Present: Wendy Wolcott, Jeff Short, Bob Maden, Chip Caton, Catherine Lyons, Dale Bertoldi, Vikki Reski, Jay Stoccatore, Himali Shah, Tamara Hochmann, Vic Herson, Gail Herson, Paula Jones and Kevin Gough
1) Call to Order/ approval of minutes.
2) Fund-raising Projects
a) Lisa Lane- Chip Caton and Diane Mack met with Hartford Foundation for Public Giving (Maggie Willard, David Polk and Sherwood Willard) on February 9. Maggie has requested some additional information about Wintonbury Land Trust. Chip will send out the information on Monday. An additional $105,000 needed to finish the grant funding. A meeting at Larson’s office is scheduled for March 1.
b) Hawk Hill- In the meeting on February 4 between the owners of Hawk Hill (David Lauretti and Bebe Baker) with Chip, Dale and Vikki, we agreed the need to establish a value of Hawk Hill based on an appraisal. The appraisal done by the town in 2010 did not have the 21 Arnold Road ownership in the value of the land. We will request the Town to allow T.W. Henry, the appraisal company, to discuss facts in the report with the Land Trust. David Lauretti agreed to reimburse the Land Trust for the appraisal cost. The owners were enthusiastic about preservation of the property.
c) Stout Fields- The Grasslands grant was revised to an entity grant with DEP as a partner holding the easement and the Land Trust owning the land. The paper work resubmitted on Friday met the February 28th deadline. DEP will not have to hold $50,000 in a dedicated stewardship account. As a partner the DEP will be helpful in establishing a management program for the land. NRCS would want some active farming such as haying to occur on the site. This program is a 50-50 match. Chip has raised the matching funds for the cost of the easement, which is estimated at 80- 90% of the land value. Additional funds will be needed for the land ownership.
3) Special Projects
a) Garden & Art Tour: The garden tour will consist of five gardens with art in the garden or in an adjacent structure. An example of garden art could be birdhouses. Partners and pricing is still being discussed. Scheduled tour date is Saturday, June 18.
b) Bike Tour: Vic Herson, chair, reported on the meeting held last Sunday. The Bike tour is scheduled for May 15 with a rain date of the 22. The North/south route through West Bloomfield will start and finish at the Farmington River Park. The 18 mile tour includes an optional trek to Juniper Road (Speer Property) and theThrall property in Windsor. Registration is at 9:30 AM and the ride begins at 10:00. Refreshments/lunch will start at noon. A Flyer started in Word will be forwarded to Vic for added text and Chip will speak to a graphic artist to finalize the product.
c) Two CFPA Trails Day Hikes sponsored by the Land Trust will be held on June 4 with a rain date of June 5. The Farmington River Park Hike starts at 9:30 am and is structured to allow hikers to participate in the 11:30 Speer Preserve Hike to Heublein Tower.
d) Conway School of Landscape Design presented the 1st public forum on farming for the Ag Viability Grant on February 3. Break out sessions placed food security as the top priority issue for farming in Bloomfield.
e) Park Watershed Revitalization Initiative Park Water Arts March and April activity schedule is posted on the blog. Membership is encouraged to participate. The majority of Bloomfield sits in the Park River Watershed.
4) Committee Reports a) Membership: Welcome new members: Mark Dodd of 113 Duncaster, Mary Kalinoski of Stuart Dr., and Katharine Owens of Middletown. Renewals: Tollie Miller, Tamara Hochman. Farewell, deceased: Barbara Woodruff of Duncaster. Renewal letters are to be sent out via email and paper in March.
b) Newsletter: First newsletter is expected to be sent out via email in March.
c) Financial: Cash accounts are at $22,953. IRS forms for 2010 filed on-line: Ecard 990N.
i) WLT will open a securities brokerage account for donations of securities. WLT considered full service brokerage at variable rate of approx $60-70 a trade versus a discount on-line brokerage at only $9.99 a trade. Board intends to open an account with the discount brokerage, Ameritrade. The Land Trust will only be liquidating donations and moving the cash to a money market or CD, not maintaining a portfolio. There is no charge for opening the Ameritrade account. Pres, VP and Sec will sign application.
ii) CDs: Treasurer plans to place $15,000 of cash reserve in 1 yr CDs to earn more interest. CDs will not affect liquidity, since the cash can still be accessed if need be. TD Banknorth offers a 1-year CD at 0.60% APR and 3 years at 1.05%. Simsbury Bank on Cottage Grove offers one year at 0.85% and two years at 1.20%.
iii) Cash Flow Statement for 2010 and Budget Forecast for 2011 are available upon request.
d) Fund Raising: Himali will check into the Hamilton Sundstrand report on the Thrall Farm site and work on reapplying for the grant.
e) Stewardship: A metal detector has requested access to the property. Vikki and Tami have forwarded recommendations from the state archeologist that should be followed on all land trust sites.
5) Tami and Vikki will plan an Annual Hike/ Work party at Van Otterloo for April Earth Day meeting.
6) Next meeting March 27 at 52 Duncaster Road at 3:00.
