The Conservation Commission met Wednesday night to discuss Beth El Cemetery’s vegetation management plan.
Director of Community Development Curt Bellavance was present to discuss the plan and outline the cemetery’s goals.
Bellavance first mentioned the Independence bike path that is being worked on with the state for an expansion.
“Part of the bike path will cross over their (Beth El Congregation) property over near the Proctor Brook, which is adjacent to the Interstate 95 right-of-way,” he said.
Bellavance explained that he recently took over the project as the last person running the project got a new job in Marblehead.
“We’ve been working with them closely. … I started working with the cemetery closely in regards to this. Part of the project is already approved through the Conservation Commission with an order of conditions,” he said.
Bellavance then explained that the cemetery had asked him about doing some work at the cemetery for some cleanup or grounds maintenance.
“I had asked them what they wanted to do, and they drafted up a plan that they wanted to do. … Several areas that they’re looking at doing are in the buffer zone area,” he said.
He explained that they aren’t looking to change anything in the wetland area.
Commissioner Bruce Comak said he’d consider this normal maintenance.
“There’s a lot of trees that have overgrown into the cemetery, but the bases of those trees are … on the edge of the buffer. The cemetery itself is in the buffer. There’s a lot of dangerous overhanging trees, they want to remove those. Some of them can be pruned, but some of them pruning them would be the wrong thing to do … they should just be removed,” Comak said.
He continued that they also want to stabilize a drainage ditch.
“If they don’t stabilize it, it’s going to be a problem,” he said. “It’s just normal maintenance. They want to just mow an area that hasn’t been mowed along the roadway and make it a regular lawn. There’s some work involved in that, but there’s no danger to any wetland at all.”
He said the buffer is probably 50 to 60 feet from the wetland.
In the end the commission voted to approve the maintenance work.
