August 27, 2025 – Surface Water Quality Committee – Video & Transcript

August 27, 2025 - Surface Water Quality Committee

Autoscroll:

Tom Klemm: 7:06pm. and because we are remote. let's have everyone go around the room and acknowledge that they are their name and their presence. Go Steve. First. Steve Garone: Steve Garone. member of the committee. Tom Klemm: okay. And then Tom Tom Largey: Tom Largey Tom Klemm: and Tom Klem present. Great. So we have a quorum. three members of five at 7:06pm. okay. very good. And we missed
last month's meeting. So we'll touch on the topics that we had on the agenda back in July. and then new developments since that time. So let me call my agenda up here on the town side. Any public comment? By any chance. I don't think we have anybody on town side. Okay. next item on the agenda is to approve the minutes from our June 18 meeting. I sent those for circulation. If anybody has any comments we can discuss. If not. I will make a motion to approve the minutes from June 18. Tom Largey: I second that motion. Tom Klemm: okay. and then let's go around the room.
Tom Largey: Tom Largey aye Steve Garone: Steve Garone aye. Tom Klemm: and Tom Klem. aye thank you. wonderful.
Okay. first item up. Heard Pond status on the herbicide treatment and hand harvesting of water chestnut. Tom Largey. the floor is yours to give Steve the update on. Tom Largey: okay. well. there was a lot has gone on this summer. both on hand pulling and an herbicide treatment. So the first herbicide treatment. it was around the middle of July. and a second one just. I think it was August 6. and so that was the South Cove. If you look at a map of Heard pond. I also call it the Southwest Cove. It's on the southwest side. So we've had two herbicide treatments. And Tom Klem and I were out a couple of weeks ago to look at it. and at that time. we saw in the treated area plants were were not healthy. but they were still living. So there was a concern then that they could still drop seeds. Because when these plants drop seeds. you know. the total would be in the 10s of 1000s. I was going to go out today to take a look. I load. I try not to go out on a hot. hot day. Today was a cold morning and but I happened to run into the fellow from SOLitude who was winding up the hand pulling so I asked him to go out there and look at the distressed plants. And also. it turns out. and this is quite a problem. a big problem. when Tom Klem and I. Tom Klem particular. going through the whole NOI process. and there was an issue with approval from US Fish and Wildlife. because about 95% of Heard pond is surrounded by fish and wildlife land. And it turns out. we had originally come in with a map that showed Heard pond. but it's not as simple as that. because some of Heard pond. as in fish and wildlife land. and that was finally straightened out. but the herbicide applicators were constrained from applying the herbicide in the Fish and Wildlife land. So when Tom Klem and I were out there a couple of Sundays ago. we could see. and it's very mucky stuff. and we could see there seemed to be a band of brighter green on the other side of all of the treated water chestnuts. So this fellow this morning. went in there. I asked him to measure the extent of. And roughly. by the way Tom. there was an email from Jeff Castellani. Did you see that it came about four or five o'clock? Yeah. briefly before the meeting. yeah. with a number of photos. which it turns out. you have to log into Google to view. and that was a little onerous for me. Tom Klemm: Let me. I can do that. I'll forward them to you. if my login Tom Largey: so anyway. and there was an error this fellow. Rocco. who was out this morning. He made a an error between left and right. and because he was talking about the part of the pond that abuts the barrier between it and the Sudbury River. and he used left instead of right. and right takes you down more southerly and more westerly. So what he said. told Jeff. and it's in Jeff's email. is that and he uses canoe to for cover. to measure it. But starting in that area with the wetlands between the pond and the Sudbury river. there was a band of about 20 feet of untreated plants. And it kind of goes around and to the right. I left Jeff a message on that. We'll have to get that straightened out to about a band of about 50 feet wide down at the very far end of the pond. So that's untreated. Also Rocco pulled some of the plants and looked at them and felt that either the seeds were dead. and when they're dead. they're black. if they're good seeds. they're green. But these were dead seeds. seeds. and what. a week or so ago. I talked to this fellow at SOLitude Tanner Pool and raised a concern that all these plants that Tom Klem and I saw. they were still living. They were just kind of brownish. or. you know. he could. or whatever. and they assured me that the plants would not have the energy to produce the seeds. And that. apparently. is what Rocco saw this morning. So by the way. was the name Rocco. He does. he's. he's just an older retired guy. He's. he doesn't look like a gangster or anything like that. But anyway. so the fact of the that green band of unharvested plant is a extremely serious situation looking into the future. if not perpetuity. because in future years. if we can't treat that. then. you know. if you were to take a couple of 100 yards of plants. very dense. 20 to 50 feet. foot band. you're talking 1000s of plants that can drop 10s of 1000s of seeds so that that can never be controlled. That's serious issue. We really didn't
we. meaning I and Tom. unless we were out in the pond with GPS. we could never tell which was fish and wildlife which wasn't. you know. they had to work out the measurements on the GPS.
anyway. So that's the treated area. On the untreated area. there are three. three pulling days in July. about 17. Tom Klemm: Let me pause you there. before we go on to the hand. the hand pulling part of this So Steve. just to get you.... to summarize what Tom was saying. You know. we went into this we were hoping to get the permit for the Clearcast. treat that south part of the pond. and ideally wipe out the plants that were there. Yeah. but based on what Tom was saying. some of that water was still in fish and wildlife territory. so it couldn't be treated. It's a pretty big band. And even the areas. we did treat. it's uncertain how effective that was. So it's. it's very likely. and Tom Langey let me know if you agree with this. that it's. it'll be hard to tell next season whether we were effective. and that's gonna be a combination of because we couldn't treat all the area and even the area that was treated. those plants still may have dropped viable seeds. so we'll have to see. But it's questionable whether this year. bought us any time or made any gains beyond the hand harvesting. Tom Largey: yeah. well. also from year to year is this variability. You know. the history of the pond was that we started in 2003 proceeded through to 2016 and had great success. and the pond appeared to be terrific. shoreline to shoreline. All of a sudden. 50.000 plants in 2016 the pulling crews were overwhelmed. Many 10s of 1000s. if not hundreds of 1000s of seeds were dropped in 2016. The viability you know. there's a curve. A huge number of seeds are viable in the next. first several years. and then it tapers off. But it's a long. long tail. They had said seven years. and the literature said 10 and 10 to 12. 12. to 15. I'm convinced a Heard pond is 20 years those. The science is lacking a little bit there. So I'm certain that there are 10s of 1000s. hundreds of 1000s of seeds in that area. some number which will come next year. But I am heartened by Rocco this morning looking at some plants and not seeing any viable seeds on the plants. Oh.
Tom Klemm: go ahead. Steve. Steve Garone: no. I'm curious about this dichotomy between what we can do. where we can do something. and where we can't. because it's Fish and Wildlife. How does that part that we can't treat get treated? What is the process? Tom Largey: Well. it can't be unless they're not going to do it. I think off off season. we're going to have to pursue that with Fish and Wildlife. That's another round of permitting that we may have. I'm talking personally may or may not have the stomach for and with expenses unknown. Tom Klem is. is pretty good at that stuff. but my. oh. my. it's. it's just a difficult situation. Tom Klemm: to me. what's. what's a bit frustrating about that is. I don't recall hearing that at any of the prior meetings. Now. it just seemed like we could treat that whole. anything that was in the water was was treatable. And so to learn after later. at least to me. it sounds like this is information learned after the fact. when it could have been communicated earlier. Now. in practice. it wouldn't have made any difference. because Tom as you say. we'd need to get Fish and Wildlife approval. But that's a bit of a surprise to learn after they've applied that they couldn't get that innermost part. the closest to shore part. because of this overlay with Fish and Wildlife. Tom Largey: And well. you know. I think what instigated it was last fall. And. oh. the. what do they call that? The. the. what is it? MEPA. Mass EPA. and on to Fish and Wildlife. Yes. those things are not questioned in earlier years and and in fact. for many years. most years. I've sent a report to Fish and Wildlife. and we describe all of that. and it was hand pulling or harvesting. although around 2002 there was a an application of an herbicide in the pond. I. I was not a. not a principal on that. and I just have no records about that Fish and Wildlife knew about it. They approved of it. but then all of a sudden you get into this permitting process. and it got sticky. and so it's just. it's. you know. I like to say that's you. That's part of what Mr. Trump got elected for. Because regulations. regulations. regulations. it's extremely difficult. And. you know. this is a prime example. Tom Klemm: yeah. this is learning it at a micro level. And you can imagine a bigger project that they'd have to go through. But. Steve Garone: oh yeah. doesn't being able to deal with what you're dealing with on like only one part of the pond. Compro. uh. compromise. doesn't get compromised what you're doing when the other half you can't do it with. Tom Largey: So absolutely. absolutely. Tom Klemm: Well. no. I'm not sure I agree. I mean. it means that the perimeter encroaches. but it encroaches up to the point where we can begin treating it. So. yes. we can treat that area closer to shore. It just means that's. that's land that's that's now lost to the water chestnuts. So it doesn't prevent any other work that we're doing. I like the work that we did accomplish. but that perimeter is now is less than it was before. Tom Largey: because that's what water chest spread. So inevitably you know. when the seeds drop. they don't always drop directly to the bottom. Things happen. You know. there are strong winds that this is very shallow water. can roll up the bottom. and just like anything else. they're going to inevitably spread. What the rate is is hard to say. but they will tend to spit. the seeds will tend to spill into the rest of the pond. That's. that's. that's. that's a problem. So we can treat next year and the year after. But there's in particular. the area that's closest to the untreated area. there are going to be more plants. The seeds just spill and they're impossible to count. Just impossible
Tom Klemm: Tom. Do you want to go on to Steve Garone: the you want to count seeds? Is that what you said. What? What are you counting when you say they're impossible to count? Tom Largey: Well. as an example. in 2016 I. I went and bought at town of Wayland. expense. a clam rake. Okay. that's when I had more energy and went into the South Cove and tried a little raking. and decided it was a very difficult endeavor. So then we had SOLitude come in and dredge up some chunks off the bottom and bring that. I forgot how they did it. bring that dripping mess aboard and look for water chestnut seeds. And they've they were hard to find. They just say. even though. okay. we were knew. we knew where there you can't do it's hard to do more than that. and that's all expensive. so. but the clam rake is still in my shed. It's town of Wayland property. If anybody wants to rake clams. they could borrow it. I should turn it over to DPW or somebody I don't know. I've got the rake Steve Garone: We could probably use it. I got Tom Largey: a friend. seriously. uh. I'll bring it by tomorrow. Steve Garone: I'll want to. I want to see it first. Tom Largey: Well. it's a clam rake right? It's got tongs. it's but it would probably do great on tape grass. Oh.
Steve Garone: boy. wow. Anyway. Tom Klemm: let's. let's so Tom. The other part of this is the hand harvesting part. So why don't you talk about that part and some of the challenges we're facing there? Or. I guess. more accurate. to say that SOLitude is facing. and that's by indirectly impacts us and our ability to manage Tom Largey: Yeah. well.Jeff had reported earlier they did 3 days on the main part of the pond. the open water area. the South Cove is not open water. It's wall to wall weeds. despite the fact that 10 years ago. it was open water and we cleared it bank to bank. and we nevertheless still had this Those are really hard to do. and you pull a plant and around 2009 we we had a project there. and several of us on the committee. tremendous infestation of long dormant seeds. But anyway. and get out there. I got waders. We had laundry baskets with floats on them. We're pulling laundry baskets and waiting through the shallows in the pond. which is not much fun. but you'd do a an we had allocated seven pulling days at $1.200 a day. plus area one week. and the next week there'd be plants back. because those plants are hidden under the water lilies so and for years and years. I've made a special point through the season $1.500 for a report. comes out to $9.900 and so they used three to tell SOLitude to please get the water water lilies so they have and they. and what Jeff is saying in this note that I mentioned. that you Tom and I got. was that they pulled in July. and Then there seems to have been a second propagation in July. pulled 1.700 plants from open water areas. Then last event. more seeds came up. So many more seeds in the or plants in the open water area. Tom Klem and I saw some when we were out Friday. they came back and used four more days. including today. a couple Sundays ago. I'd call that sporadic. But what I really wanted them to pay attention to was the area the approaches to the South Cove. outside the treated area and Tom Klem and I have pulled approximately 4.000 plants. including many. many saw quite a few plants there a couple of Sundays ago. So this fellow. Rocco. went out surveyed that. reported to Jeff . In this letter. Jeff is recommending that we have two additional days along Pelham Island Road and other parts of the pond. or of pulling to get those plants that are outside of the treated area. which would be $2.400. it turns out. the last two. three years. we've exceeded our 9.900 by some amount every year. So quite a few water lilies. $2.400 Tom Klemm: by about. a by a couple $1.000 every year. Tom Largey: Yeah. yeah. Well. a couple of years ago was 12.000 more. But anyway. I'd like to make a motion that. and I don't know how much money we have in our accounts. I think this is a serious issue. We're going to run out of money on some on some things. somehow. But I would like to make a motion that we approve two additional hand pulling days at $1.200 each to
pull the area outside of the treated area. Tom Klemm: we will be able to manage that. I mean. it's a few $1.000 I'm willing to approve this. and we'll. we'll manage to have to push it off into the next fiscal year. or something. We can do that. So that's a small dollar. So I. I second that. Steve Garone: I want to. just want to ask a question about that. because one of the things I want to talk about in relation to Dudley Pond is that we're coming up on the fall measurements that we need to do. Tom Klemm: Yeah. that's on the agenda. We'll talk about that Steve Garone: Okay? And. you know. I want to make sure that we're not that we have that money in place as well. Yep. I don't want to jump ahead. but if we're adding
Tom Klemm: yeah and right now. well. I'll have time to show the the budget and where we are. Okay. great. You know. this may impact stuff like Procellacor core down the road. but we'll. we'll see. I mean. this is a few $1.000 let's. let's do. This now. I mean. I think we're going to be in reactive mode for for a lot of this stuff. So I second the motion for two more days of manual water test harvesting on hard pond. And now let's go through a roll call vote. Tom Largey: Tom Largey. aye Steve Garone: Steve Garone aye Tom Klemm: Tom Klem aye. All right. You got it Tom. Tom Largey: okay. oh. go ahead. Tom. oh. that's about all I have to say about Heard Pond. You know. I'm 85 years old. I still move around pretty well. but my. oh. my. this. this goes on endlessly. I used and so Tom Klemm: well. I did want to touch on on a point. Steve Garone: Tom. are you grooming a successor? Telling us? Are you grooming a successor? Is that what you're telling us? Tom Largey: Well. very luckily. Mister Clem has done admirably with the paperwork. with the paper. which I have no stomach for anymore. yeah. Tom Klemm: but what you need are. what you know. are boots on the ground. so to speak. yeah. and Tom. you know. one thing you pointed out is that and Steve. you know. SOLitude doesn't have their own crews for this. they have to get involved. Well. not volunteers. They've got to hire people. which has been difficult. They've been using Charles River Canoe and Kayak until recently. this year was Tom they hired volunteers. Who do they know what it was?
Tom Largey: Yeah. they it's a little confusing. Actually. the president of Charles River Canoe was out on the pond Saturday and Sunday. I didn't know that. and that was a non contractual day. That's for them to figure out. not us. but these guys that were doing the pulling are mighty. mighty independent guys. They would fit right in at a biker bar. and that's how they look. And you know. crews like this are hard to pull together. That's that's all there is to it. But this fellow. Rocco. who is out there. he normally drives a harvester and drives there equipment. but they pulled them in to do this so because they can't get kids. and it's just awfully difficult. Tom Klemm: Yeah. so Steve. the problem is multiple so first of all. SOLitude has to hire the crews. which is difficult for them to do. which means we can't control the timing of when they do this. I mean. Tom has said many times. you want to get these plants before they drop seeds. so we can't control that. They're now dropping seeds. There's still a lot of plants in the water. and then we get charged by the day. and it sounds like the guys out there today were in kayaks. which has a much less capacity than. for example. Tom your boat. So we're paying the same amount for a day. whether it's a kayak or some guy in a boat who can haul in sacks of stuff. So you know. these things work against us to get a really good harvesting to get the most bang for our buck. so to speak. That's gonna be a chronic challenge. oh? But that's Unknown: okay. Yeah.
Steve Garone: you don't. You're not grooming a successor. is what you're saying. We already have them. Tom Klemm: He's just. he's just pointing out that he can't do it forever. None of us can. Tom Largey: You know what? A few years ago. when we had a different mix on the committee? Yes. you know. there was Mike Lowery who had a pontoon boat could tool around Dudley pond. and that one or two others had kayaks. Linwood Bradford had his boat on Lake Cochituate. And it sure helps. if you're on surface water quality. to have members who have boats. and what Unknown: what water I'm Tom Largey: one of them. yeah. well. I'll bring you out to Heard pond anytime we can do a survey. Steve Garone: You want to transport my boat over there. That's fine. Tom Largey: anyway. Steve Garone: So moving on. Tom Klemm: Yeah. so Okay. let me. let's go on. sort of moving on to Dudley Pond. And before we get into some i into some larger topics. let's take care of some quick business. The first is we do have an invoice. So recall that few months ago. we contracted with ARC. aquatic I always get the name wrong. Aquatic Restoration. something to do a survey of the flora in Dudley Pond. pre and post harvest. mechanical harvesting season. So they've done that first survey. and we received an invoice for it. I sent it around to everybody. It's for $2.400 odd dollars. And so my first request is that we. I'm making a motion that we approve payment to ARC for that first survey that they had performed for us. Steve Garone: Second. Tom Klemm: thank you. And let's go around the virtual room to approve or not. Tom Largey: Tom Largey aye Steve Garone: Steve Garone. aye Tom Klemm: Tom Klem. aye. thank you. Okay? And then another quick one. Steve. you had alluded to it earlier. There's the fall water chemistry testing coming up. Do you want to make a motion to approve expenditure of about? It's about $2.000 right? Steve Garone: Yeah. somewhere in that ballpark. I don't have the exact amount. Shouldn't change. One of the things I want to. I want to just bring this up. This one's going to be a little bit tricky. And the reason is. you know. half of the testing is done by me submitting. then the samples I get to a lab case. and the other one is done by a guy named Ben Weatherall. Tom Klemm: Oh. right. Steve Garone: He comes out with his meter. Well. Ben has changed companies. and while he's willing to do it this fall. he has to do it on his own time. which means a weekend. So we're trying to work out the logistics. because it turns out that one) his testing and my testing need to be done at around the same time. And two) one of the tests that I do requires it get to the lab within 24 hours. So that kind of puts us on a Sunday. and Ben is willing to do a Sunday. so I think we're going to be able to work it out in this fall. but I don't think Ben's going to be available in the future. which means we'll either have to train me to do it and rent the equipment or find somebody else. Tom Klemm: Does Ben do any. I'm recollecting that Ben has his multimeter. and he's looking at oxidation. Steve Garone: dissolved oxygen. you know. Tom Klemm: So the question is. is it all stuff that's read off of this meter? Or there are there tests involved that he does or sends? No. Steve Garone: no. I do those. He just use that meter. So. I mean. one of the alternatives is. after this fall. I can somehow get trained on using the meter. and we just have to rent it. and that might actually make things cheaper. But we haven't answered that question yet. Tom Klemm: hasn't Mike lower you used the meter before? Could Mike train you on it? Because if it's just a handheld meter. Steve Garone: I wasn't aware of that. so I'll find out. Tom Klemm: Okay. but the upside is that. then we'll do it this fall. but beyond that. we need to Steve Garone: Exactly Tom Klemm: Okay. Steve Garone: right. So we're aiming now for probably October 5. which is a Sunday. So the logistics are going to be that. you know. he may. he may be able to go out in the afternoon. He prefer the morning. but we should do it on the same day. but I would have to go out after 3pm so that they can get that sample back to the lab within 24 hours. Tom Klemm: So that is the day of the Dudley Pond Fun Run. So if you can coordinate all of it for the afternoon. it might be better. Steve Garone: right? I forgot about that. Tom Klemm: So the morning might be tough if you're if he's thinking about parking at Mansion beach to do his thing. Steve Garone: NAH let him park in my driveway. Okay? Forgot about that. which is interesting. because I usually do that run. So maybe we'll make it a different weekend. Tom Klemm: okay. but yeah. let me and I hope Ben does a good job writing those reports. But as far as collecting data. if it's just the multimeter. the multimeter. then we should be able to manage that ourselves. and as you say. it'll be a bit of a cost saver. Yeah. Okay. so he'll do it this fall. but after that. we're on our own Steve Garone: to figure out a new way to do it. Okay? Tom Largey: Well. there has been a. you know. in the in the past. surface water quality has bought some equipment and Carole Plumb. I think I don't know. a year. two or three years ago. has raised the issue of some of this equipment. and it turns out. you need supplies to run the equipment. and the equipment is maybe obsolete and so forth. So which. you know there. there's stuff lurking around there. but maybe difficult to use. and may be expensive to use. Tom Klemm: You are correct.She was talking about the. I believe it was the pH probe. and it hadn't been used in a while. and it was going to take some rejuvenation. if that's even possible. I possible. Steve Garone: So things that we measure. what's that pH? So one of the things Tom Klemm: we measure. right? And so Ben's got one of these things. so we. if we have to rent from him. that's probably going to be that there goes any cost savings. right? Potentially. Steve Garone: I'm not sure. does he have it. or does he rent Tom Klemm: it? I don't know anything you could ask Norm. because Norm and Ben have been doing this for years. so check with him. I just. you know. they take care of it. And so I don't know exactly the how of it. but yeah. check it with Norm. Okay. you know. I wouldn't be. you know. I don't know. Actually. no. Ben does measure at multiple spots. Steve Garone: And what I do know is that Ben. in our discussions about this. said. when he can't do it. we would have to rent it. So we'd have to find out from him where to rent it. and somehow get trained. or read an instruction manual. or talk to Tom. I'm sorry. talk to Mike Lowery. Okay. we'll figure it out. Tom Klemm: Okay In the meantime. did we so I made the motion? Did we actually take a vote on that. or did we go right into some questions? Steve Garone: I just interrupted you. so let's Tom Klemm: Okay. Well. sorry. the second. okay. well. let me just. let's start again. So motion to approve expenditure for Fall water chemistry testing on Dudley pond on the order of $2.000 is there a second? Steve Garone: Second? Tom Klemm: Thank you. and let's go around the virtual room. Tom Largey: Tom Largey . aye Steve Garone: Steve Garone . aye
Tom Klemm: thank you. Tom Clem. aye. okay. very good. Those are the two. Let's see approval. Okay. excuse me. we had a topic last time. And Steve. I don't know if you want to talk more about this revenue updates. You know the my guess first. before we get into that. I know Alison has sent some updates on the harvesting. I have not had a chance to read those. Steve. do you want to give an update? Are we? Is that thing broken down again? Are we making a great headway? What's the Steve Garone: I haven't. I haven't in front of me. What's funny was that I see Allison almost every day. I run out to the beach. I talk to her and I. and she said she sent me something before the meeting. and so I hadn't seen anything. so I said I wrote her a note today. and said. Are you going to send something? Well. she sent it to you and me on the town email. as opposed I think she was going to send it directly to me in my personal email. so I literally saw it right before we started this meeting. So I have it up in front of me. And basically there are. there are two parts to it.
She did tell me. by the way. this is not in her report that this from the from the standpoint everything's relative. from the standpoint of the efficacy and the use of the harvester over the course of the weeks we're using it. it's been the best year so far. The fewest breakdowns. you know. problems that did crop up were fixed fairly quickly. and that we also shifted. as you know. the starting point. which turned out to be a really good decision this year. Tom Largey: are you talking about the depth? Steve Garone: No. about the date that we started harvest? Oh yeah. okay. toward the end of July. and that that worked out really well. I was really surprised. because I have a pontoon boat on the pond. and usually the tape grass issues crop up a lot earlier in this season that they did this year. We think that might have been due to the fact where we. we when we measured the Secchi depth in the spring. it's usually like 11 or 12 feet. Yup. it was like 8. 8 one half feet at the most. So we think for some reason the pond was not as clear as it was. maybe less sunlight got down then. That might have retarded the regrowth a little bit. but we're not sure. Tom Klemm: So there's been no complaints then from residents about weeds fouling their props. Steve Garone: not that I know of now. Well. not not until recently. The last couple of weeks have been tough. but. but this is very late in the season for that to happen. so it's actually been pretty good. and they've been doing a great job. You know. one of the concerns that I. I voice all the time. which sort of. you know. one of the reasons why I was prompted to raise the issue around this committee's role was that. is there a plan when these people don't want to do it anymore. and what are we going to do about that? So we. you know that I think they're almost done. They have a couple of weeks left. and they're doing a good job. In terms of milfoil. she wrote a note that said very little was found in the pond mid July. They watched whatever comes. whatever gets cut that goes in the conveyor for milfoil strands. Uh. they've seen less than 10 small strands from the Chat Cove area. which is where we usually see a lot. So the milfoil evidently. is not that bad right now. Tom Klemm: I'd like to. we'll keep monitoring that. but I don't want to reflexively apply for seller Procellacor every three years. because I'm concerned about resistance building up over time. So if we can. if it stays low this year and doesn't appear to be a threat. then I would like to. if we can bypass next year. maybe think about 27 if we need to do it right. Steve Garone: Well. I want to. I want to. I want to follow up with Allison. I'm literally just reading what she wrote here. and I haven't heard about it. but yes. that would be great. I can tell you that the tape grass is awful though right now. that stuff's still. still doing its thing. But she also gave us some statistics on what she's done. Okay. so. so actually. we week left. This is week six. and she has indicated she broke it down by week. but the total as of Tuesday. which is yesterday. Total pounds collected over six weeks is over 101.000 Tom Largey: Wow. Tom Klemm: What do you mean one week left? Steve Garone: Well. she they contracted for seven weeks. We're in week six so. Tom Klemm: But they okay. they did it through October last year. Was that because they lost weeks. because it was broken down. Steve Garone: yeah. we're doing few weeks this year.
Tom Klemm: Well. we're doing because it started later. but the number of weeks is the same as it was last year. right? I'm sorry. the same number of weeks as we did in 2024 Steve Garone: I'm not sure. I'm not sure about Tom Klemm: that okay. because I Okay. I mean. my assumption might have been incorrect. I assumed they were gonna I knew they were starting later. yeah. but if it's the same number of weeks. and last year they went into October. oh. yeah. I guess it makes sense if the same number of weeks. and they may have started later. but they were able to work straight through. because the the harvester didn't break down. whereas last year it broke down. Okay. Steve Garone: so again. I haven't talked to her about this report. because I just read it just before we got on here. Got it okay. but it says we are in the middle of week six of seven harvest weeks. And she sent this report yesterday. so there's one more week left after this. if this is correct. and they've worked 281 person hours.
Tom Klemm: So this started late July. So this is going to be basically how many weeks total. seven weeks. eight weeks. It's seven weeks. And was it seven weeks last year. and I know was broken up by again. Steve Garone: you asked me that I don't remember. So okay. Tom Klemm: I would be curious if the weeks Steve Garone: question and I'll. I'll get an answer. Okay. so you know that's basically what we know right now. We did have a little better cooperation from people around the pond in terms of raking. you know. Bob Smith and I are doing a lot of that. And the Leonards have a motorboat that they take out. I think. every week. where they go around and collect as much as they can collect. So we're having a little bit better
floating stuff collection than we had in the past. Okay. that's been. it's been. okay. yeah. Tom Klemm: Yeah. great. And Tom Largey. you know. again. these are just emails coming from Allison. I will compile this stuff. I always circulate it to the whole committee. and I know you want a more formal report that might be something that I can take on. and if. because Allison has done doing a lot of work already. but maybe I can take this information and put it in something in a more formal way to document the work being done. So I'll take that as an action item. Steve Garone: right. Tom Largey: Yeah. And then that case. we have a report this year that can be measured against next year and so forth. right? Yeah. So that's that's pretty darn important. Well. that amounts to assuming next week about 350 personnel hours. I don't know what they get paid. I'm sure it's somewhere in the 20s. Hard to say that's not. not too bad. I don't think. for from a cost point of view.
Steve Garone: yeah. it's not. it's. it's not our budget. though. Tom Largey: yeah. yeah. but it's the Town. The Town is spending the money. So. yeah. So what they do it four days a week. right? Is it four days a week? Steve Garone: Four days a week? Monday through Thursday. Yeah. I think the reason why they don't do it on Friday is because the town building's closed on Friday. Tom Largey: Right. All right. Well. back to the 101.000 pounds. We've been told the town no longer has a composting facility. so that was seen as a problem if we were to use a Harvester on Heard pond. But that 100.000 pounds of tape grass. Where does that go? Steve Garone: That's a you know. as you are talking. I was thinking to myself. I would love to know the answer to that myself. Tree said to me yesterday. he was. he was the end of his day. He was making jokes. and he said we got the the Sally contract for the high school. I But seriously. I don't know the answer to that. and I'll get that answer as well. Tom Largey: Okay. Tom Klemm: I have a question for you. how the 101.000 pounds? What's that estimate based on? Steve Garone: Well. she broke it down by week. and basically they they size a load at 1.500 pounds. And so they take the number of loads they do in a week and do the multiplication. Tom Klemm: Is that what the max weight of the harvester is must be. yeah. okay. yeah. I'm just curious what the what the unit was. They calculated that number from. okay. so. Steve Garone: but you reminded me of a small point as you were speaking. I got a I got an email from Norm about a week ago. He was trying to download our may report on our measurements. and he says. evidently. was never posted. I I know I sent it to you. and I think I sent it to Jailyn too.
Tom Klemm: Yeah. this is a
Steve Garone: subject matter a little bit here. Tom Klemm: Well. let's so for this one. Why don't you just send it directly to Norm. So he was looking for on our web page. Steve Garone: So. you know. it was because every time I've done this in the past. haven't been a lot of them. but I send it to I send it to the committee. and I send it to Jailyn. And I thought she usually posts it. but Tom Klemm: it's was just as well. because what. what Jailyn does is she'll create a new like a not a link. saving a thumb thumbnail. It's basically. every time we upload a new document. there's a new line that appears on our web page. which is ridiculous. What I want there to be is one tab for document library. and then you go there and you can find what you're looking for. So to send that one directly to Norm. that's that's a larger issue about how we make documentation publicly available. not only amongst this committee. but but to the public. So to send Norm that one for now. I don't think anybody else beyond the DPA cares. So if Norm has it. he can distribute it to everybody. Steve Garone: Funny thing is. Norm. Norm should have it because I'm not sure I'm going to have to do it this time. but I always have him review it. because he's done it more times than I have. But anyway. but we've had this conversation before in this committee. right about how documentation is posted in the town. And. yeah. we'll Tom Klemm: talk about that. about that that further down the agenda. because that was gonna be a topic for last time. So I'll touch on that. They get there . last thing on Dudley pond. And have you had any discussions with Allison about how we're going to capture this information? So as you say. when Alison and Tree can't or don't want to do this. we have a source document to hand off to the next person. Steve Garone: I had. I think I may have told you this. I had a long sit down with Allison about a month and a half ago to talk about a number of things around this. And one of the things I said to her is. you know. we really need to develop a best practices document. And I said I'd be happy to write it. but I have to do it in collaboration with you guys. because you guys are the ones that are out there using the equipment. etc. And we do have some material. I mean. I don't know if you knew this. but when. when the harvester first arrived and the DPW guys are out here showing people how to use it. I did. I did videos. I took videos of what they were teaching and what they were showing people. And I did that because Norm asked me to and. and then I was waiting for Norm to go. Well. you know. can you put it together in a in a whole video? And. you know. whatever. nobody ever asked me. This is before I was on the committee. So the idea to do that has been around for a while. but we haven't done it yet. So it's a very good point. because. you know. and frankly. you know. I'm I'm thinking it's important. but you know. I've also had conversations with Carol Martin who said. Well. that's the DPW's job. Don't worry. If we need to hire new people. They will do it. and they will train them. I don't know. Tom Klemm: They'll they'll train them. but there's local knowledge that they are not going to be able to impart to these people. right? Steve Garone: So. yeah. I so I did have that conversation with her. She seemed willing to do it. but. you know. then the season started. and I didn't really want to bother her. because she's just straight out. So this fall. we revisit it. Okay. all right. Tom Klemm: one last thing on Dudley pond. yeah. and kudos to our own Carole Plumb for pointing this out some time ago. there is what appeared on the town website. A few months back. was a notice that the town is contracting with an engineering firm to assess wastewater impact on Dudley pond. and turns out. this is a larger issue to determine. for example. whether there needs to be a local wastewater treatment station around Dudley pond. And there were several different proposals around that area. So it wasn't highly publicized. but Cheryl Carole has her eyes on what the town's doing. So. Part of this initiative was to have a a wastewater. a Dudley pond wastewater study group of interested residents to vet these proposals. And that committee has been formed. I am on it. Norm is on it. There's someone else in the in the Dudley pond community. who's on there. and there's a fourth person whose name I didn't recognize. Steve. are you or no. you're not on it. Steve. it's. it's Norm. And there's a fourth person Steve Garone: I literally found out about that committee. like. two days ago. from Bob Smith. I didn't even know it existed. Tom Klemm: Yeah. it was all low key. And again. if it wasn't for Carole Plumb. I wouldn't know. I mean. I'm not as good as she is sleuthing stuff out. So kudos to Carole and so again. But this whole thing is just strange. You know. this idea that the town is going to determine what may or may not need to be done around the Dudley plot area in terms of wastewater treatment. very odd how it sort of popped up out of the blue. I guess I think the originating. the source behind it was Abigail Charest. the town engineer. but maybe it predates her. I don't know. So anyways. this committee is meeting for the first time later in September. and I will be updating the committee as it goes forward. but that's I'll resend the link. You know. you can try and glean some information there. But. you know. the long term goal is. how do we obviate the the how do we mitigate from wastewater getting at the Dudley pond? And Steve. you'll recall years ago when they wanted to put a little wastewater unit down by what's now Dudley woods. for a development. You know. I think that idea is going to come back as one of the options this committee will face. So I'll resend the link to the group right now. This is just to raise awareness that the committee. the group. has been formed. Our first meeting is in September. Good news is it's mostly Dudley upon people who are on there. so I think they'll be certainly getting a critical assessment from. from us. So stay tuned. Steve Garone: So are you. are you telling me that I may not have to have a septic system anymore? Tom Klemm: Well. that's. I mean. I think. yeah. I mean. one of the. one of the. what the. what the town is looking for. is. yeah. can can we? I don't know if tying into Natick was an option. certainly a local wastewater treatment was. I think there was something about shunting it somewhere towards the high school. I think is there some wastewater? I don't know. There was a third option. but yeah. the upshot would be to not really have reliance on the cesspools that are still around there and other kinds of on site septic treatment. Can it be treated either on site in a more comprehensive way. or just sent elsewhere? It's quite vague on that. on the website. on the town the website. I'll resend the link so people can can look at that. Steve Garone: Sounds expensive. Tom Klemm: We're just rolling in money. Okay. that is all on Dudley pond and Tom Largey. I saw you yawn. We'll try and wrap it. I think it'll go pretty quick. Steve Garone: He's had a long day. Tom Klemm: Yes. Okay. okay. The next one is pretty quick. So again. our Eagle Eye Carole. she had noticed that Mass DCR is updating the their 20 year old guide to Massachusetts Lakes and Ponds and treatment options for the different kinds of invasives one might find. I looked. I was turn over the floor to Carole on that she's not here. but I was looking at it earlier this week. and there's nothing new as of yet. Basically. what the state has done is they've taken comments. There was an open period to comment on that older version. that window is closed. and the state is now taking those comments and will revise. So currently. there's nothing new in this documentation. It's the same thing from 2004. so there's no news to report as of yet. There was just an open comment period. People commented. the state's going to revise it. So I was in the impression at first that there was a new version that had been uploaded. But no. it's just the comment window is closed. The state is going to revise So more to come on that. And I'll let Carole speak more authoritatively on that. Okay. okay. something Steve. that you had brought up last time. and we can defer this one into a larger group. But you know. this the surface water it concerns the surface water quality committee's mission statement. And as founded. we are an advisory body. We are not supposed to be taking an active role. even though. in fact. we are. We just talked about water chemistry testing. Heard Pond weed management. Dudley pond. So. you know. Steve. to your point. we are already doing that stuff. and maybe it's the question of making our mission statement reflect that we're actually doing stuff and we are not simply advising the Select Board on what should be done. I will open the floor to you if you want to make any other comments around that. or if you had something more specific in mind that I am overlooking in my gloss Steve Garone: Well. all I can say is that you know the ideas came up in all first it. they started with me. Because. you know. I. when I. when I started working on this group. with this group. I started thinking about. you know. what is our role? What. what. what are we trying to accomplish? Some of that came from the fact that most of my focus has been on Dudley pond. And as you know. we have a Dudley Pond Association that tries at least to be somewhat active in weed management and things that go on around the pond. But frankly. I don't think did a very good job at that. They do a really good job at social things. but that's pretty much it. And they have money. Yes. they have some money. So people started talking to me about the fact that. well. you know. why don't. why don't you guys. you guys should really own this whole weed management thing. and you should really be controlling the budget. and you should really be. you know. figuring out what the long term plan is for all the water bodies within Wayland. And it doesn't seem like you're doing that. And I'm not sure that we can. given that we're an advisory board to these Selectmen. and we don't have a budget to do all those things. Tom Klemm: Are these comments from Dudley Folks. or just folks across town Steve Garone: Dudley Pond folks. pretty much. Tom Largey: Well. my comment is. I always felt we were doing quite a bit more than advising. We've been rolling out contracts for. Many. many years. And I think in the case of Dudley Pond. almost everything that was was done on it for many years was through Surface Water Quality. you know. various whatever there were treatments or pilots or or this or that. The difference is that Heard Pond doesn't have an association. I think we do it all there. Dudley pond has call it an Activist Association. That's that's a primary. It's quite a difference.
Steve Garone: Yeah. No. it is. It is active. as I mentioned earlier. How do I put this? It talks a lot about the kinds of issues that we're supposed to be dealing with here. and we do deal with here in terms of weed management and so on. but they have not really turned that into real action and real work. And so that kind of falls on people around Dudley pond that don't want to be affiliated with the DPA and don't want to be in Surface Water Quality. So they kind of. they're kind of renegades. if you will. Okay. so I. I get the sense that. you know. they want to really look to us. to do what they're doing. but they don't see us doing it. and they can't. They don't want to deal with the DPA. because the DPA doesn't do it at all. Tom Largey: So what are they doing? What are they doing that isn't? I mean. there's. there's a harvester on the pond. there's water testing. there's. there are periodic applications of herbicides. What are they doing otherwise? I have no idea. Never heard of Steve Garone: okay. so you bring up the harvester. right? So the harvester. I was involved in the the liaison with the DPA over the harvester. because they. to a very great extent. paid for it. okay? And there was a lot of resistance to doing that. And it took a lot of convincing to get them to. you know. give the town the funds. at least in part. to to purchase that machine. Tom Largey: So I thought the harvester of the $95.000 or whatever. was merely a line item. It was a line item in the in the town warrant several years ago. and the town paid for Steve Garone: It was. it was kind of a. there are some things it.
that there was some payments that the DPA was supposed to pay the town that they didn't pay to kind of. you know. be able to channel it toward the harvester and the conveyor. Complicated story. but basically. you know. the Dudley Pond Association. from the standpoint of dealing with weeds on the pond. has been a source of money. but that's pretty much it. Tom. do you agree with me? Do you is this what you've seen as well? Tom Klemm: So first off. I'll say I agree with Tom. I don't know. It sounds like this is conflating two different things. So one hand. they're saying we should be doing more. not only on Dudley pond. but the other ponds in town. And so I would ask as Tom did. what more do they want to say on Dudley pond? But then you segue into the whole harvester and the Dudley Pond Association was willing to pay for this. In the end. the town approved it at town meeting. But it is true that the DEP never gave back to the town money over time for this thing. so they complained that we welched on our deal. That's that's fine. I will say that I didn't try and get I've tried several. not recently. but when this. when the town first had the harvester. it was overseeing its use. I had written to several folks at the DPW to ask. Can you give me. you know. a list of what you've spent on this thing? What are the amortized costs? Because what we've done historically as the DPA in the DPA a was they would find out from the town what was spent on that seasons of management of Dudley pond. and there was a memorandum of understanding between the DPA and the town that the DPA a would contribute back or make a gift of some 20 or 25% of whatever the town spent. And that hasn't happened in at least five years. because I've not had a. Uh. or since the harvester was purchased. because I haven't gotten from the DPA what those expenses were without that number. I can't. yeah. work with Tree or Jamie on what 25% is. So I'm not quite so it's true that we haven't done that. I'm not sure what the complaint is. Are these people insisting that we pay that money. which is fine. We haven't done it. As far as actual work. as Tom said. We're doing all kinds of things on the pond. and I don't know what specifically they are thinking is missing. Steve Garone: I think. I think what. what. what I've heard. is not so much about. you're not you're not testing. you're not doing this. It's more about. you know. the long term. what's the long term plan? Do we do we need another harvester? Tom Klemm: I see Steve Garone: . how are we going to fund it? How are we going to get new people to run the harvester? What. you know. what is a long term plan for dealing with weeds on the pond. we don't really have that. we're kind of watching and going. so that's what I hear back. Tom Klemm: Okay. well. I would. you know. to those. I would say. you know. we are doing. we're we're managing milfoil with Procellacor as needed. And then for the harvester. You know. we were just talking about this tree. and Allison can't do it forever. We've got some younger people. And if you know. it's. I don't think it's too difficult to learn to use the harvester. Maybe that from within the DPA there might be somebody willing to step up into those roles. Would be because of that Allison and Tree. the thing is just going to be dormant. and not you. So. you know. I go to the DPA meetings I can present again. and maybe. and probably the people who are complaining Steve Garone: No. that's. that was my point. They don't. because they don't have anything to do with it. Tom Klemm: Yeah? So then I would. you know. I can't take those kinds of comments seriously if they're not even willing to go to a meeting and articulate what they think should be done if it's a one on one with you as they see you. So it's hard to take that seriously or even really act on it. Yeah. Steve Garone: no. I get that. I get that. So. you know. I think it's just important to recognize. I think that a lot of the drive behind a lot of things that have gone on. including the harvester. including the conveyor. and. you know. a lot of the other things that go on. are not. we're not. Are not initiated or worked on by the DPA. They're all people who no longer affiliate with the DPA. So it's kind of like. you know. I won't call it a free for all. but. you know. I think it's something that. frankly. I think we should own. Tom Klemm: Yeah. yeah. Well. I mean. I would say that we do. I We present. we give updates at the town meetings. If the people who are voicing these concerns aren't at the town meetings. they're not going to hear the updates. They're not going to be able to answer questions. So okay. noted. though. but I mean. definitely I will. We'll look into that money that we were promising to give back to the town. I'll try and follow up with the DPW. You know. maybe even aside from reaching out to DPW. the town did pay whatever that money was for a harvester. Maybe there's another way I can. yeah. have the DPA pay back some portion to the town and to sort of bypass the the DPW on that part. But I'll. I'll take that as an action item. Steve Garone: Don't. don't. don't mention my name when you do that. I won't. Tom Klemm: It'll be. it'll be an idea that came out of my own mind. recognizing that we haven't paid the town for this instrument. So I'll take care of that. Okay. let's see. I think that is it on Dudley pond. Let's see mechanical harvesting. Okay. yeah. so I guess Steve. so what you were saying. you know. this committee can still talk about whether we want to have our mission statement accurately reflect that we actually take action and are not advisory. Let me what I will do as an action. and maybe I'll sound out Carol Martin first just get her idea on changing the mission statement. just to reflect that we are actually more active than the mission statement implies. because at this point. we are taking a lot of initiative on this stuff. and the town hasn't pushed back. and I think they would probably welcome it. because this stuff is not going to be done otherwise. right? The Select Board is not going to be seeing this. So I'll take as an action to review and refresh if needed. on the mission statement. But I'll get Carol Martin's input to see how she might advise us to go ahead with this. Yeah. good idea. Or maybe she'll say. don't just keep. keep on trucking and leave things as they are. But I'll. I'll talk to Steve Garone: I have a I have a feeling I can predict what she'll say. but I won't say it Tom Klemm: Just okay. yeah. don't say it. See what happens. Yes. okay. And I think the next thing I have is September and. oh. one quick thing. I got the notice from the Town. September 30 is when the each committee's annual report is due. I've got all the information at my fingertips to do that. so just Steve Garone: which you have to do. or we disappear. I learned notifying this committee that I'm going to put that together. we should have a meeting before the end of September. I can submit a draft for folks to look at and comment on. So that is that tonight because I was really with a friend of mine in also my action to put together the annual report.
town who. when he first moved into town. was on a committee about focused on bike paths. which were really the sidewalks in town. okay? And he said. they. they never met. and they. they never wrote a report. And there's some rule that says. you know. if a year or so goes by. we don't write a report. You You're dissolved. So you gotta write that. Tom Klemm: Yeah. no. I've been doing it the past couple of years. Tom Largey: Well. an example of. you know. with the Wayland Mill Pond. We've discussed that over the years. I had some hydro raking done about 10 years ago on the shoreline of the mill pond. and it was supposedly dredged as some time in the 1970s but nobody knew anything. And so I went through the town reports which are are bound. now they're online. And so I found the town meeting article that authorized it. and how much money was spent. which is not a whole lot of money in today's terms. And I don't think people worried about permits. and they just did it. They just did it. Tom Klemm: Well. I think I suspect permits would be the least of the issue today. I'm sure it's going to cost ridiculous amounts of money. And then what do you put on that muck? Yeah. but maybe once every 50 years is a good time to do it. so I don't know. I'm not going to touch that one right now at the moment. Yeah. well. I haven't thought about that. You know. clearly. because Tom. you've mentioned. when I first enjoyed this committee. you were talking about Mill Pond. and you mentioned the hydro raking way back in the day. or the the dredging back in the day. and the hydro ranking more recently. Tom Largey: Yeah. well. if we. if they don't get into the reports. it's just lost knowledge. I don't think people go through the reports very assiduously either. but it's there. It's a record. Tom Klemm: So. yeah. that's a good in fact. I've probably not even included Mill Pond in the last few years. So let me do that. if nothing else to say. just to point out long term concerns around sediment build up and referring back to the 74 Tom Largey: Yeah. okay. yeah. yeah.
Tom Klemm: All right. refer to dredging and Hydro. Okay. The next item now is the September meeting. And Steve. I will defer to you. because I know your schedule gets quite complicated in September. So. and this is already late August. so I will be traveling mid September. So the week of the 22nd would be ideal. especially with this report due on the 30th. it'd be good to meet the week before. if possible. So Steve. what is your Week of the 22nd of September look like? Steve Garone: Well. so that I have two commitments that I've had ever since I joined the committee. Wednesday nights are a band practice that I really should not miss. That's why Wednesday nights were never good for me. Occasionally. it can work depending on which week it is. if. like. if it's. you know. a school vacation week. we don't. we don't rehearse. or whatever. And the second Tuesday of every month is. is another meeting that I have. but that's only one week a month. And I know Thursdays are out right. because we don't have somebody Tom Klemm: for whatever reason. the Town can only do a zoom up until 4pm Yeah. So that doesn't work. What about September? So that you mentioned Wednesdays? What about and your second Tuesday is out. What about Tuesday the 23rd?
Steve Garone: all other than but wait a minute. let me. Let me just check the calendar and make sure that September. Oh. yeah. So the so the second Tuesday is the ninth. so the 16th is good and the 23rd is good. Only third Tom Largey: Twenty third is fine with me. Tom Klemm: let's do the 23rd then. because that'll give me time to put this report together and then send it to people so they can comment on the 23rd and then I can make any changes before submitting it. Okay? I. September 3. Tuesday. I am Steve Garone: going to have visitors that week. but I can. I'm sure I can break away. Tom Klemm: Okay. okay. that is. that is good. We'll keep that. And then. as I mentioned. Jack Carr has. has. has had chronic issues for a while. being able to attend any meetings any night of the week. And I have a few people in mind. but they are not unfortunately. but they are they're Dudley pond people. I'm very sensitive to this committee membership being a bunch of folks who live on Dudley Pond because Steve Garone: Hold on. Can I back you up a minute? Yes. I just remembered something. I am I'm not. I'm not available on the 23rd typically. I am. but I have something going on that night. I'm sorry.
Tom Klemm: Alright. let's see this 16th is only a couple weeks away. Alright. let's just do it on what is the 30th is? That is the following Tuesday. Let's just. how about the 30th? Then September 30? Tom Largey: Fine with me
Steve Garone: that? See. I thought it was due on the 30th. Tom Klemm: Well. I'll just have to circulate it. and people can make comments. and let's do it that way. Okay? Because I got earlier. I That's just too soon after this meeting. I'm not going to have it done anyways. So let's just do the 30th and I'll circulate before then folks can send their comments to me individually. but you know.
so Steve. confirming that the 30th Tuesday Steve Garone: is okay. yeah. that should that should be fine. Okay. we'll do that then. And Tom Klemm: Tom Largey. you said the 30th is final service is fine with me. Okay. very good. Okay. so getting back to what I was saying. so I'd like to Jack is willing to vacate his seat if we have. if we can get a new another person. And so I don't know if. and I. fortunately. my network is all here. and this part of town. the Dudley Pond part of town. Steve. I don't know if you know anybody else where Tom Largey. but if you can think of somebody who might be able to who'll be willing to serve on this committee. and maybe isn't in the southern part of town. you know. sound them out. and let's. let's see if They're interested. because Jack is willing to step aside. He doesn't be able to make it. And. you know. last month. we had a quorum issue. And so I'd like to with five people. We should never have a quorum issue. So Jack is willing to vacate the seat. So if anybody. if either of you can think of somebody who might be willing to serve. send them my way. Tom Largey: Yeah. Well. you know. of course. Jack was looking after Lake Cochituate before him. Linwood Bradford was and that the fact that it's DCR owns it. basically makes it awfully hard to even keep track of what's going on there. let alone influence anything it's it's a tough. tough job. you know. for committee members. that certainly seems to work where somebody has some ownership. which. you know. as as an example. In the past. we had Mike Lowery and then Tony Moore's engineer interested in the testing. And so otherwise. people just come and they kind of listen it. it. it's. it's hard to get. I think. to hold on to people. unless there's something. somehow that they have ownership of. Carole. she's pretty avid. She's seems to have ownership of. oh. I don't know. Tom Klemm: Town beach
Tom Largey: like that. which keeps her going. Tom Klemm: It's Tom. Let me was Tony. Would Tony? More? You think be interested? I can reach out to him. I have his email. would he Tom Largey: No? You know he's no. When he resigned. he resigned. apparently. his wife as well. She was in a car accident many years ago. and there's some issue there. And no. I think he's. I think he's flat out of out of it. He put many years into it. Yeah. he did. Another fellow was Bob Goldsmith. And right. I remember him. and you know. Bob was interested in things. and to the point where once I took him on my little boat across Dudley pond and deposited him on. I told him it wasn't a good idea deposited him on a far shoreline. These shorelines are difficult. He was ready to get back in the boat in a minute. but it was nothing like Dudley pond. You know. you step onto something round that moves and you realize it might be a snapping turtle. Happened to me once. well anyway. but I. while you were mentioning. I went over a mental list of some acquaintances I have. And by the way. Steve. do you know. do you know Larry? I mean Larry Kiernan. no. oh. you mentioned the bike path. and Larry was super on the on the on the bike path. He was a prime. prime pusher. I And. oh. that you talking about the rail trail. Yeah. the rail. the rail. Oh. I love the rail trail. Yeah. but you don't know Larry K i. e r n. a n. but I'm not certain he's interested in water. but he was super on the rail trail committee. Somebody I know of you know otherwise we have down the street is Shannon Fisher. who's a new ConCom member. and so she was and she's all for trees. I volunteered to I sent her a note saying I'd be glad to take her on a tour of the water bodies in Wayland. But we haven't found the time. She hasn't found the time yet. So just hard to say Tom Klemm: Tom. that guy who lives near Heard pond. is he in Wayland or Tom Largey: he lives in Sudbury? He lives in Sudbury. right? Yeah. yeah. yeah. He lives in Sudbury. There is a fellow. Brian Moore. who lives on the Wayland right past her. Uh. heard pond. He's a physician. and he did join the historic commission because he wanted to do something. But I haven't seen him for quite a while. In fact. I'm wondering if he didn't move or something like that. I. you know. from time to time. I engage people who are might be fishing or walking around the pond. This fellow Brian. he and his family did frequently. Turns out most of the fishermen are from Framingham. Natick. Marlboro. Sudbury. not too many from Wayland. Tom Klemm: Okay. all right. Well. as you. as you guys. were talking to spark some creative thinking in my mind. So I've got some names down here that I'll I can reach out to. Tom Largey: But yeah. you know. there is a new Wayland Post newspaper. Do all of you see it? I write? Yes. yeah. Well. that's. you know. as an example. Today. I was. I did have a hard day. I. besides the pond in the morning. I played two chess games this afternoon. one against my nemesis. I beat him this time. but we are starting a Wayland chess gathering on Thursdays. So I'm going to write some kind of something about it. but I'm not going to do it until September or October. It's summertime right now. but the thought is. if you run something in the Wayland post. that somebody might see it and and you know. around us. we've had new people move in. and a fellow three. three doors down is on the assessors committee. This Shannon Fisher. is on ConCom. Others with young families. but they're not particularly water oriented. but some of them seem to be a pretty public spirited as gotta be a way to reach some of those and maybe the Wayland Post some. some something in there. Tom Klemm: Tom. let me know about that Wayland chess group. My brothers are getting me involved in chess. and I'm terrible at it. so maybe I can go and stink up the join at the Wayland chess club. but I. I'm trying to get better at this. I'm playing online and getting beat by people. I might as well get beat face to face. Oh. let me know. Well. Tom Largey: I'm available loads of evenings. so maybe we could get together. Tom Klemm: Okay. well. you might. you might tire of me as a competitor if you're really good at it. because you might just you. Yeah. but okay. I'll follow up with you on that. Okay. alrighty. okay. Steve Garone: So. speaking of the bike path. I wrote. I wrote an article or a column. I guess. in the Wayland post about rail trail etiquette. Tom Largey: I think I saw that Steve Garone: I do a lot of bike riding on the rail trail. some running. And. you know. people need to treat that the rail trail like. you know. car road with two directions. and they don't often do it. And I've seen people get hurt because people are in the wrong place. Tom Largey: Yeah. yeah. I think I saw that article. yeah. Steve Garone: By the way. I want to make sure we're done with our business. Tom. we are. I was going to adjourn once we're done. I was going to ask if. if you guys know new Steve Green. no. I don't. Yeah. He lives. He lives over on Pine Needle down Cochituate. lived. We got a surprise a couple of days ago. He was driving up in Maine. long story as to the circumstances. and some kid going 123 miles an hour. ran into him and killed him. Tom Largey: Oh. my lord. Tom Klemm: was he driving or on a bike? Steve Garone: He was driving at a in a pickup truck. and his wife was up in Maine for a 50th high school reunion. and he didn't want to go because he didn't know anybody. And I think he was either running errands or driving back to Wayland. and we. a lot of us. went to his funeral today. Wow. wow. You know you gotta live for the moment. because things can change just like that. Tom Largey: Yeah. Any of you ever know David Lane? No. well. he lived in Cochituate. He was. he is. he was a well known artist. He had sculptures on his front lawn. And this is quite a few years ago. but he was well known in town. and so he was teaching at. I guess. Wellesley College several years ago. and a deer jumped in front of his car and shattered the windshield and killed him. So you never know. You never know. Tom Klemm: So there was a house near. did he live on School Street? Because there was a house on School Street had these huge sculpture Tom Largey: that was. that was a. that was a. yeah. yeah. That was a. I used to joke with my wife about getting one of those sculptures. but just a joke. Tom Klemm: yeah. no. we didn't know we Yeah. Okay. alright. Well. that was that concluded our business. So thank you for aligning on that date for our next meeting. If there's nothing else. I would make a motion that we adjourn at 8:34pm Tom Largey: I second that Tom Klemm: let's go around the room. Steve Garone: Steve Garone. aye Tom Largey: Tom Largey. aye Tom Klemm: Tom Klem aye Awesome. Alright. everyone. Have a great Labor Day weekend. We'll talk to you guys at the at the end of September. Steve Garone: Alrighty. take care. Tom Largey: bye. bye.