Kassotis, the police chief. Gray took the lead in this discussion. She met with the police chief and fire department as part of her assignment to update the public safety section of the master plan. She asked Chief Kassotis for his opinion of what the trends are and the police role in the community.
Chief Kassotis said a lot has to do with growth – if growth is in subsidized housing, there may be a higher percentage of problems. There has been an increase in the number of calls about domestic issues in town and the hard economic times contribute to that behavior. There has been an increase in burglary, felonies and fraud; an increase in calls and an increase in needs. Additionally, future development of the commercial land in town will bring its own set of policing issues. Expansion is moving north from Massachusetts and more will be required of the police department.
The biggest need for the Police Department is for a facility where the department can comply with legal requirements, for sight and sound separation, decontamination, evidence storage, in order to remain an accredited agency. The current facility is inadequate to achieve legal protocols. There are no bathroom facilities in the current building, without passing through the fire department, with which the police share space. Also, there is a need for a garage for police vehicles, especially in winter. Preparing a cruiser to respond to a call in the winter, when the vehicle has been outdoors, impacts response time.
Chief Kassotis said in the last two years the department has reached the goal of having all cars similarly equipped and up to standard.
He said that appropriate space for a building is available on town owned land. Parker said money is set aside in an expendable trust for a police facility. The fund currently has enough money for a design to present at the 2010 town meeting. The Selectmen would like to discuss siting issues with the Planning Board.
Haynes asked the Chief where the best site would be. He feels anywhere that is accessible to Routes 12 and 119 is acceptable. She asked if a police presence in the Depot was critical. The Chief did not think so.
Silverman asked if the state police could help with the space issues. The Chief said they use the state lab for evidence storage but they never planned to have a holding cell in the town, even in a new building. Offenders are taken to a facility in another town.
The Board thanked the Police Chief for coming.
Fire Department. Bill Prigge, Fire Chief, Nancy Carney, Deputy Fire Chief, Bob Crowell, Fire Chief of Meadowood, and Winn Wright, Assistant Chief and board member of Meadowood attended the meeting. Nancy Carney submitted the updated master plan for the Fitzwilliam Fire Department. Gray noted she met with the Fire Department regarding the master plan and tonight asked if the town should be doing things differently in the future.
Chief Prigge responded that the department has space issues, like the police department. If and when the police department moves to a new facility, the fire department will have more room, which may be adequate into the future. He said a more pressing problem is with the water. The water from a new well is proving to be as saline as from the two older wells. Chief Prigge said the salt ruins the trucks, windshields, anything metal. Parker said the town has tried to use a seal to prevent water sources closer to the surface from contaminating the well, but it has been unsuccessful. He said filtration is very expensive to install and maintain. Yon said it was a short term problem.
Chief Prigge said the equipment is in good shape now and with planned purchases in the next few years the equipment will continue to be in good shape. He added that funding these purchases comes in part from grants. The ambulance will be replaced in 2010 or 2011, and it passed inspection this year.
He said the population is aging and there is a projected increase in the number of 20-30 year olds coming into the state. However, the increase in older residents may have a profound effect. Already this year there has been an increase in the number of calls, the majority of which are for medical emergencies and auto accidents.
Haynes asked if there had been a change in the number of ambulance calls since the service became fee based last year. Deputy Chief Carney said the ambulance has responded to calls for medical help where the client needed the help to stabilize themselves so they could drive to the hospital to avoid the fee. There has been an increase in the number of pediatric calls, due to the economy and lack of health insurance. There has been an increase in the psychological/stress related and domestic dispute calls, and a huge increase in drug related calls. She added that some people are stressed by the billing issue, but the ambulance service has an arrangement with the hospital for this purpose.
Gray asked about regionalization as a means to solve some of the problems.
Chief Prigge said the mutual aid system in the region is one of the oldest in the country and it works well. As far as sharing services with other towns in the region, meetings to discuss the possibilities did not go well. He has the sense it will be a tough sell. The issue is how to allocate resources without depriving your own town. Tommila said Massachusetts is looking into regionalization. The Chief said he’d bet their budgets were bigger than Fitzwilliam’s.
Yon asked if there would be a shortage of volunteers in 2020. Chief Prigge said that now the numbers are stable. Between the increased quality and quantity of training and rebuilding esprit de corps, younger and very conscientious people are volunteering. However, when trained they tend to move on to a better paying job that is full time. He said that in the past the department depended on local businesses to let their workers go if the department needed more volunteers. With the closing of several manufacturing businesses that source of volunteers is closed.
Haynes asked when the department might need a full time chief. Chief Prigge joked that at $7 per hour, it would be a long time. Seriously, he said there are certain benchmarks that indicate the need for a full time chief. He said that as long as there are good volunteers they will be OK.
Deputy Chief Carney said that Fitzwilliam is a suitcase town now and it is a problem getting volunteers with people going out of town to work. She said the department works well with other towns and with Meadowood.
Gray asked about lessons learned in the ice storm. Chief Prigge said there was little time to ponder during the storm. They were getting lots of calls – new calls before they finished calls. They pumped out a lot of basements, getting people out from homes with trees on them.
He said there needs to be activation of a center to coordinate the various departments, staffed by people other than those in the active departments, like fire and police.
Yon asked if Meadowood would be around in 2020. Bob Crowell, Meadowood Chief, gave a resounding yes, adding that they plan to improve the training area and develop an appropriate facility to conduct live fire and propane training. He also agreed that manpower is the issue.
The Board thanked the Chiefs and Departments.
Recreation. Terry Robbitts represented the Recreation Commission, noting the Recreation Commission is down two members and does not have a department director. The town is planning to hire a recreation administrative coordinator and will use volunteers to run programs. She too said it is hard to interest volunteers and that the Recreation Commissioners are running programs themselves or hiring help. They have hired the counselors for the summer program and Jennifer Skelton will run the program. They have dropped the cross country ski program but still have the equipment. A volunteer who is a skier maintains the trails and they hire someone to groom trails in the winter.
They would like to expand the recreation program, and now there are independent contractors running some programs, including a yoga program and karate class, with some revenue going to the town.
Ms. Robbitts said the money that had been set aside to build a ball field on Route 12 has been diverted to upgrade the Emerson ball field. She feels the land on Route 12 had a lot of challenges and that the plan was too expensive. Their wish list includes lighting the tennis courts, renovating the pole barn, establishing a town beach, creating a central gathering place for the community. She added she has a personal commitment to revitalizing programs for middle school children.
The Board thanked Ms. Robbitts for coming.
Conservation Commission/Natural Resources Inventory Committee/Water Quality.
The Board welcomed Paul Kotila, Barbara Green, Rosalind and Fred Slavic, Dorothy Zug and Coni Porter to the meeting.
Water Quality. Barbara Green reported on the water quality of Laurel Lake. She said 20 years of uninterrupted data exists on the quality of water in the lake. Laurel Lake compares well with all 500 lakes and ponds that are monitored in the state. There is a trend toward a decline in transparency. It has declined by about 1% a year for the last 20 years. Chlorophyll A levels are below state standard. Total phosphorus is relatively stable depending on the weather and time of sampling. Conductivity has increased, indicating more nutrients and increased human activity around the lake. They have pinpointed tributaries carrying in phosphorus and e coli. DES has recommended a stream survey and rain event sampling.
They have good solid data on the tributary that runs through the campground and it indicates significant amounts of phosphorus and e coli, especially in the swampy areas in the campground. Where the stream enters the lake under Keene Avenue, the levels of each are elevated. They need new data on the area because a new septic system has been installed in the area and it may make a difference. The stream survey indicated the stream was clean before it enters the campground. There are high coliform counts on East Lake Road but a single dye test did not reveal evidence of such. There is also evidence of mercury contamination.
Risks to the lake include old septic systems, contaminated tributaries, old outboard motors and speed boats that churn phosphorus off the bottom, exotic plants and runoff of fertilizers.
Parker said motor boat restrictions are not popular. Green said it has to be done at the state level. Parker said the town can request that it be done, adding that the state will not allow holding tanks that could be pumped, insisting on leach fields. He said with lots so small, that may not be the best strategy. Green suggested there may come a time when shared septic systems are needed.
There is a weed watch program to prevent exotics from entering the lake with 5 years of data. So far there is no evidence of exotics. They would like to monitor the lake twice in the summer.
Coni Porter has done sampling for Rockwood Pond in the past, and spoke to the person who has done it for the last 4 years. It’s been sampled since 1994 but the chain of data is not continuous for those 14 years. She said the lake is in good shape in the spring, it seems to recover well from human activity during the summer. The time she monitored it twice in the summer, the second readings were worse than in the spring, but the state will only test it once.
The lake has good quality water with a spring in it and many streams entering and leaving it. There is a private dam that attracts a lot of swimmers, many from out of town. They need more testing equipment, having borrowed from the Laurel Lake Association in the past. They do have plenty of volunteers, but need training and equipment.
Conservation Commission. Paul Kotila said the Commission answered the questions in writing and he will give that to the Board tomorrow to be attached as part of these minutes. He read through the questions and answers tonight.
He reported that the work of the Natural Resources Inventory subcommittee, which has several members who are not on the Commission, will be finished in June. That group will form the basis of the open space committee, which will identify areas of extreme concern that need protecting.
Four members of the Commission are attending an intensive leadership program at the Harris Center in conjunction with the Monadnock Conservancy community partnership program.
Gray asked if they had seen any changes in their role with the Planning Board and Board of Adjustment. Kotila said the Commission really has no role with the ZBA, but is excited to have more opportunity to interact with the Planning Board. They are taking workshops so they will be better able to advise the Board in its efforts to protect and conserve natural resources in town.
Dorothy Zug said her wish is that there was a 350 foot buffer requirement stretching along Route 12 in the industrial districts to help maintain the rural look and feel of the community. The buffer should be densely planted with evergreens so only a sign could be seen, not the industrial site itself. Tommila said that wouldn’t be possible. Haynes thought it might be good where possible, adding there are a lot of wetlands in the backland behind Route 12. Silverman said a 350 foot buffer would actually expand the industrial footprint by pushing the industrial use into the back land. He felt it would be better to see the industrial use, rather than expand it into the backland so passersby artificially feel that the land isn’t used. Tommila wondered how many people would be offended by the
look of businesses. Mrs. Slavic said it would depend on the kind of business, whether it was an eyesore or not.
Haynes asked what this might do to the natural wildlife trails in the back land. Zug wondered if it comes down to maintaining the feel of the rural community versus protecting back land wildlife habitat.
Silverman said he would like to identify the wetlands in that area and rezone them out of the industrial district. Mr. Slavic said that might be hard when there are so many residences in the area, adding the town could encourage building with the least amount of damage. Gray said the Planning Board can, through site plan review, deal with screening issues on a case by case basis.
The Board thanked the Conservation Commission and Coni Porter for coming.
Minutes. Gray moved, Landy seconded and the Board approved the minutes of the April 21, 2009 meeting.
Administrative. Yon reported there was nothing from the Selectmen tonight.
Silverman read a memo from Joe Hoppock, town attorney, regarding WiValley.
Silverman noted that the conversations he and Sandra have about Planning Board business are logged so it is clear that staff direction and information for the Board comes from the Chairman.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM.
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