Wintonbury Land Trust Meeting Notes - March 19, 2014

WINTONBURY LAND TRUST – March 19, 2014, 5 Bear Ridge Drive, Bloomfield  

Present:  Chip Caton, Dale Bertoldi, Kevin Gough, Doris Johnson, Paula Jones, Patrick Sullivan, Vic Herson



Carolina Wren with attitude

1)      February 19, 2014 Minutes were approved as submitted.  Paula indicated she had some comments related to February’s business that would best be discussed in tandem with agenda item 4 d) 2, Bylaw comments from the Board. 

 

 

2)      There were 3 additional Agenda items under New Business:  (a) WLT response to the March 5^th e-mail requesting GIS data from Charles Hoffman (working with The Trust for Public Land) to update National Conservation Easement Database; (b) Filley Farm; & (c) Kevin Gough’s meeting with Trish Hazelwood of Simsbury Land Trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)      Van Otterloo Proposal - Those present who had attended the membership meeting on March 5th summarized WLT members’ comments regarding the ATT Cell Tower proposal.  Doris indicated that CT DEEP had an extensive checklist related to Cell Tower proposals that would be applied.  Kevin mentioned that invasive species associated with site disturbance should be considered; one of the CLCC workshops he attended on 3/15 addressed the broader-than-expected impact site disturbance has with respect to invasives.  Following the discussion, the following motion passed by a 5 (favoring) to 1 (opposing) vote:  To bring to the full membership a vote on the following motion - "To authorize the Board of Directors to negotiate and execute a lease with AT&T for the placement of a cell tower on the Van Otterloo property, provided that the WLT and AT&T attorneys reach terms in accordance with feedback received from the WLT membership." 

 

We had limited time remaining, so we touched briefly on Agenda item 4 d), 2, and the 3 New Business items.

 

4)       Committee Reports

d)     Capacity Building

2.      Paula briefly summarized the Bylaws materials she had sent out for Board review.  The item was tabled and will be discussed at a subsequent meeting.

5)      New Business

a)      Charles Hoffman sent the above-referenced e-mail to Dale & Paula on March 5^th.  Dale reported that Bloomfield is working on a mapping project for Town-owned & WLT-owned undeveloped space.  Paula will convey this to Mr. Hoffman, and copy Vikki Reski.

b)      Dale reported that he had done a site & building survey of Filley Farm on West Street.  The Farm, with its stone house and outbuildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The reason for the listing is because it is an intact example of an 18^th century farmstead.  A Circuit Rider from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation will be assisting in further review of what might be done to stabilize outbuildings and promote this Bloomfield resource.

c)      Kevin met in January with Trish Hazelwood, Simsbury Land Trust’s Director of Finance and Membership.  Kevin believes WLT will need a financial audit this year or next year.  The Finance Committee will follow up to determine the timing of what’s needed with respect to an audit.

 

Recorded by Paula Jones