Conservation restriction passes at Lenox Town Meeting

LENOX – A conservation restriction (CR) on the town’s watershed land was approved at the annual town meeting by only four votes.

The meeting, which was held on May 2 in the Lenox Middle and High School auditorium, began with an awards presentation for the firefighters involved in responding to the April 11 fire at the Curtis Hotel. The firefighters received two standing ovations in what was a dignified, yet emotional, ceremony.

The town meeting warrant had 24 articles on it this year, and they all passed.

There was a lengthy discussion between resident David Naseman and School Committee Chairman Don W. Fitzgerald on school choice and objections from some townspeople to Article 19, which funded the town’s defense against the lawsuit over the Kennedy Park Belvedere.

However, only Article 22, which authorized the town to enter into a CR, received any significant debate. Aside from Article 22, all articles passed by comfortable margins.

Debate on the CR lasted for nearly an hour, with impassioned arguments from those on both sides of the issue.

The crux of the debate centered on philosophical issues, chiefly whether it was acceptable to tie the hands of future generations in order to  safeguard the scenic quality of the watershed and whether or not the watershed should be managed for water alone.

Those speaking in favor of the CR included Conservation Commission Chairman Neal Carpenter, Selectman John McNinch and Tad Ames, president of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC), which will be coholding the restriction with the conservation commission.

“We are not giving this land away, it is still Lenox land,” said Selectman McNinch.

Mr. Ames gave an extensive presentation on how the town’s watershed protection committee came to the conclusion a CR was necessary to protect the watershed lands, as well as some of the details of the CR itself.

He made a particular point of highlighting ownership and control of the land would remain with the town under the CR, as well as the hands-off nature of the CR in regards to the water department and waterworks expansion.

“We took great pains to make sure that the waterworks and their function would not be interfered with or impeded…by the conservation restriction,” Mr. Ames said. “We don’t want to be in each other’s hair on an important public asset like a water supply.”

“I have a sense that very few people have actually read the document,” said Planning Board Chairwoman Kathleen McNulty-Vaughn, speaking as a private resident. “There’s no change in ownership, this is just a deed restriction.”

Ms. Vaughn also expressed distress at those criticizing the character and role of the BNRC in the CR and praised the organization.

Opposition

Those speaking out against it included Water Department Foreman Rick Fuore, Department of Public Works Head Sean VanDeusen and former selectman Richard Piretti.

“The most important source of protection of town ridges and watersheds is our own town meeting form of government,” said Lenox Green-Rainbow Party Chairman Scott Laugenour in declaring his and the party’s opposition the article.

“We were here not that long ago with the same proposal,” said Mr. Piretti, referring to the proposed CR on watershed lands defeated at town meeting three years ago. “We need to keep it in our hands, it’s our piece of property.”

“I want to encourage all of you to think hard of who will be doing the protecting [of the watershed land],” said Mr. VanDeusen. “Will it be you and I and the future generations of Lenox to control our town’s destiny? Or will it be a third party not a resident organization not beholden to the democratic process? Forever.

“I’d argue that our town, including the department of public works can police itself, and it has.”

The vote was conducted by a show of ballots, and the results had to be confirmed by a calculator.

Requiring a two-thirds majority, the article passed by a vote of 238 to 112. (For the article to pass, 234 votes were required.)

“I’ll probably be dead, but there’ll come a point when this’ll come back and bite us in the rear end,” said Mr. Piretti, when asked his reaction to the results.

“I’m really happy that it happened,” said Selectman McNinch, who also served on the watershed protection committee which helped draft the CR. “This puts the whole Yokun Ridge…as protected property. I think it’s great.”

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on May 9, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry