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-DRAFT MINUTES-

THESE DRAFT MINUTES HAVE BEEN PREPARED BY STAFF AS A RECORD OF WHAT OCCURRED AT THE MEETING. AT THE NEXT MEETING, COUNCIL MEMBERS WILL REVIEW THESE MINUTES AND MIGHT MAKE CORRECTIONS BEFORE APPROVING THEM. READERS SHOULD RELY ON THE APPROVED VERSION FOR A COMPLETELY ACCURATE RECORD.

Minutes of the meeting of the May 8, 2018 Subcommittee on the New Britain Watershed Environmental Study, held in Conference Room C of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, located at 10 Franklin Square in New Britain.

SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Alicea Charamut, Kip Kolesinskas

ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Peter Hearn (Environmental Analyst)

Charamut made a motion to convene the meeting which was seconded by Kolesinskas and the meeting was convened at 2:10 PM. Charamut asked for an update from Kolesinskas and Hearn, who had participated in a site visit of the proposed New Britain Reservoir site, which she had been unable to attend. Kolesinskas described the habitats visited and the uniqueness and ecological significance of them. Hearn said the visit made more clear the topography. He said the person conducting the tour was quite frank about the potential threat to the vernal pools and their inhabitants from loss of forest cover due to the proposed quarrying.

Charamut suggested reviewing the minutes of the preceding subcommittee meeting before moving on to a discussion of the draft report on the New Britain Watershed Environmental Study. Both co-chairs read the minutes. Kolesinskas made a motion to approve the minutes of the April 30 Subcommittee meeting. This was seconded by Charamut and the minutes were approved.

Hearn said he would like to be sure that there is agreement on the three main points of the draft that was last sent to the sub-committee before discussion of the suggested modifications. There was such agreement. Hearn added that he would like to expand the summary which appears in the beginning. There was no objection. Kolesinskas said that the additions he had made to the last draft did not appear clearly as edits when it was sent, so he circled them on a hard copy which he provided to Charamut and Hearn to review. Charamut provided hard copies of her suggested revisions and said she would send them to Hearn in a digital version for inclusion in the report.

It was agreed that Hearn would try to complete a final draft by the end of the week to be sent to the subcommittee and that additional modifications would be by email exchange. Charamut mad a motion to that effect, which was seconded by Kolesinskas and it was approved. It was agreed that the Council’s Executive Director, Karl Wagener, would be copied on the draft documents. It was not anticipated that there would be a need for another meeting before the full Council meets on May 23.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:58 PM pursuant to a motion by Charamut which was seconded by Kolesinskas.