Open Space Minutes 4/8/2009 1. Reminder to sign in, and introductions. Ted notes that Karro will be late and the committee needs someone to take notes. George Roaf volunteers. There are 10 members present and one new member, Dustin Shepardson. 2. Vote to approve the March 25 meeting minutes with corrections. Pat Lemon sent Karro corrected names and spelling. Karro in late. 3. Community Outreach - Last meeting Open Space Planning Committee decided to survey community rather than do public meetings. Group liked the idea of having a survey comparable to the one in 2002. Pat suggests that it could done on Survey Monkey site which would make tabulation easier. Problem: The newsletter will only accept 2 extra pages (4 sides) as the next issue is for the annual town meeting, and it will already be over 10 pages. Right now the survey is three double-sided pages. We could send it as a separate mailing or go back to the option of public meetings. Pat proposes that a questionnaire be put on line, and other ones do paper. Discussion again of whether to do survey vs. public meetings. Group prefers survey. Ted feels the sub-committee should make the decision. Matt would like to have people respond electronically. How will the survey be delivered to people? The response rate to articles in the newsletter is minuscule in Ted's experience. The sub-committee needs to make the decision. Ted moves on to looking at the survey. Discussion of the survey section by section. Section A: Question A2, A3, A4 are out and Karro suggests that if we are removing these open-ended questions that we give text leading people to give open responses to these items at the end if they are interested. Section B: In B1, remove the parenthetical comment. Pat is amused by B2 and Karro comments that it is a biased question. Group decides to leave B2 the same as it is. B3 had interesting responses in last survey - people either strongly supported or opposed. B4 will be dropped. B5 has already been slightly edited. People feel it is a confusing question and suggest that words be added, "since you lived in Warwick ..." Pat is thinking this question should stay in so people could express their opinions. Dave Shepardson is not sure it is useful for what we are trying to do. B6 references potential town owned beaches and swim areas. The Town is very hesitant to purchase waterfront because of liability issues. Matt notes that Hastings Pond is a Great Pond, meaning that legally people can trespass across private property to get to the pond if there is no public access to it. B7 seems to be an important question overall. People are feeling that "recreation" should be spelled out into to groups. The subcommittee needs to figure out the phraseology. Also item "g" needs to be moved over closed to its check boxes. B8 regarding fire ponds is discussed. Some members feel it really isn't an open space question. Karro argues to keep this question in, as there really isn't any other board in town that deals with this issue. Depending on responses to the question, we could put in a goal encouraging the creation of fire ponds. B9 was related to the prison camp. The current state trend is to abandon Warwick. Mary asks, could B9 questions be pulled into B10? General agreement that this is a good idea. Brad notes that the headings changed for this question and suggests we go back to Agree, Neutral, Oppose. B11 needs more of an explanation - is it referring to Commonwealth land or Warwick land? What is the purpose of the question? Matt suggests language for B11 "Should Warwick encourage or discourage any of the following activities in town?" In B12, general consensus is to delete "the idea of." "Should Warwick identify and protect..." B13 would be difficult to tabulate - maybe this question go at the end as a lead in for an open response? B14 - remove "in your opinion." Should both questions be included? General consensus is to remove the "if YES" section. Section C will be removed in entirety. Section D: D1 maybe should be removed ... is it necessary? Pat would like to leave the question in and suggests changing the phrase "open-space" to "natural" resources. Change text in D1, if yes.... Question D2 should be left in for Board of Health interest. D3, Ted feels we don't need this question. Drought has caused many people to dig deep wells. Matt argues that we leave the question in, as it is one of the only questions that directly relates to open space protection but suggests removing options d and e, which could be written in under "other." D4 Ted suggests remove answer "e." D5 should be combined with B2. Maybe B1 could be shortened by removing responses "m," "n" and "r." Response "s" should be changed to "well-maintained town infrastructure." We discuss optional answers to D6 including "b - commute to work," and suggest "C - retired," or one for telecommuting as a subcategory to working in Warwick? "Check one." Matt notes that it may not really impact the Open Space issue. Mary notes that the Open Space plan mentions the community so it is related tangentially to it. D7 okay as is. D8 response "a" could just be none. Add categories between 10 and 50 and greater than 50. Subcommittee can worry about the number of people from each household filling in the form. Matt feels that we might have it short enough to go into the newsletter. Volunteers to help collate are David and Bev Shepardson, Mary Williamson, Matt Hickler, Brad Compton, and George Roaf. It will be ready to go out by April 20. The committee needs to get together before then, maybe April 13. Always can comment by email. Newsletter likes it as a word document originally. 4. Heritage Inventory - Ted went through the list. The 2002 open space plan had a better list than the Heritage Inventory and Ted updated the 2002 list with information from the Heritage Inventory. 5. Teen update: Clare Green emailed Ellen Edson, WCS principal, regarding getting kids involved. Ted received an invitation to come and talk to the school. Ted can't do that. However, we need someone to talk to the classes if we want children to be involved in helping with this project. 6. Protected Land information received from Assessors and provided to Kimberly. Comments on protected lands. Section 4 discusses natural resources. Section 5 talks about protected lands and suggests that Priority Habitat be protected. "Overwhelming" by Ted. 7. Quabbin to Cardigan (Q2C) update by Mary Willliamson. It is a joint MA-NH project. Started by the NH forests to gain additional money to protect their forests. The first step was to map large, unfragmented forests and that mapping is completed. Parts of Warwick are ranked very high. Pat requests that Mary come to the Friends of meeting on the 16th. No real funding yet, but some has come in. 8. Assignments - get your comments to Kimberly forthwith for Section 3 and Section 4. Will she be provided us the Sections beforehand? It doesn't sound like it. Ted will encourage her to email beforehand if she can. Section 5 is next month. We need to clear this stuff off the deck so we can spend some quality time on the goals. For April 22, Ted asks that there be an equestrian caucus update. Brief update on "Friends of..." Matt suggests and Brad seconds that we edit the same document. Karro will send out Section 4 and 5 in Word for editing, and instructions on how to Track Changes. 9. Other - Mary Wall had questions regarding fire ponds - Karro suggests that she talk with Con Com. Meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m. George Roaf will take the minutes at next meeting as Karro will not be there.