dec20_05

Minutes of second Citizens’ Advisory Committee meeting for Wilmington Community Waterfront Revitalization Program (CWRP)

December 20, 2005 , Wilmington Town Hall

1. Attendees (15) (Bold= Wilmington resident)

Dawn Stevens, member upcoming session of Town board

Calvin Stevens

Jane Sibalski , property owner

Garrett Dague, Essex County Planner

Jeanne Ashworth , Town supervisor (wilmingtonsupervisor@frontiernet.net, 946 7179)

Kara Page , Wilmington , project consultant (karapagework@charter.net, 946 7557)

Kevin Prickett, Whiteface Mtn. employee, Association for the Protection of the ADKs

Holly Aquino, Birchtree Lodge owner and Wilmington visitor’s bureau employee

John Lafferty, AuSable River Association board chair

Tom Hinman, Mtn. Brook Lodge owner and riverfront property owner

Judi Gould, planning board (Town of Wilmington )

Andy Keal , GIS specialist, ASCI

Guy Stephenson, Jr., Vice President of Wilmington Historical Society and Vice President of Wilmington Fish and Game Club

Gary Follos , Wilmington

Rachel Finn , Fishing Guide for Hungry Trout Fly Shop, AuSable River Association board member

Also Invited:

	Marcel Bruce, Highway Superintendent
	Bill Skufca
	Mrs. Harriet Adams

Background

Please see previous minutes or contact Town Supervisor or project consultant for background.

Agenda

1.   Public participation plan / actions of a subcommittee?
       a.   Reactions and additions to draft – survey / interviews, mailing updates, radio/newspaper announcements
       b.   Diversifying committee
2.   Boundary discussion
       a.   Primary and secondary study areas
3.   Next steps and tasks
       a.   Diversifying committee
       b.   Public meeting promised in January
       c.   Getting agencies in to talk / visiting them
       i. Committee representative in visits
              ii.  Agencies to invite / visit?: Wilmington Highway / Parks / Public works depts., Planning / Zoning boards, Town of Wells
                   and North Elba, DOS, APA, DEC, ORDA??, Bill Johnston
       d.   Review inventory draft for next meeting – gaps and other interviews to hold. Map of sedimentation? Address questions such as:
             what infrastructure to include?

Pre-Agenda Business

	For the benefit of several new members of the committee, a brief background was presented again on the LWRP process. People asked for examples of other LWRPs. Jeanne and Kara have copies of the Town of Essex and Village of Saranac Lake LWRPs , and people can also look on the web site: http://nyswaterfronts.com/ (although full copies of the documents may not be available for download there and are large files in any case).
	There was a discussion about fish stocking practice this year. It appears that local participation was skipped this year by either DEC or the county, (not clear which); this may be problematic as local residents and fishermen like to know when and where and how many fish are going in.
	The consultant and supervisor asked for committee / resident representatives to accompany them on meetings with agencies as needed. John Lafferty and Rachel Finn volunteered. Others from the committee may also volunteer if interested.

Public participation plan

	A discussion about the plan – drafted by a subcommittee of Kevin, Holly, Jeanne, and Kara – solicited comments about community meetings, as well as using a survey and a mailing to all residences to reach more residents.
	Garry noted that a survey to each home, combined with interviews of as many residents as possible, would be most effective for Wilmington . Additional suggestions from others included flyers/posters to announce meetings, a photo board at the post office, and radio/newspaper announcements.
	It was decided to enhance the survey portion of the draft plan and then submit it to the DOS for approval. Kara was assigned to do this.
	It was decided to use the Community Survey drafted by U-VM as a starting point, whittle it down a lot to the most relevant questions (e.g. “what do YOU want for our waterfront?” “what concerns you?” “why?” etc.) and 1 page or less, and attach that to the back of the next Town newsletter to save on mailing costs. A subcommittee of Dawn, Guy, Tom , and Garry was assigned to do this for early January, then to send to Kara for circulation to the rest of the committee for their review. Kara will send them electronically a copy of the UVM version to use as a starting point, if they wish.
	Committee members will each share the goal of the CWRP with neighbors and friends and solicit input on the specific needs of the community. They will each use the survey drafted by the subcommittee, above, as a guide for discussion.
	A subcommittee will draft outreach items:

a. Holly and Jeanne will create a postcard announcing the first all-community CWRP meeting on January 31, to be mailed to all residences by January 19/20. Costs of approximately $150? to be split between the state grant and if needed, town funds.

b. Kara and Kevin will draft a press release to alert media, to be sent to radio/newspapers/community tv and other outlets no later than January 10.

c. Judi and Holly will coordinate on flyers to be posted around town no later than January 15.

d. Guy and Kara will coordinate on a photoboard to be posted in Post Office as soon as possible. Kara will contact Garry and Jane and Guy to add to her photos of the waterfront area over time, collected from Jeanne, Ms. Adams, Karen Peters of the Wilmington Historical Society, and the internet.

All members will continue to consider whether and which additional committee members are needed to ensure adequate representation of the Wilmington community. It was noted that most stated that it now seemed to be in balance but that this should be monitored. Guy said he would invite a close relative with a long history in Wilmington to join the process. Other interested parties should contact the supervisor. To be discussed again as needed at the next committee meeting on January 17 at 6:30 .

Boundary Discussion

Jeanne and Andy Keal shared draft ideas of what Wilmington might consider to be its “waterfront boundary,” a designation within the CWRP process that determines the area of influence of the final policies and program. The committee members felt strongly that the boundary should begin and end at the Town line (North and South), and (East and West) should follow the watershed and slope outlines or other natural riverine buffer. A subgroup of Andy K. and Kara and John Lafferty and Jeanne will probably be responsible for focusing this boundary guidance from the committee further.

One project idea was raised and discussed. This included the need for a review of the fishing access sites in Wilmington , with the goal of improving access, signage, trail maintenance, and easement agreements. The sites should eventually be mapped and available in a directory for local and visitor use.

Inventory

Garrett, Andy and Kara shared draft text of the Inventory part of the CWRP process, which entails collecting existing data about cultural, natural, historical and other resources of the waterfront area, to inform the decision –making process of the committee and community as a whole. The project consultant team has collected some of this information and asked the committee members to review it and provide initial feedback by the next meeting, January 17. The consultant team also asked the committee to help identify gaps and fill in missing information (including stories, photos, and other information) that only local experts and water resources users can provide. Copies of the draft text are available for anyone’s review.

It was agreed that Wilmington needs to know more about how dredging can affect a riverine system. The consultant team will help look into this question.

The meeting was concluded, over holiday treats, by about 8:30pm .

Reminder of Norms agreed to by committee during initial meeting

(From the minutes of meeting on 12/03/05 .) The committee listed these on easel paper and agreed to adopt them:

	Meet every third Tuesday of the month in town hall at 6:30pm . Meetings maximum 2 hours, 1.5 hours is the goal.
	Agree to disagree if necessary, and move on. Group makes decisions, then all support decisions.
	Get familiar with guidelines and documentation, reports.
	Come to every meeting, plan it now. Find a replacement if absolutely necessary. Give them background.
	If you have to be absent, respect the decisions made and don’t force group backwards.
	Participate and make your views known.
	Read minutes and documents before meetings.

For more information on the Wilmington CWRP, please contact:
Jeanne Ashworth , Town Supervisor (946 7179) or Kara Page , ASCI (946 7557)

Town of Wilmington Community Waterfront Revitalization Program Contact Sheet

As of: February 16, 2006

Name	Phone	E-mail, if any	Interests
Holly Aquino	946 7282	Birchtreelodge@Frontiernet.Net	Committee; visitors’ bureau, motel owner
Jeanne Ashworth	946 7179	wilmingtonsupervisor@frontiernet.net	Supervisor
Anne Lenox Barlow	873 3752; 314 6636	info@ausableriver.org	Committee; ASRA director, (Baby due 1/23. – sharing role with John Lafferty.)
Marcel Bruce	946 7196	Bruce83@charter.net	Committee; highway dept.
Jim Camletano	946 7733	mec@northpoleresorts.com	Committee; riverfront / motel owner
Ginny Crispell	C: 524 0691	crispcook43@yahoo.com	Committee; Alternate for Judi Gould / planning board
Garrett Dague	873 3452	GDague@CO.ESSEX.NY.US	Essex Cty Planning
Rachel Finn	946 7527	rfinn@whiteface.net	Committee; fishing guide / ASRA
Gary Follos	946 2326	follos@frontiernet.net	Committee
Judi Gould	946 7517	gouldd@charter.net	Committee; planning board
Brian Grisi	891 4050	bfgrisi@gw.dec.state.ny.us	APA Resource person
Bob Guynup	946 2105	guynup246@charter.net	Committee; code officer, fish/hunt club
Tom Hinman	946 7834	mtbrook@frontiernet.net	Committee; motel owner / riverfront. Prefer calls to e-mails.
Andy Keal	891 8872	akeal@wcs.org	Maps
Andy LaBruzzo	473 2460	ALabruzzo@dos.state.ny.us	DOS planning specialist
John Lafferty	946 7867	jelaff@frontiernet.net	Committee; ASRA board. Prefer calls but e-mail documents please.
Bruce McCulley	946 2223	bmcculley@whiteface.com	Whiteface resource person
Michael McMurry	897 1234	mjmcmurr@gw.dec.state.ny.us	DEC Resource person
Lisa Nagle	306 3702	lnagle@elanpd.com	ASCI team planner
Kara Page	946 7557	karapagework@charter.net	ASCI team planner
Kevin Prickett	946 2383	prickett@frontiernet.net	Committee
Kathy Regan	576 9752	adkregan@hotmail.com	ASCI team ecologist
Bill Skufca	946 2380		Resident, highway dept. alternate
Jane Sibalski	946 7462	janes@nysef.org	Committee; riverfront
Bethany Stephenson	946 8258	StephensonBethany@yahoo.com	Committee; DEC, youth
Guy Stephenson, Jr.	946 2318	Woodsman1@frontiernet.net	Vice President of Wilmington Historical Society and of Wilmington Fish and Game Club
Dawn and Calvin Stevens	946 7344	dawnmariestevens@yahoo.com	Town board and business community