Minutes, April 21, 2003

Dutchess County/Putnam County AT Management Committee
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference
Minutes of 177th Meeting
Monday, April 21, 2003 7:00 PM East Fishkill Library Alley Conference Room

Attendance: Ron Rosen, Frank Dogil, Mike Arthur, Amanda Long (Dutchess Land Conservancy / Americorps–water testing person), Fred Gerty, Jane Geisler, Gerry Richardson, Walt Daniels, Jim Haggett, Salley Decker, Pete Senterman, Tim Messerich, Mark and George Jordy, Sabrina Lafave (15).

The meeting was brought to order by Chair Ron Rosen at 7:09 PM.

0. The following “For Your Action” (FYA) items were circulated:
* Email from Josh Erdsneker providing a lead on a possible volunteer (Dale Nussbickel) ... (Mike Arthur plans to follow through).
* Notice of a public hearing tomorrow night (4/22) at the East Fishkill town hall, re DEIS on Moore property–east of Taconic Parkway, about 4 miles north of the AT crossing (probably no concerns, but parcel is large and has significant development planned that might be a viewshed issue).

The following “For Your Information” (FYI) items were circulated:
* Well Test Results 3/11/03: Wiley Pos. (Total Coliform), Neg. (E.Coli); RPH Neg.; Stewart Neg.
* Well Test Results 3/28/03: Stewart Neg; Messerschmitt Pos. (Total Coliform), Neg. (E.Coli); RPH Neg.; Wiley NEGATIVE!!!
* Article on Jane Geisler’s volunteer work in Poughkeepsie Journal, 4/7/03.
* Don Owen’s list of Environmental Reviews (extract for our section) 4/21/03
* (Belated) Article found on Putnam County News & Recorder website–ran our Hunting press release last November.
* Letter 4/5/03 from Bob Serkey re trail conditions Route 55 to Route 52

1. The minutes of the 176th meeting, March 17, 2003, were approved as published. Jane Geisler mentioned that Item 23 on the 2003 Goals List referring to a scout group monitoring an area near Hoyt Road referred to monitoring the trail parking area.

NOTE: To accommodate the Jordy’s, the discussion of the bulletin boards, item 2G below, was taken up out of order. See the notes below for the review of the discussion.

2. Old Business, short updates, etc.:

A. Acquisitions and Survey update: as required. We decided to delay development of a new list of tracts for acquisition or survey until we get new survey maps from the round of survey work undertaken this winter. However, Jim Haggett reported that the resurvey in the vicinity of the RPH shelter resulted in the south boundary line moving about 10-15' further north. Most of the tree buffer is probably on the neighbor’s land. A general discussion of long-term survey issues ensued, in preparation for Ron and Walt’s participation in the upcoming What is resurvey cycle? Replace witness marks? Replace missing markers?

B. Mitzvah Day final plans, May 4th: Mike Arthur already has arranged for eight helpers on his project to relocate the privy at Telephone Pioneers shelter. Jane Geisler has arranged for Ollie Simpson to assist her with the project leadership for the Swamp River/Route 22 cleanup. Ron Rosen has arranged for the Route 22 Swamp River cleanup to be listed as part of Scenic Hudson’s “Great River Sweep” cleanup program. Janen will handle the Sweep administration details, including the cleanup report. Ron gave Jane the “coordinator’s kit” including litter bags, work gloves, coordinator’s hat, and disposable camera to document the work.

C. Water Testing & Water Projects Update: Amanda Long noted that the Depot hill pump is leaking, but otherwise functional. The last round of testing at Messerschmitt was positive. Jim Haggett indicated that he believes the pump models we have installed at Morgan Stewart and Wiley may be designed for Agricultural use and not for drinking use (if his notes on the installed model are correct).
Amanda told the group about upcoming Dutchess land conservancy hikes. Jim Haggett indicated that the RPH well repairs are still pending. He has a couple of alternate designs for the well pad, and he will forward the information to ATC for the contract documents. Tim Messerich noted that there is some junk near the stone wall on the old north boundary at RPH.

D. Monitor Training, May 3rd: Ron Rosen and Mike Arthur ran a field training on the Nuclear Lake boundary for four new monitors, and most plan to attend the May 3rd program.. We are not aware of any new recruits, and Ron encouraged anyone with new candidates to contact him ASAP. The NYNJTC web site lists DPATMC with seven monitor vacancies.

E. YRDC Public Lands Corps: They are on track for this summer - they may do more bulletin boards if funding is acquired too late for the Eagle Project.

F. I84 Cell Tower activity (Jim Haggett). Walt Daniels, George Muller, Ron Rosen, and XXX (from the Trail Conference staff) attended the crane test at the I-84 Rest Area. Ron had all the digital pictures on the laptop, so the group took a few minutes to view the pictures. After discussion, the group agreed that our recommendation is to allow the 150' tower with mitigation. Specifically, we should insist on a narrow-profile monopole tower, minimal-profile antenna radiators to minimize the visual impact, and that we should ask for a few evergreens to block the view of the top 50' of the tower at south end (one small area there has a direct view of the top 50' of the tower with sky behind it, and the evergreens would go adjacent to the trail to screen the view). Additional evergreens may help at the north end where northbound hikers will see the top 20' of the tower between the trees, with the top of a hill in back. There was some discussion of trying to talk the Thruway Authority into reducing the tower’s height or moving it further east or west, but the consensus was that mitigation will be acceptable.

G. Bulletin Board Plans: Mike Arthur introduced Mark Jordy and his father, George. Mark is working with Mike to develop an Eagle project to build and install 2-4 of the new Trailhead bulletin boards that we urgently need to replace badly vandalized ones. Mark has a copy of the Elizabeth Levers Grant application, and Tim Messerich suggested that he also talk with the various building supply places about donations of culls that are not quite good enough to sell. We discussed using the ATC’s 2nd-tier design for the boards instead of the high-end design (using 6x6 supports instead of 10x10 supports). This should make the project more affordable, and donations more available as well. Ron mentioned that he met with Mike Hagerty, Executive Director of the Harlem Valley Partnership, (along with Pete Muroski at Native Landscaping in Pawling), to investigate public information opportunities near the Route 22 / AT Train Station area. Mike H. agreed to submit a grant application to the Dyson Foundation to support building two bulletin boards in the vicinity of Route 22 in Pawling at the AT Crossing.

H. Ron related that he received a call and Email from Irmgard Seidler (Pawling bicycling proponent) making me aware that DOT is conducting a Route 22 Corridor Study, with the likely outcome to widen Route 22 to 4 lanes. Although DOT usually involves us in their road project planning, this study is an early enough stage that we might not be consulted and might want to make sure our concerns are expressed in the study process.

I. AT Planning Summit (May 9-11). Ron noted that Walt and Jane Daniels and Ron will be attending this long-weekend activity at which the long-term planning for the ATC and ATPO will be conducted. Ron asked that anyone with any specific ideas or input contact him or Walt ASAP.

3. Meeting feature

Since we were running late, we decided to postpone the discussion on the management plan 5-year update to the next meeting. We did however, briefly discuss the emergency contact information that we plan to post on our bulletin boards. In particular, Jane Geisler was questioning whether we should list direct phone numbers for cell phone users, since 911 calls from cell phones typically are answered far away (e.g., Syracuse). Jane suggested we post alternate numbers to 911 for use with cell phones. It was pointed out that upcoming mandates for cell phone technology will require that callers be approximately locatable. Although existing technology doesn’t support this feature, it was felt that changes coming in the next few years will resolve this concern. It might be helpful to provide some information on the bulletin boards in the short run, however.

4. Reports

A. Area Supervisors Summaries:

Jane Geisler noted that Ginny Stiles has upgraded the materials at the Metro North AT Train Station hiker bulletin board. Jane mentioned concerns that the status of the Cunningham easement on Depot Hill is uncertain. Sabrina Lafave said Mr. Cunningham is also developing Mountain View 3 near her house, northeast of Nuclear Lake, and his other developments nearby have clearcut lands fairly high on the hills. Jane also reported on a down tree on the trail north of Route 301.

Frank Dogil indicated that Ranger Bob Gray has sent letters to incurring residents along Johnson Road.

Mike Arthur noted that his new maintainer, Rick Kondalewski, is going great. He noted that Verizon is working on moving the poles near West Dover Road; they have installed the new access gate but haven’t yet moved the poles themselves.

Jim Haggett said the Nuclear Lake spillway is full of logs. Jim noted that we have never heard back from NPS on the Caretaker agreement document’s status. Jim also indicated that the Robson’s dog, Harley, has died.

Walt Daniels said he is arranging for a tree service to remove the very-large tree that is overhanging property belonging to a trail neighbor.

6. The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 PM.

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