Lake Management Committee Meeting Minutes

Minutes of meeting held July 13, 2017, 7:00 P.M. at Town Hall College Highway, Southwick, MA, with attendance as follows:

 

        

Guest(s):  

        Paul Murphy of 80 Point Grove Rd Southwick

        Rick Seaman of 80 Sunset Drive West Suffield

        Rich, Genie & Josh Graveline of 24 Veteran St Southwick

        Greg Fitzpatrick of Westfield News

Meeting was moved to Land Boards Meeting Room

1.Minutes from 6/22 meeting were not presented due to lack of quorum.

2.Ramp Attendants – Laura DeGray's paperwork was signed.  

3.North Pond PWC Prohibition - LMC moved this topic up as guests were all there just for that agenda item.  Eric and Dick gave overviews of current status of North Pond PWC prohibition.  As LMC understands the current situation, the Harbormaster has allowed the Gravelines to "ferry" their PWCs from their Veteran Street dock in North Pond to Middle Pond but "operation" of PWCs in North Pond is back to being prohibited.  Paul Murphy explained that many residents of North Pond still take issue with this interpretation of MGL Chapter 90B Section 9A and feel that the MGL  PWC operating prohibition in bodies of water less than 75 acres should still apply to North Pond (47 acres) as it has for decades.  The Gravelines explained that they were only abiding by what they were told by the Harbormaster that the three ponds of Congamond should be treated as a one, as that is what the Harbormaster was told by an Environmental Police Major, that Congamond should be treated as one waterbody (460 acres).  Paul Murphy stated that he had again contacted Senator Humason's office (Drew) who stated that the Senator understood that the total ban of operation of PWCs in North Pond had been restored.  Dick pointed out that there are other Great Ponds in Massachusetts that have adjoining ponds with less than 75 acres where PWC operation is prohibited and enforced by authorities.  Goose Pond in Tyringham is one such pond that has a "separate" adjoining body less than 75 acres and PWC operation is prohibited.  Eric went on to explain that if the Major's interpretation is truly the "law" then these other ponds may likely have a similar problem.  Also, if that interpretation is correct, then a Town Bylaw would be needed to locally restrict or prohibit operation of PWCs in North Pond.  The bylaw could take the form of a total ban on PWC operation in North Pond or HEADWAY SPEED (less than 5 MPH and no wake) ONLY in North Pond.  Following this lengthy discussion, Eric asked if everyone was satisfied that they were heard, which was affirmative.  Dick provided copies of a document from Mass Environmental Police that summarizes water bylaws town-by-town.  LMC said that we were sorry that we were not able to provide any more definitive response, but work to understand the whole scenario is still in process.  

        

4. LPP - Dick provided copies of the first batch of letters that Con Com has sent to who appear to have unregistered docks, floats, moorings, swim buoys or boats.  

5. Water Monitoring  – Eric advised that the new probe has been received and appears to be in operating order.  He plans to use it to do a real depth profiling test next week.

6. Water Golf - Con Com checked out the "Water Golf" at Louis B's and concluded that there is no violation of the Wetland Protection Act as they have spotters picking up the floating balls.  There might be a Louis B liability issue if someone gets hit and injured by a golf ball.  

7. Boat Census - Dick has all the data for North and South Ponds but still needs the complete data for Middle Pond.

8. CRC Boat Parade - All appeared to go well but the small turnout was likely due to the bad weather earlier that day and anticipated for the parade timeframe.

9. Fourth of July Weekend - Members commented on the number of overloaded boats, boats operating without lights and/or speeding after sunset (in the dark), people riding on bows and sterns of boats and boats appearing to be operated by those under the influence.  

10. Fourth of July Trash - Members conveyed their own and resident issues with all the trash floating around on Congamond that was found the morning of the fifth... cans, bottles, bags of trash just floating around and on the shoreline.  Broken bottles were found floating in South Pond.  It was mentioned that ex NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani used Broken Window Theory as the basis for a change in NYC policing approaches (oh and it worked really well to bring down crime).  Basically, instead of hitting only the real bad crimes, as they sought and prosecuted all crimes, the bigger ones began to wane on their own.  LMC members hope that something can be done next year to help curb this behavior.

11. Steve mentioned that he cannot attend the September 9 LAPA West meetings due to conflict and asked if anyone else would like to attend in his place.   

13. The next scheduled meeting will be held on July 27, 2017.

Respectfully submitted,

______________________

Richard Grannells - Chair