8/14/2008 ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Minutes

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3. Combine Water-Sewer The Board of Selectmen requested that the Town and Water District attorneys discuss how best the merger could occur. The Chair hasn't yet received an update. 4. Natural Fertilizers/Friendly_Lawn Program Mr. Theis is working on creating a smaller document from the Plymouth and Falmouth facilities, in order for it to be printed. 5. Grant Applications The Board of Selectmen is drafting an RFP for a contract writer. The Chair has learned from Joyce Mason that the county will be contacted for more information to learn how they manage their contract grant writers. 7. Town-Wide Stormwater Management Plan Three active items- Road Specifications for Subdivision Regulations-Although there has not yet been a meeting, Catherine Laurent has been contacted and the meeting with Charlie Rowley should occur soon. The Committee emphasized that they wish to have the opportunity to comment on the drafted regulations and wanted to ensure that the regulations are reviewed in conjunction with NPDES PII Small MS4 document. The Chair confirmed that the April 1, 2006-March 31, 2007 copy received by the Environmental Oversight Committee is the most recent copy. The permit has expired and the town is awaiting the state's release of the application. It was also questioned whether or not the Department of Public Works currently has regulations on paper and, if not,what the legal standing of their regulations would be if not on paper. It was suggested that, at present, DPW regulations are verbal. The necessity of combining the regulations is to ensure that the town has set standards so that if a private road eventually becomes a public road, it has already met the town standards preventing additional costly changes to the road. When a private road wishes to become public,the DPW assesses the road based on their standard,and then notifies the homeowners of the costs involved with making it a public road. Homeowners can make the final decision about whether or not they wish to convert voluntarily and pay the costs. The Committee questioned whether or not there should be additional oversight by a Board, such as Planning, Zoning or Board of Selectmen, for the regulations. Presently, applications to convert a private road to a public road are made to the Town Manager because it must appear on the Town Warrant. PowerPoint PresentationJStormwater Primer-Beverly Kane wishes to wait until the next meeting, allowing more time for comments about the document,before sharing the final changes. The distribution of the document will rely upon grant writing activities. Grant money should be available to fund this type of a project. Swail Construction for Sampson Mill Road 2