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Peabody conservation commission approves cemetery maintenance agreement tied to bike-path work
Summary
The Peabody City Conservation Commission voted 5-0 June 11 to formalize a maintenance agreement allowing Temple Bethel’s cemetery to perform vegetation work in wetland buffer areas, with conditions from two commissioners and coordination with a planned Independence Bike Path project.
The Peabody City Conservation Commission unanimously voted June 11 to formalize a maintenance agreement letting the Bethel Congregation Cemetery perform vegetation maintenance within the wetland buffer adjacent to Procter Brook, including removal of dangerous overhanging trees, limited mowing, a shallow electrical conduit trench for sprinkler controls, and stabilization of a drainage ditch.
The vote came after staff and cemetery representatives described the work as “normal maintenance” and said the activity would be confined to the buffer area; commissioners also attached conditions drawn from site-walk memoranda by Commissioners Bruce Komack and Mike Rizzo. Kurt Bellavance, director of community development and planning for Peabody City, said the cemetery’s cleanup plan grew out of coordination with the city’s Independence Bike Path project and prior work by city staff: “By introduction, my name is Kurt Bellavance. I am the director of community development and planning for the city of Peabody.”
The cemetery and city have been coordinating because a segment of the Independence Bike Path will cross cemetery property near Procter Brook, Bellavance told the commission. David Ankeles, representing the cemetery, thanked city staff and commissioners for the site visit and cooperation: “I'd like to... thank Kurt and, commissioner Komack and commissioner Rizzo for the time and the effort that they put into this.” Bruce Komack, who walked the site with Commissioner Rizzo, told the panel the requested tasks were routine: “It's just what I would consider normal maintenance.”
Commissioners said the planned work sits mainly in the regulated 100-foot buffer and is roughly 50 to 60 feet from flagged wetland limits. Komack and Rizzo recommended limiting activity to clearly mapped areas and memorializing the constraints in a maintenance agreement. Commissioners noted Peabody Municipal Light Plant (PMLP) will cut two poles at their base and cemetery contractors will trench a shallow conduit — described in the meeting as about two feet deep and backfilled the same day — for a sprinkler control line to avoid repeated overhead wire repairs.
The commission voted 5–0 to “formalize the memorandum” permitting the cemetery to carry out the maintenance described in the application and in the commissioners’ site-walk memoranda. The motion was made by Secretary Michael Vivaldi and seconded by Commissioner Arthur Athas. Chairman Stuart Lazarus, Secretary Vivaldi, Commissioner Komack, Commissioner Athas and Alternate Commissioner Jamie Harrop (voting in place of absent members) all voted yes.
The commission directed its staff to prepare a maintenance agreement that incorporates the site-visit conditions drafted by Komack and Rizzo and to present the draft to the commission. Bellavance and the cemetery attorney said other state permits still apply for separate parts of the bike-path work (for example, Chapter 91 or other state-level approvals for work in waterways), and that those state permits are being pursued independently of the maintenance agreement.
The maintenance agreement will allow cemetery staff and contractors to perform the described upkeep while requiring adherence to the conditions set by the commission and memorialized in the agreement.
