LEWISTON — Nearly an hour of the Town of Lewiston’s board meeting on Monday was spent on a public hearing regarding Local Law 2024-4, which would eliminate the town’s environmental conversation commission and fold its duties into the town planning board.
While residents who spoke questioned the need to eliminate the commission with lurking environmental dangers in Lewiston, town Supervisor Steve Broderick argued the change would correct some of its deficiencies.
“We’re not getting rid of environmental oversight,” Broderick said. “We’re changing focus to where it’s best served.”
The Lewiston Environmental Conservation Commission was formed back in 1991 as the town had no mechanism to enforce environmental ordinances. Its more recent meetings had since fallen into a sense of complacency, mainly becoming reviews of one-lot subdivisions.
Chairman Zach Collister said issues arose when projects stopped being presented to the commission and members not having a full grasp of town code. But he felt they needed more legislative powers to properly bring entities like CWM and Modern Disposal to task if such issues arise.
“I know that streamlined government is a good thing, but not when it’s kicking the bucket over,” said Collister.
Other commission members acknowledged that they needed to do better, with the commission meeting less frequently after former chairman Jerald Wolfgang died in January 2023.
“I understand that you want to streamline government, but this doesn’t seem to be the right way to do it,” said commission member Brock Davy. “It would have been incumbent upon everyone to come to us and say, ‘This is how we’d like you to improve,’ instead of just deciding to throw everything out.”
“I think we can all agree over the years, there were some poor leadership decisions when it comes to environmental issues,” commission member Matt Feldman added. “The decision to eliminate a distinct environmental commission will be one of those poor leadership decisions.”
A guest view from commission members printed in the Gazette argued that such a change would reduce the town’s environmental oversight, which would threaten its ecological integrity and the quality of life for residents.
Broderick’s reasoning for the change was the commission was not doing the environmental oversight work it was designed for, he and Councilman Rob Morreale noted it had neglected many duties. That includes the commission having to submit a year-end update every year, having not done so since 2013 and that was just that year’s agendas stapled together.
“For people to paint a wonderful picture that the environmental board is doing all these wonderful things, I hate to say they haven’t (done) that,” Broderick said. “We’re trying to get that to where it’s going to happen.”
Former board member Bill Geiben, who previously served on the environmental commission in the 1990s, spoke in favor of the change as a way to focus on hot topics and be more proactive.
The new Planning and Environmental Review Board, formed from the merger would have seven members with seven-year terms. That board, Broderick said, would have a subcommittee of environmental experts made up of current environmental conservation commission members.
Regarding the environment, the law reads the new board would investigate and report on any environmental problems that might endanger the town, advise the town board on matters that could affect natural and man-made features, and make recommendations to the town board on town code changes among other duties.
No action was taken on Monday with Broderick saying they will continue working on the issue next meeting.