3/9/2006 BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE Minutes

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improve the hydraulic radius, the river moves a little faster, and it holds more organic particles M* suspension,rather than letting them settle out. Nei•. biller said that what Mr. Baker infers that the Waterways Commission does not favor side casting. At the Waterways Commission meeting on Tuesday of that week in March, lir. Baker said,the discussion of the Mashpee liver showed drawings of marsh islands,that were a minimum of 20' feet away from tfre marsh. And the comments was that the drawings had to be updated a little bit_, then by run iing a flow analysis by the computer model, a couple of rens for $150,00 does a piece, is the way it was subscribed. He said that it looked as though the project was going in the wrong direction, he didn't warrt to characterize anybody or anything, and said that it looked to him that a little guidance would not hurt. Mr. Miller said he was neither looking to characterize anybody or anything, either. He said he,was not knowledgeable about where the Water Concession stands,the whole picture, but since the Committee's role was to make recommendations to the Board of Selectmen, he thought the Cottee agreed there was an urgency to this doing it in the most construetive and least destructive way. if e way that your advocating falls into that category,then maybe we could urge the Selectmen could confer with the Waterways Cornirnssion to see that it could be faellitated. He added that the key to what the Commission was doing was concerned with probably dredging for navigation, probably not so concerned about the environmental condition of stopping some of the nitrogen loading and bacterial loading, if you could kill two birds with one stone, then why don't you do it, he addcd Beverly Dane spoke and said that she reeled irr a prior Water-ways Commission meeting was that the effective way to get the project moving was to bring the soils to the transfer station to deposit therm. She also recalled that it was said that the better moray to do it was to side casting. She recalled that Mr, Batiks was at the meeting. She said she totally conferred with Mr, Banks regarding Mr. Langley and the way he responded to the group that was present at that meeting. She said she felt very positive they had.finally Bund a contact at the LBP who is expressing the D P's condition about being very receptive to proceeding projects in different towns and what they needed to do to solve these problems. She said she Felt very good about seeing a little light here and that the regulations probably want to be changed and she saw it as a turning point for the problems of the Mashpee River and hoped the Waterways Comnaission would come back before this Committee and explain the direcdon they are proposed to going. "t suggest a timeline," she said. She said that there was a dialog going on and hoped to continue with it. The Chairman said that he thought the waterways Commission and the DBP would figure out the best solution and should move forward. Other members of the Committee,including Lee Gurney coneurr'ed with the Chairman's statement. Douglas Storrs spoke and said it was a massive issue and that he didn"t think that it was the role of the Committee(Blue Ribbon)to be dealing with that par6cular level of specificity and said that he thought the waterways Commission had been a champion of it for gears. He said that the Blue Ribbon Committee looks to advise and takes that advice, and goes over the advice and makes directions for ail action plan to the Selectmen and the Planning Board,but we are not a eommittee who is involved in the specificity of the role that we are getting into, in the river, with all due respect to that issue. He stated that he hoped that the Committee had spent as much time on the river, at this specific point as on and use, on zoning, on nitrogen as a broader-issue and why the heck do the R P and the L P don't jibe to the zoning in much broader issues that affect the character of our community, how we got to where we are today and what we are going to be in the next twenty years. He said he wanted to spend more thne on other issues that were critical to l ashpee community and part of the Com"ttee's charge.