Royalston Open Space Committee

Minutes

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Meeting Date: July 13, 2006
Members Present: Aaron Ellison, Kim MacPhee, Patty Carrier, Tom Musco,
Christine Beckert Long
Chair: Aaron Ellison
Clerk: Christine Beckert Long

The meeting convened at 7:30 p.m. at town hall.

Minutes:
The committee unanimously approved the minutes of April 13, 2006.
(The committee met but had no quorum on May 11, 2006. On June 8, 2006,
members of the committee attended a meeting of the North Quabbin Regional
Landscape Partnership. See below.)

Internal Matters :
In FY06 the committee had nine members; Aaron will recommend that for FY07 the Board of Selectmen appoint a seven-member board.

Regional Issues:
Aaron will circulate minutes of the June 8 meeting of the North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership, which a number of committee members attended. That group is promoting towns' adoption of the Community Preservation Act and will hold a meeting on that subject in August. (See www.nqpartnership.org for more information about the NQRLP.)

Open Spaces:
(1) Patty will draft a letter we can send to out-of-town owners as a follow-up to the land preservation brochures we included with the recent tax bills.
(2) Aaron will talk to Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust about recommendations on how to approach landowners, possible funding of projects, and town initiatives. (If Royalston aims for a self-help project, the state/town split would be 69/31 percent.)
(3) Aaron will send an e-mail to The Trustees of Reservations about one parcel of interest that abuts TTOR land.
(4) Kim recommended that we put together a packet of information we can use as a follow-up tool and that we wait to put a follow-up note in the town newsletter until after we have that information assembled.
(5) Chris will call the state about getting multiple copies of brochures outlining the possibilities in Chapter 61, 61A and 61B, and Aaron will see if they are available on-line.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

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