HEMPSTEAD HARBOR PROTECTION COMMITTEE

Transcription

1 HEMPSTEAD HARBOR PROTECTION COMMITTEE DRAFT MEETING MINUTES Meeting of November 17, 2010 Sea Cliff Village Hall 7:00 pm NOTES: Items Requiring Action are Italicized and underlined in Bold. Present: Eric Swenson (Director); Jim Moriarty (Oyster Bay); Fred Pollack (North Hempstead); Tom Powell (Sea Cliff); Kevin Braun (North Hempstead); Jeff Ziev (North Hempstead); Joel Ziev (North Hempstead); Len Shaw (Roslyn); Victor Mora (Roslyn Harbor); Pasqua Dziadul (Sands Point); Bill Archambault (Glen Cove); Carol DiPaolo (Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor). Call to Order Eric Swenson called the meeting to order and explained that Bill Clemency had a conflict but would try to attend the latter part of this meeting in the event that his other meeting adjourned in time. Review and Approval of Draft Minutes of Meeting of September 29, 2010 Kevin Braun moved to accept the meeting minutes of September 29 th. Len Shaw seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. Announcements, Reports, Reminders, & Upcoming Events Oyster Bay / Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee grant - Eric announced that on November 12 th, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded the Town of Oyster Bay a $60,000 grant to form the Oyster Bay / Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee. This grant will enable the hiring of a Coordinator. With this Committee, all of the north shore of Nassau County will now be managed by intermunicipal cooperation. HHPC is now on Facebook Eric also announced that the Committee now has its own page on Facebook. For those who use Facebook, search under Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee. He pointed out that a recent study showed that only about 20% of young people use every day and that electronic communication using media like Facebook is increasingly becoming commonplace He also note that many local governments, agencies and not-for-profits have established Facebook pages including the Long Island Sound Study, Friends of the Bay, Friends of Cedarmere, The North Shore Audubon, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, and others. Meeting with DEC on pathogen TMDL compliance Eric mentioned that the October 21 st meeting was cancelled by the DEC. No new date has been set. Sea Cliff Mini Mart Jim Moriarty mentioned that the Committee had a booth at the Sea Cliff Mini Mart on Sunday, October 3 rd and that the event was well attended. He and Tom Ryan from the Town of Oyster Bay staffed the booth this year. Many stopped at the HHPC booth to learn about our harbor and ways to protect it. Friends of Cedarmere Event Eric reported that on October 30 th, the Friends of Cedarmere held a meeting and a 216 th year birthday party for William Cullen Bryant at the Sea Cliff Yacht Club. The Friends reported on their efforts to incorporate as a not-for-profit and to help manage the property and its buildings. Len Shaw mentioned that the Friends are now incorporated and just received their IRS 501c3 determination. They also met recently with the Nassau County Parks Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Eileen Krieb. The county wishes to use the current arrangement with the Friends of Bailey Arboretum as a model and the Friends of Cedarmere are pursuing that course. Funding from the Gerry

2 Trust is being used to renovate the mill and other portions of the property. As a culmination of the meeting, a real live Bryant impersonator appeared, read an editorial he wrote in the mid-1800s about a visiting Japanese delegation, and then cut the first piece of a birthday cake in his honor. Those wishing to keep up with the Friends can look up their Facebook page. Phase II Sediment and Erosion training session in Old Bethpage Eric mentioned that the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District held its 3 rd training session on October 26 th. Kevin Braun stated that he believed about 40 people attended. Grant for 2010 Water Monitoring Program Eric stated that the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced its 2010 Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant awards on November 12 th and that the Committee s grant application for 2010 water quality monitoring funding has been denied. He stated that a similar application by Friends of the Bay was also denied. This came as a surprise due to the fact that the application was well thought out and documented and the fact that we worked closely with the Futures Fund committee members to structure the application as they suggested and there were more funds available this year. Eric stated that he was given the following reasons for the denial: 1) concerns about the proposed methodology (bacteroides) for defining the source of pathogens; 2) the fact that the Futures Fund had funded us for four years and that this was not intended to be an ongoing source of funds; and 3) the amount requested ($150,000) was seen as excessive. A copy of the review committee s notes was promised but to date not received. Eric pointed out that the loss of this grant funding necessitates the need for the Committee to re-examine its funding sources and priorities since the current dues structure is not adequate to fund both the waterquality monitoring program and the Executive Director at their current levels. To assist the Committee in addressing this, Eric prepared and distributed a budget status report (which is attached to these minutes) that shows an additional $16,370 would be needed to maintain both at their current levels for Eric pointed out that while the Committee has sufficient resources to avoid an immediate reduction in these services, they are nevertheless unsustainable over the long run without either additional funds or reducing services. See 2011 Member Dues and Budget Discussion below for a discussion on how the Committee opted to handle this situation. On more positive note, Eric noted that the L.I. Sound Study s Citizens Advisory Committee has sent a letter on September 30 th to the L.I. Sound Study Management Committee with its recommendations for the 2011 fiscal year and included was a proposal that a high priority be given to developing on-going financial support for citizen water monitoring efforts around L.I. Sound. The recommendation was for 37% of the management Committee s budget to be spent on Water Quality categories which include water monitoring. It was reported that the Management Committee was very receptive to the CAC s recommendations. Eric has since spoken to Mark Tedesco, EPA s Director of the Long Island Sound Office in this regard and Mr. Tedesco explained that such a program would naturally be dependent upon the availability of funding and that his preference would be to set up a program similar that that used by communities around Buzzard s Bay, Massachusetts wherein one umbrella group coordinates the various monitoring efforts, that the equipment and methods used by each group are the same and where all data is coalesced into one annual report. Eric offered the assistance of the Committee in making this a reality Member Dues Status Eric mentioned that all members have paid their 2010 dues except Nassau County and that the appropriate voucher and backup information have been submitted to the county and are being processed. Eric has been assured that the funds are available and will be paid to the Committee Member Dues and Budget Discussion See Grant for 2010 Water Monitoring Program above for the introduction to this discussion. Eric mentioned that prior to tonight s meeting he had provided Bill Clemency with the budget status report and had spoken with him regarding this situation. He had pointed to Bill out that the current dues only supports about 80% of the expenses needed for the monitoring program and the Executive Director s hours. He relayed Bill s reaction that the Committee was in a little better financial situation than he had

3 envisioned but nevertheless he saw the need to take steps to ensure that we are sustainable. Eric pointed out that he had asked Carol DiPaolo to prepare a scaled-back monitoring program in the neighborhood of 20% and that he would also need to scale back his hours by about 20%. Eric also stated that upon learning of the grant denial, he asked Bill to take any proposed increase in the Director s salary level off the table for now. Eric relayed that Bill supported scaling back the water monitoring program if necessary but was reluctant to scale back the Director s hours by more than 10% at this time. Eric pointed out that he has been advised that funding for the 2011 dues at the current level was included in the county s 2011 proposed budget. He stated that in adopting the 2011 budget, the Nassau County Legislature did make some changes but it was not clear whether the HHPC dues were affected. Dan Fucci from Nassau County DPW is looking into this. After considerable discussion among the Committee members about the finances and the services provided, the consensus of the Committee was that 1) we should continue to offer the same level of services in 2011 that we did in 2010 even if it means dipping into our surplus ; 2) we should nevertheless look to save on expenses where we can; 3) we should use 2011 to explore additional funding sources; 4) we should keep 2011 dues at the 2010 level; and 5) beginning in 2012, we should start incrementally increasing dues but give municipalities sufficient advance notice so that they can make the appropriate budget requests (ideally give notification for 2012 by May 2011). Carol DiPaolo stated that she could safely shave off $5,000 of the monitoring budget ( reducing it from $45,000 to $40,000) and still keep the same frequency of testing and the same number of stations. That is because we had $5,000 in this year s budget for updating of the QAPP and we will not have that expense next year. Joel Ziev, who has served for many years on the L.I. Sound Study Citizen s Advisory Committee stated that he is optimistic that funds would be received, perhaps during 2011, for water quality monitoring. We also agreed to reduce the number of Committee meetings to roughly every 6 weeks instead of every 4 weeks (with some exceptions). That should help save some costs. Nassau County Soil & Water Conservation District Kevin Braun mentioned that the Soil and Water Conservation District recently assisted the Town of North Hempstead with its invasive species removal program at North Hempstead Beach Park. Funding was provided for the services of a licensed herbicide applicator who helped remove Japanese knotweed and mugwort from the habitat restoration area south of the bar. Eric mentioned that he learned that the NYS DEC has awarded two grants to the District (one for $75,000 and one for about $3,700). L.I. Sound Study CAC Update Plum Island Eric reported that on October 6 th, he, Joel Ziev, Aldona Lawson and a couple dozen others visited the 840 acre island in order to learn more about it as part of the efforts of the Long Island Sound Study and others to preserve the island in conjunction with the proposed sale of the land. The group was well treated by the facility s Director and his key staff but many questions raised by the group were unable to be answered at that time. The Director promised to meet the group again and provide whatever answers were desired. An ad hoc group is compiling the information needed. Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act status Eric mentioned that a joint letter to New York s two U.S. Senators has been prepared by Audubon New York which supports the passage of the Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act and urges the Congress to act before year s end. Eric noted that the Committee has signed onto the letter and has encouraged others to do the same. As of the meeting, both Glen Cove and Roslyn had agreed to do so. Tom Powell agreed to check with the Village of Sea Cliff. Dredging Joel Ziev reported that the Management Committee has agreed to allocate 6% of its budget for dredging issues including the development of a management plan, the evaluation of alternative upland disposal sites, the evaluation of beneficial re-use alternatives, and the identification of dredging needs.

4 Municipal Updates Roslyn Len Shaw reported that Assemblywoman Michele Schimmel has introduced a bill to rename the Roslyn Viaduct after William Cullen Bryant. At this time there is no Senate sponsor. Sea Cliff Tom Powell mentioned that the village s new program requiring leaves to be bagged is working well. Sands Point Pasqua Dziadul noted that the Lands End owner is interviewing architects with the intent on building one house on the property at this point. North Hempstead Fred Pollack reported that the Town has applied for $200,000 in grants from NYS Parks for work on the Hempstead Harbor Trail. He also mentioned that the Town has a new park the Sandminer s Park. Kevin Braun mentioned that the Town is currently preparing construction documents for building segment #3 of the Harbor Trail. He also mentioned that the Town s consultant (Nelson, Pope & Voorhies) is putting together the Blueway Trail alternatives based on the public input they received at two events this summer. Fred Pollack mentioned that the Tully Construction Company s staging area on the Glen Harbors ( Hin Fin ) site is gone and that some remediation of the site is underway. Finally, he reported that a rotting barge in the lower harbor has been removed. Oyster Bay Jim Moriarty mentioned that the Town would be holding a public meeting on November 18 th on the proposed restoration plans for the Mill Pond Overlook property in Oyster Bay and that the Town has finished seeding 5 million clams and 1 million oysters. He reported that the Town was also slated to receive a new pumpout boat next year and that this year, the pumpout program removed 26,000 gallons of septic waste. Roslyn Harbor Victor Mora reported that the village is building a small park near its Village Hall. It is expected to be finished by Thanksgiving. It will contain a children s playground and benches, Glen Cove Bill Archambault stated that the city s ferry terminal site work is about 40% complete. The pilings for the foundation are in as is most of the bulkheading. In January, they expect to go to bid for the construction of the building. In addition, a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the operation has been finalized. It also appears that the city will be able to obtain a new or slightly used boat rather quickly than waiting for one to be built. This may save the city on costs. He also reported that the former Gladsky Marine remediation will be substantially complete in a couple weeks and then hydroseeding will take place. On the Doxey property, the courts have sided with the city for the 6 th time. The city now has access to the site and has begun it site assessments. They expect to get full control of the site in the next couple months. The city will be issuing the following RFPs shortly: 1) engineering services for the Mill Pond dredging; 2) lead, asbestos and PCB removal of the incinerator building; 3) relocation of the electrical switchgear in the incinerator building. Once this is done, Nassau County will have its own power supply for the adjacent wastewater treatment plant. Finally, Bill noted that the city will be installing 38 to 50 storm drain inserts under funding received from the Nassau County Environmental Bond Act. Eric agreed to provide Bill with a copy of the state s NYSCRIP signage standards for coastal signage. Water Quality and Monitoring Programs Carol reported that she has completed the monitoring for the 2010 program and will be preparing the annual report. Scudder s Pond subwatershed improvements Eric stated that the Department of State has assigned a new DOS Project manager, Dennis Mildner to both the Scudders and Powerhouse Drain projects. Over the last couple months, Cashin Associates has prepared a preferred schematic incorporating public s comments and submitted it to the DOS for approval. We are awaiting DOS approval. The revised construction estimates came in slightly over total amount available. As a result, we may need to scale back one or more components if the bids come in as

5 predicted. Eric has been discussing with DOS the possibility of re-directing some remaining funds from original Scudder s grant but so far no qualifying project has been identified. On September 8 th sediment and dry-weather stream flow sampling was conducted in pond and stream leading to it. On November 4 th wet weather sampling was conducted in the same locations. Dry weather results show high levels of bacteria with highest levels closest to Littleworth Lane, which tends to confirm that most of the problems are from stormwater runoff from nearby roads. Eric has not received the wet weather results yet. Eric has written an article on the current status of the project for the next issue of the Sea Cliff Village Bulletin. The paper is due to be published in early December. Powerhouse Drain Subwatershed Plan Eric reported that the review team is currently reviewing the second draft of the Abatement Plan (the first component of the grant) and expects to get comments to Cashin Associates by the end of November. He also mentioned that he is still awaiting comments from some members on the municipal ordinance analyses that were sent out during the summer. Eric will send reminders (and additional copies if necessary) to members who have not yet submitted comments on the municipal ordinance analyses. Proposed Meeting Schedule for 2011 Eric distributed a list of proposed dates for 2011 Committee meetings. [NOTE: that list has since been revised and is presented below]. The schedule is generally geared around meeting every 6 weeks, with some exceptions. Under our Inter-municipal agreement, we are required to introduce annual dues in January and wait at least 60 days before adopting them. As such, there will be meetings in January and March. The schedule also gives July and August off and December off, which traditionally have been tough months in which to have everyone attend. Tom Powell will check on the availability of Village Hall on these meeting dates. DATE DAY PLACE January 12 Wednesday Sea Cliff March 16 Wednesday Sea Cliff April 20 Wednesday Sea Cliff May 25 Wednesday Sea Cliff June 29 Wednesday Sea Cliff September 7 Wednesday Sea Cliff October 19 Wednesday Sea Cliff November 30 Wednesday Sea Cliff

6 Other Items There were no other items. The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:15 pm NEXT MEETING: January 12, 2011

7 HHPC BUDGET STATUS REPORT (as of November 15, 2010) BALANCE IN SEA CLIFF ACCOUNT...$ 81,450 BALANCE IN NORTH HEMPSTEAD ACCOUNT $ 19,273 Total Balance on November 15, $ 100,723 POTENTIAL INCOME IN 2010 and Member Dues outstanding $ 30, Member Dues $ 82,500 Amounts Currently Reimbursable from Grants* Scudders Subwatershed Plan.. $ 23,214 DOS Phase II... $ 3,947 Powerhouse Drain Plan....$ 7,513 NFWF 2009 Monitoring..$ 45,000 Coastal Signage II $ 8,250 Total Potential Income...$ 200,949 ANTICPATED EXPENSES IN 2010 and 2011 Executive Director s Salary (remaining 2010)...$ 6,432 (actual amount will depend on hours worked actual figure used for November 16 to December 31) Executive Director s Salary for 2011 (actual amount will depend on hours worked actual figure used for January 1 to November 15 th plus 2009 actual figure used for November 16 to December 31) $ 53,870 Expenses (office supplies, postage, travel, fees)....$ 622 (based on 2010 actual figures through Nov. 15) Contracts 2010 Water Monitoring Program (balance)..$ 13, Water Monitoring Program..$ 45,000 Powerhouse Drain Plan.$ 7,513 Coastal Signage II.$ 12,725 Website Hosting $ 500 Total Anticipated Expenses......$ 140,126 POTENTIAL BALANCE ON DECEMBER 31, $ 161,546 * Note: this only reflects work done to date and not vouchered for and does not include in-kind services which still need to be calculated. Several grants have additional reimbursable amounts once the work is completed.