Two Agencies To Divide Former Conservation Commission Duties

By Andrew Gorosko

Two separate appointive town agencies will now be performing the duties formerly handled by the Conservation Commission, town Conservation Official Rob Sibley said this week.

The government structure revisions follow town ordinance changes that were made by the Legislative Council. The council started reviewing the restructuring proposal last fall.

Conservation Commission members sought the split to allow the town to better handle the many duties that the agency had acquired over the years. The town formed that panel in 1963.

The seven-member agency, which has been known as the Conservation Commission, will now be known as the Inland Wetlands Commission. That panel will address the protection of local wetlands and watercourses; will review forest practices applications; will serve as the town’s aquifer protection review agency; and will act as the local agency administering the state’s aquifer protection regulations.

As the town’s aquifer protection review agency, the panel makes recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z), which acts on measures proposed to protect the Pootatuck Aquifer, which is the source of two local public water supplies.

The ad hoc town panel known as the Open Space Task Force has dissolved and people who have served on that agency are becoming members of the newly constituted Conservation Commission. The meeting schedule for that agency is not yet set.

As the former Conservation Commission acquired increasing duties over the years, the agency spent less and less of its time in dealing with pure “conservation” issues, explained Mr Sibley. The panel spent a large majority of its time addressing wetlands and watercourses protection issues, he said.

Consequently, the Open Space Task Force, which was an informal town panel, addressed many of those “conservation” issues, he said.

The governmental restructuring will allow “conservation” issues to be addressed by a formal panel to be known as the Conservation Commission, he said. “Ad hoc” panels such as the Open Space Task Force are created by the selectmen without town ordinances specifying their operation.

The new Conservation Commission will focus on natural resources protection. It will work to protect natural and scenic resources; protect streams and water supplies; conserve wetland areas; preserve and index open space areas; create opportunities for public recreation; preserve historic sites; implement the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development; and promote “‘smart growth.”

Splitting the former Conservation Commission into two agencies also is viewed as a way to eliminate possible legal conflicts of interest posed when one agency holds too many different functions.

Last October, Conservation Commission Chairman Sally O’Neil explained to the Legislative Council the commission’s desire to split its various functions between two agencies in the face of an increasing workload. Ms O’Neil then said that the appointive Conservation Commission had accumulated many duties over the years that exceeded its original charge.

A division of duties between two appointive agencies would lead to a better functioning town land use system, according to Ms O’Neil.

The newly formed Inland Wetlands Commission will have as members Donald Collier, Dr Philip Kotch, Sally O’Neil, Anne Peters, Katja Pieragostini, and Wesley Gillingham. There is one vacancy.

The newly formed Conservation Commission will have as members Patricia Barkman, Marjorie Cramer, George Ferguson, Joseph Hovious, Mark Sheldon Lurie, Caraleigh Wilson, and Martha Wright.

The selectmen made the appointments to the two agencies on May 1. The new members’ terms of office will start on May 6. New members must be sworn into office before sitting on the agencies.