Acton Planning Board Reviews Gravel Pit Permit, Tables Decision

[0:06] Chair: All right, welcome to the Town Act and Planning Board meeting for October 1st, 2026 at 6 p.m. All stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to [0:25] Speaker B (unidentified): the flag of the United States of America, and to [0:29] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): the justice for all. [0:43] Chair: Dave, number two, you want to talk to John about where you're at with that? [0:47] Board member (minutes reviewer): Yeah, so I don't have the minutes from the last one we're meeting done yet, but I did go over the ones that we tabled for July 16th, and the two changes, one of them was to go over Phil and James being designated alternates. It's, they were both, I like went back, watch video, they both were designated because Adam Brock was late to the meeting, so it wasn't actually an active [1:19] Speaker E (unidentified): voting member. I can just leave it as is. Well, I think we need to point that out [1:25] Board member (minutes reviewer): because it's just really cold. You think I can, they have, yeah, I could put it in there as I can add a piece, or I do have at the top like who was absent on there. I don't know if that, or I could put it in his slate so I don't have to put it in the list. I just didn't know how you wanted me to handle that. I have copies of that. [1:45] Speaker F (unidentified): If he showed up late, would you consider it absent? [1:48] Chair: Well, no, if he showed up late, you and Phil were already. [1:51] Speaker B (unidentified): You already designated. No, I know, that's why I'm saying it is, [1:53] Speaker F (unidentified): is because they just considered that as absent. [1:57] Speaker E (unidentified): Well, I've got to see how it was, and I guess that he's not voting because you guys have designated him. Yeah, that's what happened. [2:04] Chair: We tried to vote, and then Dave and I, number one, we couldn't vote. [2:13] Speaker B (unidentified): We can just document that he came in late and was not a voting member, but was present. [2:20] Speaker E (unidentified): And then wasn't there something about the motion? [2:23] Board member (minutes reviewer): Yeah, so I re-watched it and listened through, and the order I have them in is how it was brought up in the meeting, so I don't know, like before you guys went into the actual subdivision review criteria, there was a motion that says it was from Gavin, we approved the preliminary plan application for a 630 Enbridge sublot to sublot division, and then filled seconded it, so I don't know if that's what you're referring to, but there wasn't anything after that, and then you guys went into waving the erosion and sedimentation control plan, and then leaving the stormwater management, and then you guys went into the checklist, so I don't know if that's, yeah, but it was, and then at the very end is way to where you motion we find the final subdivision submission for 630 young bridge road to us subdivision complete, and that was word for word like [3:40] Speaker E (unidentified): I don't know, fellas, so we did not approve that night. I mean, if we look then, yeah, that's okay, but I think somebody should make sure we didn't approve it. Yeah, I'll work through again, you know, complete me, yeah. [3:59] Board member (minutes reviewer): And those witness [4:11] Chair: here with us from the all-star planning new business Aaron Whistlow, Lakeside Drive, tax map 117-057-001-057-002-057-003, conditional for use permit for a minimal attraction. [4:33] Speaker B (unidentified): Jeff, just before you get started, sorry, there was another applicant on your agenda for a greatest practical extent. He had given me some information on what he wanted to do, provided his application. application I went out there today and there was no reason for him to come in front of you. He's out planning, he's 15 feet from the 100 foot mark, he was proposing to put it from the 100 foot mark, he's in an acre and a half, he had a huge area to put what he wanted where, didn't realize that. I told him that he didn't have any business from the front of the planning board. If you want to submit his application you can do that still, but I need to go through the process of denying it and then sending him to the zoning board of appeals. They could try it that way, but there's really nothing there was other people because he could meet district requirements, so that's so he understood. Thank me for my time, rescinded his application, and he's going to go back to the zoning board, so he's no longer here and it's just Jeff. Good work, Dave. [5:35] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): All right, good evening, my name is Jeff Oliva, I'm with Civil Consultants here representing the property owner for this proposed small gravel pit operation at the properties. If you guys remember I was here before, we weren't invested, so we need to follow the 300 foot buffer requirement from the property line, so that reduced the gravel pit substantially. But what we have here in front of you is an application for conditional use that we feel is meets the completeness criteria that indicates a internally drained gravel pit that will have a working area of approximately four acres. The plans indicate the requirements that meet the time of action and the MDP requirements for gravel pit operations in the state of Maine, and we've updated the package. One of the questions during the initial visit was getting an updated letter from IF&W. We had shown them the plan, which was the more larger developed plan. That's what they reviewed the memo for with that larger plan. And again, their comments came back with that they did not have any concerns for wildlife impact for this project. [Speaker G (unidentified): Pretty straightforward.] forward we've indicated on the plan that the hours of operation would be Monday through Friday no weekends no retail sales we indicate on the plan the maximum trips per hour for trucks that we have proposed in there and have addressed questions that the board had about types of equipment that were to be used at the operation. So I'd like to answer questions. [7:36] Speaker F (unidentified): Is that phase one, is there a phase two? [7:38] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Well, it's really phase one. That's probably a carryover. It's basically one pit now that we have it. So DEP requirements are five acres of max that open at a time. This is four acres, so this is just one operation. So the plans will be revised to remove a phased statement on it. It's just one operation. Do [8:03] Speaker E (unidentified): you have an estimate on how much you're going to pull out of there? [8:06] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I don't at this time, but I can provide that as we move forward with the review. [8:30] Applicant's representative/consultant: I'm happy to provide a little overview from kind of my. Yeah, I'm with. So this is in the rural district, and there's a shoreland. A portion of the site is in the shoreland overlay zone. however all of that will be in the vegetative buffer, especially now that it's increased to 300 foot. It's proposed to be internally drained and there are notes for spill prevention, well monitoring, especially on the second page of the plan. You mentioned the operation hours, Monday through Friday 7am to 5.30pm and no more than 10 trucks during the peak hour. In my memo, I noted that the fire chief should review that and we received an email that will be shared as part of the record this afternoon that he didn't have any further concerns and accepted it. I have a few questions. if you could just speak to sort of noise compliance and there's one standard that just has a question about water quality protection specifically if it's if there's any aquifers in the area. [10:11] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Okay so regarding the aquifer, I didn't mean to cut you off. So, regarding the aquifer, we are an aquifer zone. We have the requirement that we have to maintain a five foot separation between the bottom of the pit and the seasonal high groundwater. Obviously, we will be making those measurements with the monitoring well that we'll have in that area to make sure that we maintain that minimum five foot separation from the seasonal high groundwater. Regarding noise, we have an excavator Trucks and stuff like that. And again, we're within the you know, the time frame of not have extending late in the afternoon Early in the morning So I think we meet the noise ordinance and have to check it but for standard work in that section of Monday through Friday [11:05] Speaker E (unidentified): What 's the number of trucks per day you estimated we hear 10 in an hour? [11:10] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I mean realistically, this is a small pit. I think Trust per day. I don't know but I'm guessing it's probably gonna be at the most probably 30 to 40 trips per day as it goes through that side but it's a it's a small pet operation so [11:36] Chair: what would you call a large pit at 30 to 40 trucks a day? oh geez a hundred, 120. I don't even think Gorham Sand and Gravel is pulling a hundred trucks an hour a day I don't think so yeah and they're huge yeah that's what [11:52] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I'm saying I don't think I don't get that I don't see that coming out of this [11:56] Chair: bit we'll [12:01] Speaker G (unidentified): be able to get some more realistic numbers on that okay yeah we [12:06] Chair: work up there those trucks be using coming in and out of a true yes is [12:15] Speaker F (unidentified): that Is that property part of any road association? [12:20] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I need to check that. I asked that for the attorney after we had the first meeting and I just didn't get any answer back from him because I don't know why, but I need to find out what it is. I'm assuming it is because it's all part of that area around that. I think all the roads, I don't know. I need to double check about that road association, how that gets connected in there. do [12:49] Speaker G (unidentified): we have any numbers for a site distance of your entrance onto on the [12:55] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): lakeside I can I can get it 's right at a point where you can see a ways and that's what we kind of had to discuss that with the fire chief a little bit too to make sure that he had access down through there but I will add site distance to the plan yeah the [13:16] Speaker E (unidentified): The deeds that were provided, one of them is the deed was given or bought by Great East Lake LLC. We need something that shows that Mr. Wiesel controls that. Okay. And then they talk about right-of-ways in those deeds. And I see your chart shows ATV trails, so I'm wondering if that's related to the right-of-ways and the deeds and how are we gonna control the ATV trails. Okay, I will get an answer on that. [13:59] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I don't believe the ATV trails are part of any kind of right-of-way as part of [14:03] Speaker E (unidentified): the property but I'll talk to the way it is you know it's gonna have to be some [14:07] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): sort of sign yes there will be some sort of signage of indicating that at the [14:11] Speaker G (unidentified): club yeah there's no matter how you fuel we're gonna want some sort of cement pad [Jeff Oliva: yeah so] what are we gonna you don't have a operation and maintenance plan provided to us a document that kind of goes through you know the basics of putting all these things into a written document yes I mean generally we do the [14:55] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): plan that has the notes on here for record lead record reclamation notes and the still prevention requirements and have that information on the plan set for those operation requirements. I think we have that on the second page. We've got buffer requirements, the SPCC notes, the general notes about operation and then the restoration requirements and the restoration guidelines for the project as it moves forward through the completion of the gravel work. [15:31] Speaker G (unidentified): So I'm looking on page 55 operations plans will include access roads construction and maintenance so you think you've got that covered on the drawings I think so we [15:44] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): don't mean our access road shown on here you've got your width here yep well I can add it with on there I don't think there's a dimension but you can scale [15:53] Speaker G (unidentified): off of that we've got a 16 foot wide entrance road yep that comes down into a [16:00] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): t that we talked about with the fire chief to be able to turn around on that space at the end for [16:06] Speaker E (unidentified): the vehicles yeah he's got the hand and head directions on the second page yeah number [16:14] Speaker G (unidentified): two description of operations processing and removal methodology yeah [16:28] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): we can get add a note to the operation no operation notes on that it's just perfect i guess go through the steps of cutting the timber, clearing and stockpiling the topsoil, do the excavation, screening, and hauling out. Basically, the operation process is a small, or for any graduate that. [16:49] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, so you don't plan on crushing any of the material. Do you have a note that indicates that? [16:55] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I can add a note for that, yeah. [17:03] Speaker G (unidentified): And it's gonna be completely commercial. It's not like you can just drive in there with your one ton and get material? [17:15] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Nope, no retail sales. [17:22] Speaker G (unidentified): Where is the material going to go? [17:26] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Wherever it's needed. I don't know where the VC that's going to do this is, where he's going to take the material, but somewhere most likely in Southern Maine [17:36] Speaker G (unidentified): for construction projects. So it would be a hodgepodge of just the construction site here? [17:42] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, exactly, yeah. That's what I'm saying. It's a, it's a, you know, it's a small pit. I don't see it being a high traffic generator or high demand aspect. Obviously they're going to go in there, get the material out as efficiently as possible, but that's how [18:02] Speaker E (unidentified): it's going to operate. How are you going to control dust? Well, we have the [18:06] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): standard BMPs from DEP through water treatment and calcium treatments on the dust that we need, where we need to wait. Is that on the plane? Because we have a note on the plan, but yeah, that's also the package [18:27] Speaker E (unidentified): and also washing wheels when necessary. There's a general thank you, but again, I think that's something we need a little more detail in oxfire, and it should be located on here, which would be able to get the dust out of the way. [19:07] Speaker F (unidentified): On the rules with the dust and control on it, does it bring you off the property, or is it only on its property line? [19:15] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Typically, if the trucks are creating a lot of dust leaving the property onto the road, all up the H road, then yes, those get treated as well on an as-needed basis for that. Yeah, the operator here wants to be a good neighbor for people around and able to, yeah [19:43] Speaker G (unidentified): number three, how [20:10] Chair: long is this pit gonna last for you think? Probably [20:19] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): two years, my guess [20:21] Chair: based on the size of it. I'm curious, I don't think it really all [Jeff Oliva: based on] demand, right? So I'm gonna be in there Monday through Friday, 7 to 5 30 at all times. It's just gonna be like, oh, work [20:44] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): today, yeah. I think, I think that's, it's gonna be a work today, I need this type of material, I know it comes out of this pit, I'm gonna go in there and work though, work for a couple days in there, get it out of there, and then come through. I don't see this being a, and in the beginning, yeah, will be operation because they need to clear it, get it staged, and start working on it, but I think as you make your way down in elevation, I don't see this being, you know, a full-time pit like some of the larger operations are in town. I'm not saying it won't be, but I don't see, foresee that with this [21:24] Speaker G (unidentified): Location, do you do you plan on specializing these notes on the second page to your particular pit hit? Because we still we're still looking at just counterback and performance standard notes. Yep, are you gonna specialize these notes for this? But I [21:43] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): think we can, I mean, I think most of those the standard notes apply no matter [21:46] Speaker G (unidentified): what anyways, right? But I mean, you know, just general, you know, number two there would be no crushing or screening on Saturdays and Sunday. I mean, you're not going to be open on the weekend, you're not going to be crushing, so we can have having this note on your plan is kind of it would be better if it was kind of custom tailored to [22:05] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): your pet. Sure, the reason i included that note in there is because it's basically those are your ordinance requirements as they stand and that's how it goes in there, so that's how why it's in [22:16] Speaker G (unidentified): there. Right, but yeah, if you just i can modify and get rid of that, yep, and said what you were going to do, sure, as long as it was within the yeah within the guidelines of the word guideline, these are basically the guidelines something here at 5.1, you know, you've got all debris stumps folded similar material be removed for disposal application or buried on site, and i just want to point out that we like to see all this stuff if it's not removed to be crushed and used for reclamation because we don't really want people bearing stuff anymore because it creates these voids underground that later in the future can somebody could fall into the thing, you know, things like that, which is if we could tailor these notes to this site moving down, it's said you're monitoring well as just one monitoring well or yep just one [23:17] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): monitoring well for our size here, and where is it? We have it up in the upper [23:25] Speaker G (unidentified): top of that, so it's not in the working pit area. No, and typically we don't put the monitoring [23:32] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): wells in the working pit area, put it off the edge so that we can get that groundwater elevation at that space at that location and be able to have a record for that, because then it's not disturbed as we move through, so it's usually off at the edge of the pit where we can maintain that and monitor that through the whole process of that. So that's why it's not like dead center of the gravel pit, because as you put that monitoring well in there, you got to work around it. I could potentially disturb that monitoring well, whereas having it over there, I can measure the groundwater and do that work as I get through. [24:13] Speaker G (unidentified): What's your method for making sure that the floor of the pit area is that five feet above the water table? [24:19] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Well, as we go through and we get that monitoring well and we'd have to report elevations, I believe, the enforcement, and that's going to help us set up. That pit floor is, you know, four feet higher than what I show us. [24:33] Speaker B (unidentified): Like quarterly, you know, is that what you're talking about? There's a black standpipe or something. Oh, okay. It sticks about five feet out of the ground. [24:48] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, so note six there, based on your ordinance, says that you go to your office within seven days of the measurement and the testing needs to be done between April 1st and May 31st, the wetest time of year. [25:14] Chair: How much fuel are you going to store? [25:17] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I don't think it's going to be that much. I don't know, but I'll find I'll get some more answers for the amount of fuel. [25:23] Chair: There may not even be [25:24] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): fuel stored there. They may just be able to have a fuel truck come in and do it and then we'll indicate a pad for that one. [25:30] Chair: In the SGCC notes, it says up to 500 gallons, but then I read down further, and it says, absorb approximately 100 gallons of petroleum-based fluids and 100 gallons of water-based fluids. So you could store up to 500, but you're only prepared for a 100-gallon leak, or spill, per se. [25:50] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, but if it's in a storage container, it's a contained system, but I can get clarification on that for the board and for town staff. [26:03] Speaker G (unidentified): Once again, Chris, those are notes that the town has in the ordinance. No, I know. So, you know, once he tailors that to this site, we would be more, better informed. Where is your home going to be stored? I [26:29] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): think we have some storage areas out there with which in sections that are already disturbed as we came coming through as we come into the pit there's an area that has been open and he trees and we're proposing to come in and replant within that hundred foot buffer coming into the into that side and then be able to use those existing open areas as stockpile and storage areas for that so as we work our way through we'll have some area for topsoil storage there on the plan right and in that storage area and then there's some stockpiles sections [27:16] Speaker G (unidentified): so you plan on hauling it out to hauling out there if it's into the entrance and getting [27:21] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): getting there and along the entrance, yes. [27:23] Speaker G (unidentified): Can you get those, get that on the plan? Sure. Well, aggregate's not lonely. That's why I was looking at that, but. And so then we're going down here through it. We still need proof of insurance. I think that was something that Anna Rosa pointed out in her memo. [28:10] Applicant's representative/consultant: Yeah, so it's one of the standards for this type of use. [28:31] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, I thought, typically, we'll. [28:33] Speaker G (unidentified): Operation notes, if we have to establish, you know, first, obviously you have insurance, but then also, you know, if we're gonna ask you for assuring, so to speak, and how much it would be for, in order to, you know, re-vegetate the site, if use was discontinued and the site was left open? [28:58] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Sure, no, I understand that part, yeah. I think one of the items there is that we typically handle that insurance and that surety bond through the code office after approval and that's part of the start of the project and that information is provided before any work happens on the project. [29:14] Speaker G (unidentified): I think we usually see the numbers before we move on. Okay, oh yeah,. [29:18] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Well, I'm saying that whatever that per acre value is assessed but that value that bond so to speak doesn't come in comes in with the bond and the insurance certificate to the code office after approval from [29:33] Speaker G (unidentified): here well that's going to get the ball in by me we need proof of insurance before we would prove a thing okay I mean just well I mean general liability [29:46] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): insurance no I understand I understand that part but usually that's provides to code outside but i can work on getting it to the board ahead of time [29:56] Applicant's representative/consultant: yeah i think i'll clarify that in this case it's not a application requirement it's written into the standard but that's up to the board to if you'd like to see it [30:08] Speaker G (unidentified): yeah well i mean [30:12] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): yeah i mean it needs to be provided it needs to be on file with the [30:15] Speaker E (unidentified): code file office anyways so yeah good you're also hiring a contractor to do [30:21] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): That's right, the contractor is going to be leasing that space. [30:24] Speaker E (unidentified): Do you know who it is, Jeff? [30:25] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): I don't know who it is. [30:29] Speaker E (unidentified): On the general notes, number seven on the second sheet, you just have traffic, what is that? [30:35] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, that's a, that needs to be finished and that needs to be included to talk about the maximum 10 trucks per hour. [30:43] Speaker E (unidentified): Right. And then an estimate of the total. [30:46] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Estimate of the total, yeah. [Speaker E (unidentified): And site distances.] And site distance, that will be on the site plan, yeah. Are [31:00] Speaker F (unidentified): you thinking the number you're going to come back with is going to be less than 10 trucks an hour? Is it generally done per day? [31:09] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah. He was trying to tell us what the max in one particular hour, we usually get it by day. Yep. [31:28] Speaker F (unidentified): The stockpile areas, I'm assuming that means you're pulling material out of there, stockpiling it there and then loading trucks from that area also? Or what is stockpile? [31:36] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Well stockpiles it would be like the loam area that loam and stuff like that and stuff that's not going to be truck most of the truck stuff is going to be out of the pit in that section that's just like over the storage area that we'll have in there i may have my conox box in that space in there but again the top soil in that side i don't want to bring material twice so i'm not going to bring it from the pit up into there and then take it out this way most of it's going to [32:05] Speaker F (unidentified): be there this is going to be just with you know with a labeled stockpile yeah to me i could be wrong and you could ask them or ask them but that means you're kind of you're in the buffers doing mining still not excavating in that side yeah you know it's not just a road coming into an area that [32:25] Board member (minutes reviewer): you're allowed to mine you're kind of bringing your production out of that area am i wrong by [32:32] Speaker G (unidentified): saying that yeah you're looking at you're looking at the red line right red line it shouldn't always be like it seems like this should be moved inside the 300 yeah all activity right [32:43] Speaker F (unidentified): i'm thinking there's a road coming in and that's why we have a buffer right so you get a road coming in and then boom your pit starts so everything within that pit that has anything [32:54] Speaker G (unidentified): to do with that should be in that area shouldn't it be yes okay but it says aggregate piles of [33:01] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): those existing yeah those are existing idea files okay that were that were done before [33:07] Speaker G (unidentified): so math kind of shows us what it's going to look like but it also shows us what it looks like now all at once that's right and so maybe i know we could either have two maps one of what it looks like now and what it's going to look like or we could just conform this map to what it's going to look like yeah where these aggregate piles would be either just trucked out so you could re-vegetate or moved into the floor of the pit yeah and i [33:36] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): think as that as we work our way in that kind of first thing taken out is there an issue with having the topsoil in those areas staged and protected in that yeah since it's disturbed [33:47] Speaker G (unidentified): already i think what i suggested last time was that you take the loam and make a berm along the edge of the upper part of the pit and it'll help buffer sound as well. [34:01] Board member (minutes reviewer): I think it's pretty clear on- I think it's a great idea. Yeah, no, that's not a bad idea. I think it's pretty clear too on page 56 right here in part D number one, [34:12] Speaker F (unidentified): no part of the extraction operation [34:16] Board member (minutes reviewer): is permitted within 300 feet except for drainage waste to reduce runoff. So it's pretty explicit there, so even in the case of material storage and that kind of thing, we have to make sure all parts of the operation are pulled inside the 300 foot buffer. So that was a good question. [34:40] Speaker G (unidentified): So maybe we'll get a note that says, we'll just get a note that says what's going to happen to these existing aggregate files. Yeah. [34:57] Chair: The loom that's all. The contractor is going to be there for, you know, early. He said, like, maybe 10 years. Is he going to be there? [35:06] Speaker F (unidentified): Do you have any idea how many people will be working in the pit at once, at the most? [35:10] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): How long time? I'd probably say maybe at the most three that are in there. You've got operator that is probably going to, you know, the operator of the machine. There will be trucks coming in and out that they load onto and that's plowed in. They [35:41] Chair: will be allowed to know the subcontractor. [35:48] Speaker G (unidentified): So we've got these statements from the Maine Natural Areas Program, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, but we still haven't had boots on the ground, correct? [36:02] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): They won't send boots on the ground unless they think that there's something there. [36:09] Speaker G (unidentified): Well, I think the board should consider having the area surveyed by a qualified professional to check these things because if no one's been in there, it's pretty hard to know, just [36:27] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): saying. Well, I mean, if I look at what we do for other projects with that is if there's a thought that they're, for the main natural areas that there's a plant that they're concerned about, and if it's in this area that they know of, and they know of plenty of them in southern Maine, and if it was close to there, then they would recommend that there be a site review. And the same with IFW for that, if there is. I've had many projects where, just like this, they say there's nothing that they're concerned of, and others where we do have a walk with the IFW people. if they deem it in their letter that there's not an impact. We typically don't have them come out for that. They won't come out for it. I know the IAW's too busy to be able to do that. [37:22] Speaker G (unidentified): I just want to point that out and so the board can think about it. [37:27] Applicant's representative/consultant: The applicant also submitted a letter. It was from Longview Partners from September 2025 where they had done a survey of wetlands, water bodies, stream segments, and other natural features. [37:43] Speaker G (unidentified): Yes. It's all that. It's all hummocks. So there's not much of that sort of wetland in there. [37:50] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Yeah, because that came out from the first review and discussions with IFMW is that they were concerned that looking at some of the area, if there were wetlands in there, and if there were wetlands, then they would want more review. We've had a lot of new partners go out, wetland scientists, and review the site, and there weren't. We sent that report up to the IMW, and this is what they responded with. [38:14] Speaker G (unidentified): Right, well, just right on here, I mean, the species listed aren't all specific to wetlands. [38:23] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): No, agreed, no, but. [38:24] Speaker G (unidentified): I granted there's not significant wetlands in there. It's all hummock so to speak or askers. I just wanted to, you know, put that out there for the boards. I feel like it's, it's always good to have someone boots on the ground before we have this sort of disturbance take place who [38:53] Speaker F (unidentified): would go out there if you can't get the state would [38:54] Speaker G (unidentified): be a scientist. Yeah, well, we could come up with a third party qualified individual, you know, wildlife biologists, botanists. Yeah, if the board thought that was necessary, you know. Sidewalk would be good. Excuse [39:28] Board member (minutes reviewer): my ignorance, Dave. How is Lakeside Drive maintained? [39:34] Speaker B (unidentified): It's not. I don't know. I don't deal with roads. Too rough at all. I could speak to that. [39:40] Chair: As far as I'm aware, it's a private association. [39:44] Speaker B (unidentified): Private because [39:50] Board member (minutes reviewer): I had this, yeah, I thought it was private, and if it's the town takes no responsibility over its maintenance, feel like, I feel like we need some type of rodent, like an engineer to basically come in and take a look at the area, determine whether, yeah, whether or not, like, the rope can handle, like, the, that level of traffic, if it's wide enough, because it's mostly, it's mostly residential back there. Does that give you permission today? We're not [40:30] Chair: going to see. Yeah, I [40:39] Board member (minutes reviewer): feel like a road engineer, yeah, there's something like that to go in there and take a look. I've been down that road plenty of times, yeah. [40:46] Speaker F (unidentified): It's rough on that side. It's like half hot tub, half dirt, half everything just. [40:51] Board member (minutes reviewer): And I just figured like, I'm not an expert in any of this. And so like the idea of like, you know, a ton of trucks going over it on a daily basis for a couple of years on end. [41:00] Speaker F (unidentified): I don't know, people walk in, it's kind of, it's a very narrow road. Yeah. [41:05] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, there's some factors, the size of the road. [41:10] Board member (minutes reviewer): Right. The, yeah, like it's width. The visibility. Exactly. You know, and then literally like the actual impact, the actual impact. Yeah, exactly, how much traffic is estimated as far as [41:27] Speaker G (unidentified): I know there is a full association, right? Yeah, I don't think just about you to one [41:31] Chair: on one and one on the other. I don't know if it comes in the middle. [41:39] Speaker E (unidentified): Can we ask Will to give an assessment? [41:45] Speaker B (unidentified): I can ask him because it's a private road. [41:50] Speaker G (unidentified): We'd have to ask a third party. [41:52] Board member (minutes reviewer): A third party engineer. You might be able to answer this if you work with anybody that you know off-hand. There's a road engineer that might be able to... [42:02] Speaker F (unidentified): Who would decide if a road is safe? [42:05] Speaker G (unidentified): Off-hand. That's kind of a step. What's your speed limit and things like this? [42:13] Speaker F (unidentified): But is there a standard for, you know, commercial use for private roof or how wide it needs to be or slopes or [42:21] Board member (minutes reviewer): Yeah, you're coming out of that pit here. You're outside my scope now. Class C. Yeah, that's that's kind of that's one of the big question marks in my head was we probably need a third-party engineer to go out and take a look at the actual infrastructure of the road itself. [42:57] Speaker G (unidentified): Well, that's something where I wouldn't be talking about this. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was just saying, when we're talking about escrows and things like that, 's something we would want to establish so that we could, if we have these third-party individuals, we would be able to establish an escrow. So we could pay for them so [43:20] Speaker B (unidentified): we have an escrow established right now. The applicant has one set up. Yeah, paying for north star consultant, whatever professionals, so on and so forth. If the board is in agreement, the one thing I would suggest is that we possibly have me reach out to town council first to see what authority we can have, because I don't, I don't know where that comes in with a private road, and I just, I would hate to see this overstep where we can't. I would maybe let me consult with him first, get an email out to him see what they think and get [43:56] Board member (minutes reviewer): a opinion back and maybe go from there. Yeah, get clarification with respect to the private road. It is pretty explicit in here in terms of the board's ability to request a third party engineer. [44:11] Speaker F (unidentified): And then what do we go with their opinion on it, or is there a standard? [44:18] Speaker E (unidentified): I don't know. Well, the expert will know. Yeah, I don't know. [44:21] Speaker F (unidentified): So do you want their opinion on what they feel would be best? [44:24] Board member (minutes reviewer): They'd probably be able to fill us in on what a standard is. Okay. I don't think they would refer us to it. [44:28] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah, I just don't know. [44:30] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, so that's what I was getting at. It's all private. If I contact the town council and wait until they understand how many fires are on H [44:37] Speaker F (unidentified): They might match to each road already with the existing pits. [44:43] Board member (minutes reviewer): Yeah, that's a good thought on the second order of effects. There's everything I can think of. [45:02] Speaker G (unidentified): Did you have an opinion on the general effect? [45:05] Applicant's representative/consultant: No, I don't have any questions for answers. I guess it's kind of through the discussion. [45:12] Board member (minutes reviewer): So you take them curiously? Yes. So it's a set of copious notes and requirements of the board. You kind of put it out there? Yeah. [45:21] Applicant's representative/consultant: We're getting a lot of notes. I think you have too, but I'll make sure that all of those get addressed. That there doesn't need to be action tonight. [45:33] Board member (minutes reviewer): No action this evening. [45:37] Speaker F (unidentified): I did have one more question just about the days that they're open. It talks about screening and crushing if we know the crushing will happen. It says not on the 4th of July or whatever. In there, so that means they can still call on the Fourth of July, that's [45:56] Speaker G (unidentified): how they currently work. Yep. Yeah, I mean, often we ask if the applicant is willing to take some of these holidays off, just in terms of, you know, like Monday, right? Yeah, and often they do. Most likely they're gonna be [46:10] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): taken off anyways, right? I mean, you know, just something to mention. Yeah, we've run. We've run into this in the past, you know, most of the contractors are closed on those holidays. The only time there would be a need for it is if there's an emergency. Like I've got a couple of clients that have stipulations in there so that, you know, the water line breaks in the middle of the night and they need to get material that can get in there. I'm not saying that for this one, but I'm just saying there's that kind of caveat out there for that. [46:45] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah. But I wouldn't mind seeing some give and take on that. You know, being a good member essentially. Yep. [46:58] Board member (minutes reviewer): All right, so would you mind, or Dave, I guess, would you mind CCing the board members on your notes? [47:06] Applicant's representative/consultant: I will send them. Yeah, that's fine. That sounds good. [47:13] Board member (minutes reviewer): So if there was anything that popped into anybody's head or whatever. [47:16] Speaker B (unidentified): Do you have a good list of notes of things that they want you to adjust? Yep. Yep. [47:20] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): No, I've got a list here. [47:23] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay. I don't know if you want to go over them before and check we got everything on it first or you want to just deal with it through and, yeah, it's up to you. [47:32] Speaker G (unidentified): If you want to read through your notes. [47:33] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Sure, yep, I've got, get rid of the phasing, give a volume estimate, talk about total trucks per day, add site distance to the entrance, find out the LLC control, look at rows right away deeds, indication close of the trails work on an operational plan details that added notes provides spill prevention pad or fueling pad on the details provide more information on storage fuel storage and clarifications on that talk to the client about closed on holidays you folks want to seek town council for road closure get rid of the stockpile area that's outside 300 foot area look at those sections modify the tunnel back and performance notes to be more project-specific and I have here just that traffic note on here give an approximate total traffic per day and then provides a little bit more information on dust and coal I [48:43] Board member (minutes reviewer): think you want to prove on the tracks right mm-hmm [Chair: yeah then] once you talk to Council does that need to be brought back before us in order to basically yeah to order [49:16] Speaker B (unidentified): it or not well what I'll do is I'll get a confirmation on that from them yeah and what we can and can't do, what not. Coordinate with you so that once you get all your things done, when we come back with a submit all, I hope to have the answer for that. It comes with that and then if you guys want to move from there, all right, we can. [49:36] Speaker E (unidentified): And once we get a total number of trucks estimate, we can talk to Will about the beach road. Yeah. [49:43] Speaker F (unidentified): Is there a way to get like a, want to know for sure, the board will know for sure somehow that this, it's 100% legal, that they're allowed to use the road the way they're looking to use it? [49:52] Speaker B (unidentified): I'm going to talk to town council and see what they have to say for an opinion. [49:56] Speaker F (unidentified): How about that also? Yeah, I don't know. [49:59] Speaker B (unidentified): I do not want to venture a guess on that. So I would rather get confirmation from them first. [50:06] Chair: They're not about to do that. [50:08] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): They have legal right to use the roads as they seem fit for their property. [50:13] Chair: But does your client, is he willing to say if it's damage from one of his trucks? [50:17] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Oh yeah, I think so. So I think if his trucks are causing damage, yeah, he's going to do something to repair it. He also has a camp right around the corner up here, too, on the same roads. [50:29] Speaker F (unidentified): So, yes. Is he allowed to repair it, though? [50:34] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): Typically, yes, if he has the rights on that. And then I guess we'll have to talk to him. You know what I mean? Yeah. [50:39] Speaker F (unidentified): If you're part of a road association or something, can you just go up and get a skid steer and start dumping dirt in there? [50:46] Jeff Oliva, Civil Consultants (applicant's engineer): There's probably a lot of people who need to coordinate with him. [50:48] Speaker E (unidentified): There's no folks that are currently in pain, yeah. We got a lot of conjecture on [50:54] Chair: the road. I think, I think we need to get the opinion and go from there. Yes. I'll second. Okay. All set. All right. Great. Do you think that all sets this time? Yeah. [51:12] Speaker G (unidentified): Okay. We'll get another draft and go from there. Yeah. All right. All right. Thank you all. [51:38] Chair: Does anyone, any public comments related to what is she or anything like that? [52:15] Speaker B (unidentified): No, once the board finds the application complete, which they have not done yet, we set a public hearing date at that meeting and it will happen. I said there's no pre-approvals, just finding the application complete, and then we move on to public hearing, preliminary reviews, and then we go on the final reviews from there once we do that, so now there's other steps. It's way before. Okay. Okay. There's a lot. All right. All right. Cool. Yeah, thank you. Wait,, wait. So it's out or it's out? Yeah, if you don't mind. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. If they want to. Yeah. [53:18] Chair: Folks, if you guys want to carry on outside, that's fine. We're trying to go all the two works, so next meeting [53:48] Speaker B (unidentified): I can show you, I don't have a way to give you a copy. I can lay your new and take pictures of it and stuff. But if you want to come in tomorrow or next week, come into our regular business hours and we'll let you take pictures of it. I'll pay my taxes anyways. Yeah, that's fine. 830 or 430, excuse me. 830 or 430, anytime you can. [54:06] Board member (minutes reviewer): All right, thank you. [54:14] Speaker B (unidentified): Yes, 15th, so. 15th we wanted to keep. Yeah, we wanted to keep that one pretty tight. I do have a greatest factor of extent on there. I don't believe that I will have them on there because he's got to get all the stuff done. He had to get it to me again 14 days prior, so he's on to me until November now. So yeah, right now I think all I have is a British practical extent, which I'm trying to remember what it was, don't exactly remember what it was for, but I think I recall you wanted this. You're probably one of the other couple, we get, you know, every day, I think. So I think it was you, with you and James, I just didn't know it. Yeah, and I don't think I don't want you either, but yeah, we got to get the verbiage going so we can try and do a public hearing. Yep, I did get my due date of December 16th. Yeah, so yeah, let's see how that goes. Yeah. [55:19] Speaker G (unidentified): It'll be the 4th of January pretty soon. [55:21] Speaker B (unidentified): I can totally get it. Not to mention, like I said, I do have to ship whatever we come up with to MOCA first to get their approval. And I think they just kind of do a quick review. But in the same sense, if we do a public hearing, they give it to Select Board, and they say yay, and MOCA comes back and says no for some reason, we're right back to the problem. [55:42] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, you've got to caveat when you do it. [55:44] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah. It is what it is. Okay. That's all I have. I don't know if you had anything extra for tonight, but I don't believe so. [55:52] Applicant's representative/consultant: I don't have anything else, though. That's great. Thanks, Andrew. [55:56] Chair: John? Move that we adjourn. I'll second. All in favor? All opposed? I think that's the most interesting thing I've seen.