Rick Amirault: The property at 34 Crystal Street was involved in
a contamination and an oil spill. After it was cleaned, it was then
purchased by the City of Melrose, and actually the purchase price
was refunded to the city by Drs. DesForges, who made a wonderful gift
to the city of over $170,000, so that property could be transferred
into the Park Dept. in perpetuity. Their wishes, and part of the Board
of Alderman's order of acceptance, was that it be taken into the Park
Dept. in perpetuity and remain an area of passive recreation, and
so the Mayor graciously accepted the gift with those terms. We met
with the DesForges a couple of times, once in the Mayor's office and
once on site and I received their input on what they would like to
see and what their idea of passive recreation was. We hope to get
this plan implemented this fall and to get the species ordered quickly.
If you look at the first sheet, it is really just an existing condition.
As you know there was the American Legion Bungalow pretty much centered
in the middle of this rectangle. That was torn down, numerous excavations
were done. Pretty much all through the center of this the land has
all been tilled, dug and refilled, and I guess it is monitored on
a regular basis. I am really not up to speed exactly what EPA has
in mind, but right now it is our property and there are three small
well heads on the property that will be monitored continuously, but
the top soil was all free and clear from contaminants. If you look
at the beginning of the plan, there is a concrete slab, there is a
concrete wall to the left of the property, there is a concrete walkway
3-ft. side and it goes all the way down which was the back door of
the building. There is a concrete little patio with another wall,
concrete stairs, you can see all the trees that are existing, and
you can see the existing elevations as they are now. Some of those
elevations aren't natural, all of them were disturbed when the building
was removed. Those are the existing conditions, that elevation of
Ell Pond right there at 44.71 is actually an elevation taken yesterday.
The wall over to the next plan, as you can read the synopsis on the
application, what we want to do is to take out all the structure there,
we want to take out both concrete slabs in the front, the slab and
the wall, we want to remove the walkway all the way down the property
which is approximately 66 ft. x 3 ft. We want to remove the stairs,
the wall and bring that all back to natural. We have selected a variety
of native species here. I did bring Barbara Jesse with me. She is
our tree arborist consultant for the City of Melrose. We developed
the plan together on the species. If you notice on the existing conditions
we have a real infestation of Japanese knot weed right along the shore.
We really would like to remove that invasive species. It doesn't lend
itself to see through it. What we hope to do, as you see in the other
plan, is just to put a couple of park benches right there, remove
that Japanese knot weed and plant it to the species you see listed
which are all native wetland species which should solidify that whole
embankment. We don't intend to do any work in front of that 46-ft.
elevation, except to remove that knot weed and put in the native species.
We do have to keep in mind that this is going to be a park and we
have to keep ADA requirements in mind. We really did not want to go
and pave or put any more concrete in there. We didn't want any more
impervious surfaces, so if you look on the landscape plan, the existing
stone dust pathway was a pathway that was constructed partly by the
Park Dept., partly under a grant, and partly by the Ell Pond Restoration
Committee. What I intend to do with this proposed plan is to run a
pathway over to our park benches, from that do a curve cut out on
the street for handicap access and that would allow persons in wheelchairs
or other disabilities to diverse that path along which is the tennis
courts on the other side, and then make their way down where they
could end up by the benches to view the pond. Right in the center
of the whole rectangle you see a perennial garden there, we have selected
all perennial species. One more aspect of this is we would like to
put in grass in most of this area. I would like to bring in irrigation
which we have done in almost every one of our parks that we have rehabilitated.
The cabinet would go right on Crystal Street. You see that right inside
the property and we screen this also. I would like to turn this over
to Barbara and she will explain the species selection and the way
we decided upon this configuration.
Barbara Jesse: Being an arborist, let me start with the trees, start
with the big plants on the site. What I tried to do is to work with
native species that are custom to either a temporary flooding condition
or a high ground water table, or this wet moist condition. In this
corner along the street, I chose three 'Heritage' river birch, that
is a tree that the Ell Pond Improvement has been using previously
on the pathway, there is one over here, there are a few more further
down the lane, and there is a cohesiveness about adding onto that.
It is a tree that has not been prevalent around Ell Pond. The prevalent
species that we have is a short lived species called poplar. River
birch is a medium size tree that gets to be 25 to 30 ft. max. It has
attractive exfoliating bark. It is very disease and insect proof.
So it is an all around good top native tree. It is called river birch
because it generally grows on the banks of rivers. In two spots, next
to the river birch at the street and up here by the benches, I wanted
to include some smaller flowering trees and there is a definite seam
of pink flowering dogwoods along Emerson Street and Lake Ave. It is
a wonderful cohesive season of bloom in the late spring, and in fact
the Cornus florida is a native tree. So I included two of the pink
flowering dogwoods. However, because of an ongoing persistent disease
that has come from the south up to the north, which doesn't sound
like it is going to go away, I chose a Cornus florida that is crossed
with Cornus Kousa for hardiness and reliability, and a pink flowered
one. So there is a little bit of seasonal bloom. Up at the plaque,
we created an island bed. This is the heart of the garden, the centerpiece
and a little bit of a thank you thought. The plaque will be inscribed
with thank you to the family or a memorial to any chosen family members,
whatever it is they want to do. So we wanted to very gently add some
things to surround that and I chose an Oxydendrum arboreum which is
a sourwood. If you look all the way north towards MassBank, on the
corner of MassBank parking lot there is a magnificent tree that is
in bloom right now. It is very pyramidal and it looks just like it
is just carrying its blossoms down in beautiful sloping effect and
it is just covered with white, what it is called is the Lily of the
Valley tree or a sourwood. It is a native tree. It tolerates wet conditions,
about 20 ft. maximum and it blooms now in August which is a little
bit unusual, so again it prolongs that season of bloom. The tree committee,
as part of its ongoing commitment to making suggestions and enhancements
on different properties that the city owns, such as school properties,
park properties, street trees, for a long time has expressed a desire
to plant beech trees at the Crystal Street lot. We had in mind the
last couple of years the millennial theme of planting beeches in the
year 2000 for the next 100 years. There are several grand beeches
on West Emerson and in several areas in town where there are larger
properties, and they are probably 100 - 150 years old. We have begun
a project of planting a new generation of beeches, so we would like
to request planting a American Beech, which also was one of the trees
included in the grant that the Ell Pond Improvement Council just completed
planting for the extension of the planting on the other side of this
canal. There is an American Beech that has been put in there and the
Commission has approved. We would like to put another one here. It
needs a spot where it can really grow, thrive and expand. Overall,
we are looking at seven trees on this property. It may seems like
a lot of trees, but over time you are going to get a nice interesting
amount of heights and depths and widths, and when you look at a landscape
over the long run, it is really your trees that are your major items
that are going to last. A few blackeyed susans and a little spot in
the center may be pretty for five or seven years, but after that if
they are not divided and they don't seed themselves out in different
spots, they may or may not be there, but a beech tree hopefully will
be there in one-hundred years. The other thing I tried to do is plant
in clusters, what I called little nursery groups, rather than putting
things out in the open, one thing here, one thing there. At the back
of the benches, also included into the bed with Cornus Florida, there
are six Fothergilla gardenni. It is a native shrub. It gets to be
a maximum of 3 - 4 ft. high, self limiting, again very, very low on
pest insects, it is a wet foot tolerant plant. It has a lovely rounded
characteristic. It tends to work beautifully when it is planted in
a mass and it has beautiful fall colors. It is one of those low maintenance
plants and yet it is still a native plant, and underplanted with that
would be ten of the New England Asters, and hopefully in this little
island the asters will spread over time to form a colony. Along with
the sourwood in the central bed we have a shrub called Clethra or
Summer Sweet. Butterflies are attracted to it. It has a white flower
in the summer time and it is also a wetland species. It's a stoleniferous,
overtime it will again form a colony. It is good for soaking up all
the extra water. It forms a colony so it makes a presence in of itself.
In other words, as it develops, the weeds won't come in. It has a
nice shiny leaf and this variety is called 'Humming bird', which is
one of the lower varieties. Some of the native species can get to
be 6 to 8 ft. tall, this one will stay at about 3 ft. Also, in that
bed are a couple of perennials that are on the native list, false
blue indigo, Anabelle hydrangea, and black eyed susan, and I have
some descriptives here on all of these plants. The shoreline has pretty
good infestation of Japanese knot weed. For those who are not familiar
with Japanese knot weed, it is an exotic invasive. What invasive means
is once it comes in, it knocks everything else out. It just is so
insidious and so strong that it just takes over in these huge colonies
and it knocks all of our native species out. I wanted to read this
excerpt to you in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American
Wild Flowers: "An Asiatic introduction recognized by the stout
bushy branched jointed stems resembling bamboo." It gets to be
3 to 7 ft. tall. It qualifies more as a weed than as a wildflower,
since once established it can rapidly take over a given area and it
is most difficult to eradicate. Sometimes its stems are cooked and
eaten like asparagus, which I would hope people would go out and harvest
all of it and get rid of it. It blooms at the end of August, and when
it is in full bloom is the best time to use a EPA approved herbicide
for a wetland area within the 100 ft. setback. The second easiest
way to eradicate it is in the spring when all the top growth is dead
and there are the tubers in the ground. I was out there with the Ell
Pond Council last spring. While they were putting in plants, I was
pulling out these tubers and saying "let's plant some stuff over
here in the shade when we get rid of all these knot weeds. So it is
possible to do it manually. Eradicating it manually at this time of
the year is a little tough, because those roots have really put all
of their seasonal feeders out. It can be done manually, but it is
a little bit of a tough job, so what I suggested is if it comes out,
some of the natives should be reintroduced, some of the things we
naturally find along that shore line should be put back and I was
suggesting six button bush. It is a medium size shrub in the 6 - 10
ft. range. It blooms, it has an actual white flowering fluffy ball
at this time of the year. I haven't spotted it around Ell Pond, but
there is quite a bit of it up at Lake Quannapowitt and in some of
the wetland areas up there. Rhododendron 'viscosum' which is swamp
honeysuckle or swamp azalea, is a nice white flowering June blooming
azalea, which has stoloniferous of good for erosion control, and then
underneath it ostrich fern. It would be nice to see some of the native
ferns which are a little bit more of a delicate plant come back along
the shoreline. Last, but not least, up at the proposed irrigation
cabinet along the road, rather than putting in the typical arborvitae's,
which will get to be 12 - 16 ft. tall, to screen an item which is
only 3 ft. tall, I proposed some Miscanthus sinesis. It is fountain
grass. You may be familiar with it in neighborhood gardens. It has
a tall column, a very, very slender wispy grass like frords, and it
looks just like a fountain and it gets to be about anywhere from 3
to 6 ft. tall. It is quite lovely. It can take lots of water if need
be or it can take the drought. It is very adaptable and has nice seasonal
interest. It is not invasive and since it was up at the street, I
thought that would be a nice screen for this area. I have some information
to pass along to you about some of the trees and shrubs that we chose.
These are some lists that I downloaded from New England Wildflower
Society. They have a 40 acre wildflower preserve in Framingham called
Garden in the Woods and they do quite a bit of work in terms of reaching
out for the establishments of natives, micro climates, sub species,
etc I have a reservations perennials list. The things that we used
are highlighted in pink. I highly recommend the place. It is a fabulous
research and a great place to visit.
Rick Amirault: Thank you, Barbara. I think you can see we have put
a lot of thought into this. This wasn't just take a piece of property,
level it out, and throw in some grass. We really thought of this in
the tradition of a homestead property. Knowing that it is a long term
property, the commitment was there to make it an established passive
recreation site. As Barbara first explained these trees are going
to be here for 100 years, these plantings are going to be well established.
The irrigation that we'll pull in will ensure that they are going
to take and that the beds and the gardens that we put in are going
to maintain themselves with a little help from the Park Dept., but
on the whole it is a self sustaining plan and it really should add
to what has really been a neglected corner of the pond. Now that we
have the tennis courts rebuilt and if we can add this property, it
will make a vast improvement of the area. The Tree Dept., Park Dept.
and Ell Pond Restoration Council just filed for another trails grant
which will do more enhance work for the entire pathway around the
park, including more trees, more trails and continuous path all around.
Barbara: Does anyone have any questions about the plan?
Nancy: I have a question about right along here there is a blank
area in front of the two benches. What actually is going to be planted
there.
Barbara: It is a small plant. It is a small blank area. As you are
looking at it, it says existing maples, and those existing maples
are pretty big in that area, their roots are really into that shore
line, holding that shore line together. They are big huge trees. There
is a very small little opening where there is nothing there except
the view.
Rick: One thing I did want to highlight is that we are going to
be removing about 198 sq. ft. of impervious material and replace it
with grass. The path is completely pervious, it is just stone dust,
but I intend to cut about 100 cu. yd. off the front here because of
the elevations at grade. That is where the front door was. There is
a wall right there you see so that is above grade now from the sidewalk.
I want to cut that down. That is not even usable soils. I would like
to take that off site and place it with 100 cu. yd. of loam. So there
is a net zero with actual material, but there is a positive impervious
surface.
Nancy: Looking at the contour lines, it looks like you actually
drop it down a foot.
Rick: Right, the loam I am going to bring in is to be spread along
the site all the way to I believe I said 46, I don't want to go into
that real close buffer there. It doesn't need any soil. Everything
behind that line has already been disturbed. It needs the loam on
top of it, so what I cut off here will just give me the net zero cut
and fill, so I will be able to bring in the loam and cover the whole
site with the loam to establish the grade.
Nancy: Who has had input into this plan? You mentioned the Ell Pond
Improvement Council and the Tree Committee. Have they seen this and
had the opportunity to make comment?
Barbara: I have talked to the Tree Committee members about it. They
haven't seen this much of the detailed plan. This is a pretty new
plan, and it is summer. I don't think there would be much objection
from the Tree Committee in terms of the fact that there is seven trees
in the plan and originally we had been thinking about three trees.
Since I was there to have something to say about it, I of course stood
up for the trees. I don't know about the Ell Pond Improvement Council.
Peter: Have the DesForges been made aware of this?
Rick: I walked it the other day with the DesForges. The only thing
that was a little fluid, we did want to include the ADA access and
we talked about keeping the path along the left side here, but there
are stairs in the middle of it. There is about 3 steps down there,
so it had to go either way. It worked a lot better for me to come
in off of the other side rather than create what might have to be
a hot top path all the way and a foot wider than the current concrete
path. By coming in over here, I am at the same elevation, and I don't
have to worry about the slope and I don't have to worry about asphalt
or concrete, so that is the only aspect of it that they hadn't seen,
but we talked about it and I said I would work out a solution to it.
Everything else they saw the way it is, including the benches and
the stone dust and all of that. They were extremely pleased by what
they saw.
Peter: You have a nice curb cut, I see over here in the low right
hand corner.
Rick: Yes, that is the two functions that will have served the beginning
of the trails that we already have and it will serve as an access
to this location. What you see there is kind of a fence line border,
but it is not even on the border. You just see it on the existing
conditions plan. It is just kind of there. It is all a mess down by
the pond. Of course, that will be totally removed. In the end, these
will be one property as the Park Dept. moves to do some more improvements
to the other side of this. Right now we are only funded and focused
on this one at the moment. I hope to be back with more plans as we
kind of move our way around the pond.
Nancy: People aren't going to go just straight down there, they
are going to cut across your corner here.
Rick: They may. This is off the plan, but it is a good chance I'll
end up with a triangle thing right there.
Barbara: People come and walk their dogs there now. That is the
dog poop lot.
Rick: It sure is because I took all the shots.
Barbara: The ragweed is all 4 ft. high. It is all bumpy and lumpy,
and it is like a dead construction site. The Tree Committee has been
hoping and praying that we would finally get to this point because
we would like to see it be more usable, acceptable and cleaned up.
It was very wonderful, I have to tell you, when I was working with
the volunteers last spring when plantings were going and this new
path had just been in, it is amazing how many people use it now. I
was really encouraged. Initially, I was a little hesitant, I thought
you are inviting people in, what else are you inviting in now and
they are going to bomb the birds and the birds are going to go away,
but it is really used for passive recreation, families, walkers, people
are cutting through for their walk around Ell Pond, so I think people
that do come here are going to want to come here for a little bit
of privacy, although none of these plantings exceed the 3 to 4 ft.
high level, and then you have trees, so that you do have visibility
from the street. I think it is really important that these benches
not be the new drinking site because they are so secluded from the
street.
Rick: Funding on this project will be partially of the Park Dept.,
partially of the Tree Dept. and Public Works, and partially out of
the money given to us by the MDC for the beautification of Melrose
which was $25,000, so a portion of that will go for this project.
Paul: For removal for Japanese knot weed, what is the pesticide?
Barbara: I have to check. It changes each year.
Rick: I wasn't planning on the pesticide. I am the only one that
works for the City licensed in pesticide application. I know the pesticide
that has been referred to. .I find the only way to get rid of these
things is to get in and dig them up. They are really that invasive.
You all must know what we are talking about, that bamboo. It has as
much growth under the ground as it does above the ground. What we
hope to do is just pull that all out with pitch forks, and what you
have to do is as the scrubs keep coming up, you have to be in there
and pull them up. Eventually, you keep doing that and keep taking
the tops off and the roots are going to die. I have had them in my
yard, and I used to have them in my florist when I was down there.
It is the only way to do it. You can put everything on it, and it
is not going to kill it, and I really don't want to put that type
of intense herbicide next to the pond. I just don't think it is necessary.
I think it is much better to go in there and dig them out by hand.
That is a large proposal. I hadn't planned on using the herbicide.
Nancy: Are the hay bales and silt fence still there that they had
when breaking down the building?
Rick: Pretty much buried and gone, but there are some remnants of
them around here. I hadn't proposed them for this work, although it
may not be a bad idea because we are going to be up in this end.
Nancy: You'll be regrading the whole property in effect. You are
going to be scraping off the top layer. That is a lot of bare earth
to sit.
Rick: If you want to put that as a condition, we would be more than
happy to re-establish that line while we do the construction.
Paul: Is there still a remaining foundation up there?
Rick: No, all the foundation is gone as far as I can see and we
poked around a lot. All I kind of see that is left are these two concrete
pieces of front. There is a tiny little corner of a walkway that wasn't
even big enough to put on this plan, but I can't see any piece of
the foundation.
Nancy: Then there is a monitoring well that you will have to protect
when you do all your earth moving. Who is doing the sampling?
Rick: I am not sure. It is pretty much out of the City's hands.
It went right to the state. The minute the spill happened, it went
to the state in the afternoon.
Nancy: But now it's the owner of the property though.
Rick: The owner of the property is the City of Melrose. It thought
the first place to go was the Building Inspector. I talked to him
yesterday and he had no knowledge of it, so I had to keep on digging
to find out whose got jurisdiction and what we have to do to protect
those. Right now, I really don't know.
Paul: The former owner or the oil delivery company is the responsible
party, their responsibility of coming in and sampling, and the city
would have no legal liability as long as we did nothing to exacerbate
the conditions or destroy or harm the wells. I think it is the city's
obligation to maintain.
Rick: I probably should put the wells on this plan, but the first
well is right in the middle, right here in the first bed, so it won't
be in the grass, and the other two are here and here, they'll be in
the bed and not in the ground.
Nancy: My comment earlier about that space in front of the benches,
I just didn't want it to be nice a manicured lawn right down to the
waterfront.
Rick: No, and there will be no lawn going in front of the 46 either.
We'll just let that be natural. There is quite a few reeds and cattails
in the water itself. Right now there is not a whole lot right there.
There is just that broken down fence and a bunch of weeks. No, I am
not going to run lawn in front of the 46 elevation. We hope to get
to work on this site on September.
Peter: I move that we determine that this project is applicable
and accept an Order of Conditions.
Paul: If this project is applicable, then the next step would that
it be a positive determination requiring a Notice of Intent filed.
Rick: My intent was, because of the minimum disruption that we are
doing to the area and the minimum of regrading and the actual positive
in the net runoff as we are actually taking away impervious material,
that we would get a Negative Determination of Applicability so we
wouldn't have to come in for a complete Notice of Intent. That was
our hope.
Paul: We can condition that it is Negative Determination as long
as the existing hay bale lines be established. Is the existing line
right after the waterfront?
Rick: Yes, it is actually closer than I need to put it. I could
probably be 2 or 3 ft. this side of it and stay a lot out of the natural
vegetation and still stop anything that is going to go there. It would
be a much better place to put it, about 2 ft. to the property side
of where it is now and I will remove the old one when we put the new
one in.
Paul: Conditions will include hay bales and silt fence, 2 ft. on
the property side of where the existing hay bale line is. I would
like to condition the mechanical removal of the Japanese knot weed
and non-approval of pesticide.
Nancy: And as usual, pond friendly fertilizers, if there is nearly
phosphorus free ones, hopefully which you are using elsewhere around
the pond. Restabilization of the shore banks so that the knot weed
is out with the new plants, and not lawn, down to the waterfront.
Nancy: I am fully in favor of this project. My only reluctance is
I wanted to make sure neighbors and the Ell Pond Committee had some
input into this because I get the minutes from the Ell Pond Committee
meetings and they are always raring to go on this. So if I have your
assurance that they are fully behind this, and I am sure they are.
Rick: I will check in with Dave again. Dave and I talk constantly.
You will see a note about this in the newsletter which came today
to the Parks Dept. Dave and I just filed that other grant and I actually
amended that other grant. The grant that we first drew up had this
coming this way through the property and when I met there with the
DesForges, they really didn't want to see that, so I amended the plan
before I filed it, took that out and put this in here. That is why
I made this connection this way it made so much more sense, but now
that I see your suggestion makes a lot of sense, coming up the other
way, which I will incorporate into it. We work closely with the Ell
Pond Committee all the time.
Voted: Based on the additional conditions mentioned, this
commission finds a Negative Determination of Applicability.
Paul: We will have Bob finish up the paperwork for this. I don't
have a form for us to sign.
