Minutes of the 4/7/05 Meeting

Official Town Representatives present: Terry Dancy, Town of New London;
Suzanne Levine, Town of Newbury; Steve White, Town of Sunapee; Cynthia Hayes &
Joanie Horning, Town of Springfield.

The meeting began with a review of the agenda. This was followed with a memorial
commentary about Pen Meyer, a SAWC representative from Goshen. She was very
concerned about environment in the area and very active in the community.

Vicky introduced the idea of watershed tour(s); it would be good to get a first hand look
at parts of the watershed and could be "field trips" for future meetings. At the next
meeting, of primary importance on the agenda will be deep discussions about the
concerns, issues, and problems of the watershed.

Robert Wood gave a presentation which described and summarized the NH DES
watershed GIS-based data. DES presented this infor mation earlier in the month.
Fundamentally, it covers the entire state, by subdividing into 81 "HUC 10" units. These
are hydrologic -based and approximate watershed separations. We are in "HUC 10",
which is 275 square miles, and approximates the Sugar River Watershed. The Lake
Sunapee watershed is a subset of HUC 10, referred to as HUC12, and is 50 square
miles.

There were 25 variables involved in the data, based on USGS variables that have been
collected over the entire country. The variables had been ranked according to
importance, with population growth being #1, percentage of natural lands as #2, road
density #3 tied with percentage of forest headwaters.

Our area is a priority in the "threatened" category, one of the top two. The other two
categories are "in need of restoration" and "in need of protection". The next steps
relative to this data is a list of additional data relative to GIS topography, together with
additional variables that might be considered for our area’s needs.

Woody, Aimee Ayers, and Kak Weathers are refining a list of data that would be
specific to the SAWC area. For example, the addition of land use data, combining
topographical maps, water resource locations such as aquifers, and flow data.

During the resulting discussion, the point was made that it would be helpful to make
the data understandable to the towns. Perhaps one area could be reviewed each
month during the SAWC meeting. A renewed topic is well water quality—location of
wells, water quality measures, etc.

The Mission statement committee presented three alternatives. The middle choice,
which was a combination of the other two won agreement. Important concepts were:
education, awareness, stewardship, cooperation, actions such as implement and
create; along withy being effective. B. Thomas will make small changes and republish.
Generally, the mission statement was accepted:

To raise community awareness of important issues concerning the Lake Sunapee
watershed and surrounding areas, to formulate clear guidelines for stewardship and
responsible development of the water resources in those areas, and to promote
cooperation among Sunapee watershed towns in using those guidelines to enact
coherent, effective programs to address the salient issues.

To raise community awareness of important issues concerning the Lake Sunapee
watershed and surrounding areas, to formulate clear guidelines for responsible,
long-term stewardship of the water resources in those areas, and to promote
cooperation among Sunapee watershed towns in using those guidelines for the
implementation of programs effective in addressing the salient issues to the common
benefit of the area communities.

J. Fichter summarized the Communication Committee’s meeting. The group discussed the
content for communications in general and this structure held well for the layout for the
website. The communication topics included: history and background of the watershed
approach; SAWC’s organization, reports and membership; updates, news, and press
releases; Watershed information, "encyclopedia", and forum; Watershed issues or "hot
topics", with perhaps the "Issue of the month". Also discussed was the idea to invite
articles from others and experts on water-systems, and relevant topics. With regard to the
website, also discussed were links-from the town sites, from member organizations’ sites,
and NHLA.

Also discussed were other modes of communication such as newspapers, cable -TV,
posters at post offices, and town locations (town hall and dump), radio, email and
newsletters. Newsletters could be quarterly and mailed to all town members, which would
total about 11,000.

The point of communications would be who we are, SAWC’s mission and goals, progress,
events, committees and volunteer opportunities, feedback, and general education.

Ken Lawson presented the website he designed, which is very impressive and received a
round of applause! It has some content from LSPA’s watershed newsletter and meeting
notices, agendas, and press releases. It was noted that all member town websites should
eventually have links to SAWC’s site. The website does not yet have its own domain name,
and is available primarily for members at this point.

S. Landrigan noted that a domain name and webpage service could be a minimal cost.
When a domain name is obtained, a small PR campaign will be planned to introduce the
website. Also discussed was feedback from the site-in terms of number of hits, and more.

Other: Drinking Water Workshop, DES, May 12th, 9-3:30, registration required, will
cover local water protection, BMPs, zoning rules, 271-0688