Minutes of June 17, 1999
[Approved 7/1/99]
Present: Bob Boisselle, Bill Dailey, Paul Locke, Nancy Naslas, Peter
Mortimer,Bruce Rider
Minutes Approved
1. Voted: To accept the minutes of 6/3/99 as presented.
Franklin Fields Green Card
2. The Commission received the green card back from the Franklin
Fields and the DEP# Certification. They will be starting work in the
coming weeks.
Burnett/86 Granite Streets
3. A map was reviewed for Burnett/Granite St. for the proposed dwelling
foundation for 86 Granite St. The site is currently an undeveloped
wooded lot with standing water along the rear west side. The site
slopes gently down from Granite St. to West. The proposal is a single-family
residential dwelling with a garage, a north wall and a driveway extending
north to Burnett Street. A Geo-technical report was read. This is
under the DEP jurisdication.
36 Slayton Road/Carparone
4. A memorandum was read from John Gregorio, Building Commissioner,
regarding 36 Slayton Road . Mr. Gregorio received a memo from the
Melrose Fire Dept. regarding the burnt remains of the once residential
structure at 36 Slayton Road. He requests that we view the site and
decide how best to remove the structure completely from the perspective
of the Conservation Commission. He will forward an order to the owner
to remove the remains and incorporate our conditions into the directive
to expedite the removal of this clear and dangerous condition to the
environment and public. A fire generated this memorandum Tuesday night
when kids got onto the site and started the fire. It appears they
got some wood and papers and started a fire, and the Fire Dept. had
to respond to it. While responding, the structure was found to be
in very dangerous condition for fire fighters and for anyone approaching
or getting into this building. The building is burned down and it
is all black, but they still have some wood in there. Bob Boisselle
made a site visit this afternoon (6/17/99) and the walls are balancing
on the structure. Part of the structure is charred, there is furniture
and refrigerators still there with their doors on off site, and there
are nails sticking out everywhere. The second floor is gone and the
first floor is in sections of studs of walls, etc. There is a potential
for someone walking by and part of the structure keeling over onto
them, or if kids entered the building, something could fall through.
To get to the site, the plant plight is higher than you are when you
walk through the area. The road is probably about 8 ft. wide, swamp
and mud on both sides. The road is vegetated over and at the end of
the road as you approach the house there is a stream about 6 ft. wide
with wooden beams with about 1 in. asphalt over it, and part of that
is collapsing inward. Getting any heavy equipment to the site will
probably require steel or wooden bridges. Bob went through the files
at City Hall and in 1994 the commission was talking about acquiring
land for conservation. There was an article showing a fire, and probably
there was a 2nd fire because the building doesn't look
anything like the picture in the files. In 1993 there was a meeting
at 36 Slayton road to discuss the property as regards to demolition.
The following are excerpts from the records: "Mr. Carperone felt the
commission was not allowing him access to his old home and being unreasonable.
Mr. Carperone does not intend to spend any extra money, yet indicated
that the contractor board up the house and his interest had been demolished,
not to rebuild or rent." It was stated after by Carperone that it
was the city's fault the land was wet, and therefore he had no obligation
in that regards. Past records continue to read: "I tried to advise
Mr. Carperone how the area became wet, and wasn't our concern as much
as the fact that we now consider them wetland. The road is under water
and I would believe looking at some of the grasses in the area, they
would be sitting very high off the ground, about 2 ft. of water. The
road at the lowest point probably is underwater. Mr. Carperone was
convinced we were going to cause a delay of some six weeks, saying
his contractor had a detail of the filing times. I tried to explain
we wanted the work done prior to mud season and due to the public
safety. We were willing to consider an emergency order of conditions.
Mr. Carperone again stated he would not pay filing fees. Mr. Carperone
accuses me of being anti-developer as all conservations are. I said
the commission was definitely not, and he asked if he would be allowed
to build on his land. I said 'yes on some areas, with conditions'."
The records were basically going back and forth concerning building,
wetlands, etc..
The commission can give this Certification of Emergency to John Gregorio
of the Building Commission. The applicant is requesting the issuing
authority (which is us) certify the following project as an Emergency
Project. The project is necessary for the protection of health and
safety and no one is to be allowed beyond the necessary stake to abate
the emergency. Bob stated that from what he has seen, the only thing
that could probably get in there is the backhoe and a bobcat. Anything
heavier than that will cause problems, will chew up the area real
bad. The culvert will have to be protected with a steel plate. The
Fire Department wants everything removed, if possible, which means
clearing the land. John Gregorio wants to send in a truck with dumpsters
and leave the dumpsters there, and they would fill them and take them
out. It is questionable as to whether a truck can get one-half way
in the place. A wooden bridge or some sort of gravel may allow a truck
to get in there. There are 3 options. There is option to have a backhoe
going in and just leveling everything to the ground; the 2nd
option is gaining access through the golf course; and the 3rd
option is to access to Capuano's property, which is right next door.
It is doubtful we could access the golf course, and option 3 is between
the landowners. Right now we can send this in to request certification.
Either the Fire Department or Building Dept. will sign this off as
an emergency, the applicant will sign this saying that he will do
the work, and then the completed form will be returned to us. At that
point we would probably issue the guidelines. The form reads "On the
basis of the information after site inspection, the project described
above is determined to be a Certified Emergency Pursuant 310CMR. Signed:
An issue in authority, Melrose Conservation Commission."
Bob will pass on a suggestion on how to block off the area while
this project is being processed.
Determination of Applicability
5. Request for Determination of Applicability from Anthony Dantona
- 3 Maple Terrace. They are requesting placements - putting in an
inground pool of 16 x 6 in. x 35 x 6 in. and retaining wall, a decking
around pool and fence as per provided & certified. Grading to
be done in work area at 1-½ x 3-½ ft. This is the property at the
corner of Maple Terrace. From previous site visits, wetlands begin
just about 20-30 ft. of the rear of the house. Right now, water comes
off the street straight through the proposed pool & heading towards
the wetland. Peter Mortimer agreed to conduct a site visit and see
Mr. Dantona regarding this project, and will ask him when he drains
the pool where will all the chemicals go and how is he rerouting the
storm water that currently flows through there?
Pine Banks
6. John Nangle - NCA Nangle Consulting Assoc., Inc. - 130 Liberty
St. Brockton, tele. 508-586-5511, presented information/examples regarding
rehabilitating a park area at Pine Banks. Sample maps were reviewed.
Mr. Nangle: The cities of Malden and Melrose asked me to take a look
at the prospective park area, and the first thing that was noticed
is that it is filled land. The City of Melrose operated this area
as its municipal facility sometime in the late 30's til about 1955.
It turned out that this is the old City of Melrose burning dump until
about 1955. It has also been a ball field since the 1960's. More recent
it is an industrial construction area of metal debris, concrete block,
rubble, wood, etc. There is an unnamed brook that flows among the
edges. We did characterization with test bits and essentially what
was found along the line was old municipal refuse. No hazardous constituents
at all visibly identified in any of the test bits. We have done a
complete characterization of the soil as well. The only place we had
a problem with one minor level of petroleum in shallow soil, everything
else is okay. We asked that the cities take a look at their records
and find out information in terms of generators/lights. The good news
is as a burning dump there is almost no organic constituent left in
the fill material. It has all been burned out, which you have inorganic
materials - melted glass, cans, things of that nature and it is very
stable. We ran a typical land fill indicators and there is no indications
of any intake generation or any kind of land fill related constituents
in the ground water. We had a meeting set up with the Mayors from
both Melrose and Malden, and talked about the best way to proceed
as an abandoned land fill. We come to find out that it extends all
the way out to Sylvan St. There is a provision under the solid waste
regulations for land fills before 1971. This could be a grandfather
provision, and it would still be exempt from the closure program that
goes on today, but that is a gray area, so we had the folks from DEP/Solid
Waste Division come out. We walked an engineer and associates through
what we had been doing out there. They thought it would fit within
the time frames of this grandfather provision. They will have a meeting
next Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. and have asked a representative from your
commission or someone on behalf of the City of Melrose to attend,
to basically lay out a roadmap on going forward and how we are going
to close this and turn it into a standard recreational area. Some
of the issues of the commission is do we want to go in and restore
the bank and put some walking trails along there that connect with
other areas? One of the components of the plan going forward is to
propose footpaths with dog walking areas in between the existing and
the proposed, and concentrate on the recreational area as located
on the sample map. There is also concern about providing a possible
area for skateboarding. We are seeking feedback from the various people
that are involved as to what they would like to see out there. The
DEP has a task force approach to measure our projects. They pull together
the various agencies integrated with DEP, i.e. wetlands, Chapter 91,
solid waste, and basically sits down after our initial meeting and
asks what are the issues in your respective jurisdiction and how are
we going to work together so we don't trip over each other. The idea
is to lay the roadmap out on Tuesday, going forward with what are
the jurisdictional issues that have to be addressed. One will be the
grandfathering and solid waste plan and getting it into compliance.
The commission's jurisdiction is the wetland area, what should be
done, could be done, how can we make this thing a homerun all the
way. The parties involved with sponsoring the financial aspect are
the Trustees of Pine Banks, City of Melrose and City of Malden. They
have asked me to put together a comprehensive plan and what it is
going to cost.
Bob suggested that the commission members walk the proposed area
at Pine Banks.
There will be a "first" Ell Pond Festival on June 19, Saturday evening,
5-9 p.m., to inform the community of the history of Ell Pond, present
needs and improvement plan.
Voted: to adjourn at 8:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Pritchard
Commission Secretary
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