RMP Hearing

Dozens of people crowded the Trailside Museum auditorium last night to weigh in on the Blue Hills Reservation Management Plan. DCR will be working on the plan over the next five to six months. A number of attendees raised concerns about losing pieces of the park to development; one participant urged DCR to consider expanding the park. Others asked DCR to include policies to address trail maintenance, off-road-vehicles and protecting views.

FBH member, Bob Flagg, submitted comments, highlighting a number of concerns, including:

The creation of a Community Advisory Board comprised of Reservation stakeholders to provide guidance and feedback to DCR; re-evaluation of policies that restrict trail work; ensuring DCR follows its own policies to protect endangered species; identification and eradication of invasive species; identification and preservation of the stone walls in the Reservation as cultural artifacts; improved signage in the Reservation to improve the educational value by drawing attention to the special & significant sites; restoration of the trail connection from Fowl Meadow to the west end of the Skyline Trail; identification and notification to abutters for areas where they have encroached on the BHR property.

DCR is still accepting comments for the next several months. Send comments to: rmp.comments@state.ma.us or mail them to: Blue Hills RMP, DCR, 695 Hillside St, Milton, MA 02186.

We encourage you to get involved in the process. FBH will be holding another public hearing in two months. We’ll let you know the details as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please come to the next FBH Advocacy Committee meeting, Monday, August 3, 7:00 pm at the Morrill Memorial Library, 33 Walpole St, Norwood. We’ll be discussing the mid-term public hearing and how to encourage public engagement in the process.

Fowl Meadow South Hearing

At the hearing Monday night regarding the Canton Airport Site Remediation and Reuse Project, DCR and its consultants reviewed the history of the property and the current plans to develop a master plan to remediate 9.5 acres that are contaminated with PCBs and metals.

DCR offered some ideas for how the property could be used by the public after the remediation process, including an elevated board walk and trail connections to The Trustees of Reservations property called Signal Hill. (The underpass to Singal Hill would allow for future trail connections to Burma Road.)

DCR expects to complete the master plan in the fall. After a year-long process to obtain the required permits, the agency plans to go out to bid on the project in 2010, with the expectation that the project will take 18 months to two years to build.

To see the on-line version of the presentation, click here.

Report Turtle Road Kills

Please help protect turtle populations by reporting any dead turtles that you find at the side of the road. Send directions to the site or a GPS location, as well as the number and species of turtles seen to: Michael.T.Jones@state.ma.us or Timothy.Dexter@state.ma.us.

Click here to the an electronic version of the below article.

State Studying Roads, Highways with High Turtle Mortality
By Rob Haneisen, Daily News staff GHS, The Milford Daily News

July 26, 2009

On Wednesday, the patient was brought to the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth bloody, dazed and cracked.

The eastern painted turtle, a common Massachusetts species found in or near ponds and lakes, met with a truck or car on Rte. 44 in Plymouth earlier that afternoon and a passerby scooped him up to see what could be done.

Untold numbers of turtles - some on protected species lists - are killed on Massachusetts roadways each year while looking for a place to lay their eggs, searching for food or simply getting from one place to another.

A collaborative project between the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program and MassHighway might put an end to some of the road kill.
This spring, the state began collecting information from area wildlife scientists, advocates and motorists about areas where they see high rates of turtles killed by vehicles. When possible, the species of turtle killed is logged to see if it is endangered or protected.

When the study is complete, MassHighway and the NHESP hope to have a statewide priority list of turtle road-kill hot spots. Some of those locations could see immediate improvements, including fencing or other barriers to protect the turtles, and others would be flagged for the future when construction projects in the area might allow for more expansive measures, including wildlife tunnels.

"We know already that there are a number of very low cost design implementations that make roads safer for wildlife," said Mike Jones, endangered species review biologist at the NHESP.
"We are interested in having available as a resource where these problem crossing sites occur."
"These are pretty small fixes that can really provide a great benefit to the traveling public and wildlife," said Kevin Walsh, director of environmental services for MassHighway.

Walsh said turtles in the road can be hazards to drivers who try to avoid them and get into wrecks or endanger people who run into the road to help the reptiles, "beside the fact that it's killing the turtles. Even a small number of deaths can decimate a local population."

The surge of federal stimulus money to pay for transportation projects in part made the study possible.

Walsh said Jones' position at the NHESP is paid by MassHighway's budget through an interagency agreement. The stimulus money caused a significant increase in the number of transportation projects, which all need environmental review.

Jones, who works out of the MassWildlife field office in Westborough, operates independently of MassHighway but his position "helps us have them focus on our projects and identify areas where we can improve the environment while we are out there," Walsh said.

Ron McAdow, executive director of Sudbury Valley Trustees, praised the collaboration between the two state agencies.

"I applaud this very much," McAdow said. "With turtles, it's extremely important (to protect them) because they have a very slow reproductive strategy. They lay a small number of eggs and many of those eggs can be eaten by predators. The accidental death of an adult turtle really makes a big difference in the population."

According to Jones, protected species such as wood, box and Blanding's turtles are of particular concern as well as common species such as painted and snapping turtles, which are probably declining in population.

There are two ways turtles get into trouble on roads, Jones said.

Some turtles are actually looking for nesting areas on the shoulder or median. Others are crossing the road to get to nesting areas or back to water.

In areas where turtles wander on the shoulder looking for nesting sites, a simple low barrier would keep them safer. In areas where turtles are crossing roads from waterways, a culvert or tunnel under the road might be what's needed, Jones said.

Locally, roads around the Concord, Sudbury, Assabet and Nashua rivers are being targeted, though site-specific data is not complete.

This is not the first time the state has helped turtles near roads.

Two years ago, MassHighway improved fencing along Rte. 2 in Lancaster because Blanding's turtles - a threatened species in Massachusetts - were crawling under a fence and not making it across the busy highway. There are also wildlife tunnels under Rte. 2 in Concord.

According to Dr. Greg Mertz, CEO of the New England Wildlife Center, turtles most often get hit by cars in May (when females are searching for nesting sites) and late September (when hatchlings head to water), but road kills can happen at any time.

Last week, three painted turtles hit by cars had to be euthanized at the center, Mertz said. Fifty-five turtles were brought to the Wildlife Center last year.

Those that can be saved are eventually returned close to where they were found, said herpetologist Joe Martinez, director of education at the Wildlife Center.

"But if the (pond or lake) is surrounded by roads and heavy traffic, we might look for a better location," he said.

Wednesday's patient came in with a visible crack down the middle of its shell. It appeared slightly impaired neurologically and had blood stains on its underside, Mertz said, but it might be saved.

The woman who found it, Morgan Guiliano of Manomet, said she's a big fan of turtles and this was not her first road rescue.

According to staff veterinarian Dr. Maureen Murray at the wildlife clinic at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, about 80 turtles are brought in each year. A vast majority of those were injured on the road and only half survive.

Common injuries, such as shell fractures, are fixed with orthopedic wire and the turtles are released back into the wild soon after even though the bone of the shells may take a year or more to fully heal, Murray said.

With each adult turtle killed, the effect on local populations can be devastating, Murray said, because it takes 15-20 years to reach adulthood.

"Road mortalities are really a huge threat to turtle populations," she said. "Collecting data on road crossings is really important for these turtle species. I think it's a great idea."

To report areas of where turtles are killed by vehicles, e-mail Jones at Michael.T.Jones@state.ma.us or Tim Dexter at MassHighway at Timothy.Dexter@state.ma.us. Provide directions to the site or a GPS location, as well as the number and species of turtles seen.

Resource Management Plan

The Patriot Ledger printed a great piece about the Reservation and the upcoming Resource Management Plan hearing. The hearing will take place Wednesday, July 29, 6:30 at the Trailside Museum. Click here for an electronic version of the below article.

OUR OPINION: Future of Blue Hills Could be in Your Hands

The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jul 25, 2009

What do you know about the Blue Hills? More precisely, what do you know about the Blue Hills Reservation?

Well, you drive by it on Route 128, or Interstate 93 as it is now called. Actually, you’re driving through it, not by it. If you are of a certain vintage, you remember camping with the Boy Scouts at Houghtons Pond, or climbing the rocks to the top of Big Blue. That was a big deal for kids from Dorchester and Quincy. Kids are still building those memories in the Blue Hills – horseback riding from the stables, first time ever on skis, telling ghost stories to scare yourself silly in the dark lookout towers.

The blue basalt of the hills doesn’t change much century to century. But the landscape around it is changing, and a meeting next week begins a process that will influence what the Blue Hills Reservation will offer to the public for decades to come.

Why do you care? Because at 10.93 square miles, the reservation is bigger than Randolph or Rockland. That’s public land, your land, the largest conservation area within a major metropolitan area in the United States. It offers solitude to those who want it, a score of outdoor recreation opportunities, Native American archeological sites, wildlife and an astonishing open space abutting the city of Boston and surrounded by suburban communities.

The state is now about to start work on a Resource Management Plan, an RMP in the language of public policy, that will guide what the Blue Hills Reservation will be and become in the foreseeable future. That is the subject of the meeting Wednesday evening at the Trailside Museum.Trails for all seasons and ages

So what would you want the state to do with its giant swath of the Blue Hills for the next 20 or 30 years? Leave it like it is? Put a priority on preserving wildlife habitat, or build more playing fields? The reservation has become a mecca for mountain bikers during the past decade. Should that use be expanded at the expense of hiking trails? Or should some portion of the park by open to motorized off-road vehicles?

Remember, there will be limited money for whatever you want to do there. Getting money even to preserve the status quo is a struggle every year. Do you spend money to add parking at Houghtons Pond, or to increase public safety elsewhere in the reservation? Does the state really need to maintain a golf course at Ponkapoag? How about some larger questions. There are several major facilities in the western end of the reservation – the ski area, Massachusetts Audubon’s Trailside Museum, the observatory and weather station on Great Blue Hill. Big Blue. Quincy end of the reservation seems to have been reserved for the eastern rattlesnake and copperheads. How about a motorcross course there, with snowmobiling in the winter? OK, that’s probably not going to happen. But you get the point.

Forget the bureaucratese. The Resource Management Plan for the Blue Hills Reservation is a big deal. It will decide where we spend our tax dollars in the Blue Hills, and what we get for them, for a long time to come. The meeting to begin the process is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Trailside Museum on Route 138 in Milton. The address is 1904 Canton Ave. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which runs the reservation, will certainly be there, and the special interest environmental groups and organizations will be there with their causes, too. What is often missing at such gatherings is input from John Q. Public, people who care and will take the time to be informed and speak up. This is your time to speak.

BIGGEST GEM IN THE EMERALD NECKLACE
It was in 1893 that Charles Eliot, a protege of Frederick Law Olmsted, and others conceived the idea of surrounding Boston with a ring of parklands – the Emerald Necklace – tied together by parkways and linked to the city and the ocean by the Neponset, Charles and Mystic rivers. This was accomplished in relatively short order through the Metropolitan Parks Commission, and the Blue Hills Reservation was the largest single component of the system. The parks commission became the Metropolitan District Commission in 1919, at first emphasizing open space and after World War II focusing more on providing spaces for outdoor activities and recreation. The Blue Hills Reservation moved to the care of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation when it was created in 2004 and absorbed the former MDC properties and mission.

A LITTLE HISTORY
There were Native Americans in the Blue Hills 9,000 years ago. They gathered a very hard brown granite, called hornfels, for arrow heads and spear points. Colonial farmers cleared much of the land in and around the Blue Hills. You can find their stone walls in the woods well away from present roads.Charles Eliot, one of the driving forces behind the purchase of land for the reservation in the 1890s, was also responsible for the broad Charles River Basin between Boston and Cambridge.The Civilian Conservation Corps built two stone observation towers and miles of trails in the reservation during the great 1930s depression. It was part of the government stimulus program of that era.Oaks and hickories dominate in the woods today. The American chestnut dominated the woodlands until a fungus from China decimated them in the 1940s.

Source: Department of Conservation and Recreation

Proposed Cell Tower

Monday, July 13, the Milton Zoning Board of Appeals discussed whether to vote for a cell tower proposed by Green Mountain Communications of New Hampshire. The tower, proposed for the off-ramp to Route 93 at Houghton's Pond, would be clearly visible from several sites within the Reservation, including Houghton's and Ponkapoag Ponds.

At the hearing, FBH member, Chistopher Link, pointed out that although the thousands of Houghton's Pond visitors could see the tower, should it be built, their opinions were not being considered. This last Saturday, Link conducted a survey of 50 Houghton's Pond Residents. Click here for results. (It takes a minute to download.)

Zoning Board of Appeals Chair, John Leonard, said the Board will vote on the issue at the next meeting, scheduled for August 19, 7:00 pm, Milton Town Hall.

To read the below article on-line, click here.

Residents Say No to Cell Tower

By Scott MacKeen, Staff Writer, Milton Times
7/23/09

Several residents are opposing the proposed construction of a cell phone tower built on land near the Blue Hills Reservation.

Though the tower would actually be built off the reservation, it would be visible to hikers and walkers, leading some to worry of its potential intrusion on the region’s natural settings. The structure would also be about 50 feet from the nearest state highway, Interstate 93, on the Route 1 interchange.

“I have never seen a tower that would be located so close to a highway,” said Planning Board Peter Jackson, who said at a July 13 public hearing held by the Board of Appeals that he is against the location of the tower for several reasons.

The site – on a MassHighway-owned parcel of land off Blue Hill River Road – reportedly is in a “dead zone” of town, where as many as 3,000 of every 100,000 cell phone calls are being lost.

“I think we have established there’s a need,” said Robert Sheffield, an attorney representing New Hampshire’s Green Mountain Communications, which has filed an application to the Board of Appeals for a special permit.

However, Jackson said the potential location, while not Blue Hills-owned, is “still right in the heart of the reservation.” He also said he is opposed because the proposal doesn’t meet with the town’s bylaw for telecommunications structures, which favors non-intrusive constructions.

Other residents, about 10 in all, voiced their opposition at the Board of Appeals hearing. The board is considering whether to grant a special permit for the tower, which at 140 feet would be four times the town’s height restriction.

“We have a million people coming to the Blue Hills each year. They come to walk and enjoy the view,” said Chris Link, of Greenleaf Road. “They don’t know that the next time they climb the Blue Hills, they’ll see this tower.”

The proposed cell tower would stand at least 140 feet, although some models introduced at the hearing indicated it could be as high as 160 feet. It could provide coverage for up to five mobile carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, a Green Mountain representative explained.

Set back at least 500 feet from the nearest residence, it would still be noticeable to residents but produce no noise, Sheffield said. The town could also gain a small tax benefit.

Some at the hearing questioned Green Mountain’s data-collection methods. The company has researched various sites for the tower in and around the Blue Hills, much of which is wetlands, Sheffield said. They have relied largely on crane tests and photo simulations to show how the tower would appear.

Joseph Sloane, speaking for the group Friends of the Blue Hills, said when the latest crane test was conducted in late June, neighbors weren’t given enough time to take their own photos of the site. “It was a slapdash effort at best,” he said of residents’ ability to collect their own data. “We were in the middle of taking pictures when they started lowering the crane back down.”But some photos taken by residents during that period suggest a more strikingly visible tower than from views shown by Green Mountain, Sloane said.

“It’s a question of, whose information do you trust?” said one resident, who said his own research of cell phone coverage in that area of town suggests the tower may not even be necessary. “Nowhere have I found evidence of this dead zone. The proponents have not provided that sufficient case,” said Jackson.

Jackson noted that MassHighway has leased the land to Green Mountain, something he said it is doing all throughout the state in order to acquire new revenue, without thought for how developments will impact communities. “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sites. It’s totally revenue-driven … nothing more than ‘here’s a place to make a few bucks,” he said.

And since Green Mountain has presented various models of how a cell tower could be designed, Sloane said, residents have “a lot to take in” in a short span of time. “It’s a little bit of a moving target still. We’re seeing some of these things for the first time,” he said.“You should certainly have as much time as you need,” John Leonard, chairman of the Board of Appeals, told residents. “We want to make sure everyone has a full understanding of what has been said. It will be very helpful to us if we have informed opinions.”

The board took no action. The hearing was continued to Aug. 19 at Town Hall.

Sundays on Chickatawbut Rd

Walk, roller blade or bike up the east end of Chickatawbut Road any Sunday until August 30th, without dodging cars. As noted in a previous post, a section of Chickatawbut is closed to motorized traffic to enhance recreational opportunities. You can park at Shea Rink, 651 Willard Street in Quincy. Or if you're lucky, you'll find parking at the intersection of Route 28 and Chickatawbut Road. See photo for one of the many views that await you...

Skyline South Entrance Closed

You might have noticed that DCR has closed down the Skyline South entrance by Hillside Street. The temporary closure will enable an Appalachian Mountain Club trail crew to improve the path. Although for the rest of July signs will re-route you away from their work area, come August 1, you’ll be able to check out the fruits of their labor: improved rock and wooden check steps. They’ll also clean out some of the waterbars to improve drainage along the trail.

Open House at Bradley

Llamas in the Blue Hills? Well… across the street from the Blue Hills at The Trustee’s of Reservations’ Bradley Estate. The 90-acre Estate, located across from the Blue Hills Reservation at Indian Line Farm on Route 138 in Canton, offers 3-miles of family-friendly trails, a historic mansion and… llamas. The Estate holds a family open house every Saturday morning. The above llama was enjoying a view of the visitors at a recent open house event.

Trail Maintenance Event

Saturday, August 8, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

Want to give back to the Reservation? Help maintain the trails! Wear sturdy boots, long pants and work gloves and bring at least one quart of water. You may also want to consider bringing sunscreen and bug spray. Meet: Houghton's Pond main parking lot on Hillside Street in Milton.

RSVP: trailwork@FriendsoftheBlueHills.org.

Fowl Meadow Photos

For a peak at what you can find in the part of the Blue Hills Reservation called Fowl Meadow, visit check out Samuel Jaffe's website.

Protecting Stone Walls

On July 14 at the Mass. State House, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing about a proposed bill, sponsored by Rep Pam Richardson, to protect stone walls throughout the state. The new law will replace the old section (written about 90+ years ago) by strengthening enforcement and penalties against those who remove stones from walls on private or public land.

FBH submitted the following letter in support of the legislation.

Senator Cynthia CreemCo-Chair, Joint Committee on the Judiciary
Rep. Eugene O'FlahertyCo-Chair, Joint Committee on the Judiciary

Re: H. 1694, An Act Relative to Historic Stone Walls

Dear Senator Creem and Representative O'Flaherty:

The Friends of the Blue Hills strongly supports H. 1694, introduced by Representative Pam Richardson. This bill will greatly strengthen the penalties for illegally removing portions of stone walls in the Commonwealth and thereby serve as a significant deterrent from such activities.

Stone walls, remnants of this region's agricultural heritage, lace the Blue Hills Reservation and are a cultural symbol of New England as whole. Stone walls have great historical value, indicating the presence of old (and current) boundaries and evidencing agricultural practices dating to colonial times. Their importance has long been recognized by statute. (MGL c. 266, sec. 105.)

Stones from walls have great value on the open market and are being 'mined' for sale. (See report of Dr. Robert Thorson, University of Connecticut, founder of the Stone Wall Initiative, http://www.stonewall.uconn.edu/ConserveIntro.htm.) The current penalty under sec. 105 is a fine of ten dollars for removing these archeological pieces. While this penalty might have been sufficient when the law was first passed nearly a century ago, the passage of time has rendered it woefully inadequate. Increasing the penalties as proposed by H.1694 will update the protection these walls deserve.

Respectfully,

John SheehanChair
Advocacy Committee
Friends of the Blue Hills

July 29 Hearing: Resource Management Plan

I hope you'll be able to attend DCR's very important public hearing on developing a (much needed!) Resource Management Plan for the Blue Hills. The Blue Hills plan will be similar to the recently completed Stonybrook Reservation plan.

Department of Conservation and Recreation
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

PUBLIC MEETING ON
THE PREPARATION OF A

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN (RMP)
FOR THE BLUE HILLS RESERVATION

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Trailside Museum
1904 Canton Avenue, Milton

At the meeting, DCR will present an introduction to Resource Management Planning, provide an overview of the RMP to be prepared for the Blue Hills Reservation, and solicit public input.

If you have questions about the public meeting, please contact
Paul Cavanagh, at 617-727-4573 x 201 or
paul.cavanagh@state.ma.us.

Skyline Race

Last Sunday morning, 71 runners (and one dog) ran the rugged 12-kilometer Skyline Race. Participants climbed 550 meters on the North and South Skyline and Bugbee Path, making their way through wet, rocky terrain. Winners were Hillary Saeger, who set a new course record, and Chris Baynes.

Part of the proceeds are donated to FBH. Many thanks to Race Director, Jeff Saeger, for all his efforts to organize this event and for generously supporting FBH.

Beetle Release

Last weekend, Neponset River Watershed Association volunteers transported pots of purple loosestrife plants to the Blue Hills Reservation. Why did volunteers grow invasive plants from root balls, spending months making sure their charge was protected from wind, enjoyed full sun and sat happily in a kiddy pool full of water?

These volunteer ‘beetle ranchers’ grew the invasive plants, carefully contained under nets, as part of NepRWA’s biocontrol program to control purple loosestrife in Fowl Meadow and Brookwood Farm. As part of the program, volunteers received about 70 Galerucella beetle species, which fed on the potted purple loosestrife. These original adults died after 40 days, but not before laying eggs – about 300 eggs per female.

Last weekend, volunteers brought the pots containing larvae to the control sites. According to the literature, each pot that originally contained 10 beetles, will produce about 1,000 to 2,000 beetles. But as far as we know, no one was made to count them!)

For more information on the project, click here. Above, volunteers carry netted plants at Brookwood Farm and volunteer beetle rancher, Patrick Tranford, takes a minute to rest after dropping off his beetles.

Public Meeting: Fowl Meadow, South

DCR is holding a public meeting on the clean-up of Fowl Meadow, South. Formerly the site of the Canton Airport, this portion of the Blue Hills is currently contaminated with PCBs and metals. See below for details on the public hearing.

Department of Conservation and Recreation
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

PUBLIC MEETING
Remediation and Reuse of the
Canton Airport Site

Monday, July 27, 2009
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Trailside Museum
1904 Canton Avenue, Milton

At the meeting, DCR will provide an overview of, and solicit
public input on, the potential options for the future use of this
site as parkland once remediation activities are complete.

If you have questions about the public meeting, please contact
DCR.Updates@state.ma.us or 617-626-4974.

Productive Trail Volunteers

FBH Trail Maintenance volunteers were busy last weekend. Twelve volunteers built two grade reversal drainage structures on the Wildcat Notch Path, de-bermed two sections of that trail, and brushed a section of the Accord Path.

Management Plan for Fowl Meadow

The Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program has approved DCR's Rare and Endangered Species Habitat Management plan for Fowl Meadow. Fowl Meadow, with its diverse wetland ecosystems and rare species habitat, is designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and as 'Priority Habitat.' Because of its significant ecologic value, DCR needed an approved plan before it could conduct any sort of trail or habitat management activities.

FBH will be working with DCR to implement one aspect of the plan: mapping invasive species, such as phragmites australis. (See photo.) Phragmites and and other invasive plants threaten native wetland species found in Fowl Meadow and other wetland habitats in the Blue Hills.

To improve efforts to control these invasives, beginning this fall, we will train volunteers to identify invasive species and record their location using GPS units. If you’re interested in learning about invasive species and would like to help us launch our invasive mapping program, please let us know: info@FriendsoftheBlueHills.org.

Cell Tower Hearing 7/13

To evaluate how a proposed cell tower near Houghton's Pond would look from the Reservation, FBH members met last Saturday to take photos of a 140-foot crane. The 'crane test' was meant to simulate how the proposed tower would affect the view from the Reservation and surrounding neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the crane was scheduled to be up for three hours, but was raised for less than an hour. So while volunteers did not have enough time to take photos from all locations that might be affected, a number of the volunteer photographers confirmed that the tower will be clearly visible from a number of locations within the Reservation.

As the below article indicates, the next Milton Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on the project will be July 13, 7:30 p.m. at Milton Town Hall, 525 Canton Ave, Milton.

To read the below Milton Times article online, click here.

Cell Tower Hearing Set for July 13

By Scott MacKeen, Milton Times

Green Mountain Communications, a telecommunications provider located in New Hampshire, is proposing building the tower, which would stand at 140 feet on land it has leased from MassHighway. The parcel is located next to the southbound Route 93 onramp near Blue Hill River Road and Blue Hill Street, according to documents the company prepared for the town back in April. Since that initial proposal, the Board of Appeals has walked the site and observed crane tests. The board held an initial public hearing in June to gauge neighborhood opinion about the construction.

According to Joseph Sloane, a representative for Friends of the Blue Hills who attended the first hearing, neighbors who listened to the proposal weren’t convinced that the tower would fit within the area.“I think we needed a more complete perspective of what the thing is going to look like. The proponent really dropped the ball on that,” said Sloane. “The major concern was that Milton has a specific chapter in the bylaws for telecommunications towers, and that bylaw is heavily weighted in favor of looking at the visual impact of a construction.”

The town’s zoning bylaw on telecommunications structures suggests “the use of wireless communications facilities which employ the least visually intrusive technology available in the industry,” and discourages “the construction or location of free-standing towers.” The bylaw also encourages “eliminating or minimizing the adverse visual and aesthetic impact” of such a tower. The hearing will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, located at 525 Canton Ave. For more information, contact the Board of Appeals at (617) 898-4932.“It’s really an opportunity to get more information. We encourage anyone interested to attend,” said Sloane.

Ponk Golf Course Repairs

DCR has funding for design and permitting of repairs and modifications to the Ponkapoag Golf Course which will fill in and raise a number of fairways that are currently underwater for extended portions of each year. The course holes that are the focus of the project are part of the original historic design by Donald Ross and serve as a conduit to nine other holes that are located upland. The project will also include design and permitting to improve drainage throughout the golf course. The Canton Conservation Commission has approved the project. Some individuals have indicated that they will appeal the Con Com’s decision.

Here’s a description of the project from the DCR’s Request for proposal:

The overall Project will include the phased repairing, upgrading, replacing or providing drainage for approximately 20 of the 36 golf holes on both Ponkapoag golf courses but focusing firstly on Course #1. The work includes the survey, analysis, evaluation, design, plans, preparing specifications, completion of the SFEIR for the golf course related work, permitting of the cleaning, repair or replacement of existing drainage, ditches and culverts as well as provision of all necessary drainage facilities. The drainage analysis must ensure that on- and off-site wetlands are not impacted by changes in stormwater runoff patterns. Drainage maintenance activities include the removal of accumulated silts and organic debris from existing drainage channels and culverts. Drainage may consist of, but is not limited to, raising or filling portions of fairways subject to flooding and installation of underdrains and other drainage facilities.