Finance Committee - 04/07/2021 Page 6
One of the other things that we do for Invasive Species Management, if you haven’t read in the packet, is we
also have a bit of an issue on the Nashua River with water chestnuts. So we typically clear those by hand. So |
get some volunteers to come out and help in July and August, if anyone is interested feel free to shoot me an
email and I'll let you in on that fun event. But for now with the milfoil and the curly leaf pond weed we usually
do the spraying of the invasives.
Mayor Donchess
Any questions, comments from the Committee? Alright, Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll?
Alderwoman Kelly
| see that Alderman Laws’ hand is up.
Mayor Donchess
Who did?
Alderwoman Kelly
Alderman Laws had his hand up.
Mayor Donchess
Alderman Laws.
Alderman Laws
Thank you Mayor. | believe | asked this question last year and you'll have to forgive me because | have a
terrible memory. But is there a chance, | mean is there a job opportunity here where we can just hire
somebody full time to maintain our waterways and take care of all of these things, because $78,000.00 sounds
like a salary to me.
Ms. Chisholm
Well if | may.
Mayor Donchess
Yes, please go ahead.
Ms. Chisholm
We hire this company as recommended by the State. You do have to have very specific licenses in order to be
an herbicide applicator as you would with any type of invasive species whether it is on the land or in the water.
So part of my job is to oversee that as the Waterways Manager. If they wanted to pay me an extra $78,000.00
to apply that, if you’ve ever seen, | posted a video on Community Development Facebook page in the past.
They actually have an airboat that they use to do the applications. They have a GPS unit that tracks where the
boat goes so they can see exactly where the application goes. So | think that perhaps the upfront cost to be
able to do that might be a little on the steep side, I’m willing to look at it though, the air boat is kind of cool. But
yeah | do remember that you had asked that question last year. So you know the $78,000.00 is for their labor,
but it is also for the herbicide, it’s also for the use of the boat and the equipment. And they are pretty quick
with it.
