Anyone Else Volunteer for the Conservation Commission?

GEORGETOWN – It is not unusual for a city mayor or chair of the town’s selectboard to end a meeting asking for volunteers to serve on various boards or commissions. There never seems to be enough citizens to go around.
But not here in Georgetown, particularly when it comes to filling vacancies on the town’s Conservation Commission (ConCom), which regulates land uses and administers the wetlands bylaw.
When veteran ConCom chair Carl Shreder was asked to resign by the SelectBoard Chair Amy Smith earlier this year, it left a vacancy on the seven-member ConCom that the SelectBoard tried to fill at its meeting earlier this month.
Both Steve Epstein, an attorney who has served on several town boards and is a Town Meeting member, and Laura Repplier, who served nine years on the ConCom before the SelectBoard voted not to reappoint her, volunteered to fill the vacancy.
But the five-member elected SelectBoard decided to appoint neither.
Epstein was considered by some Select Board members as too argumentative in previous appointments. Repplier was rejected because she was considered too close to Shreder and other members of the commission that Select Board member Doug Dawes described as too “antagonistic” to proposed developments.
Appointing Repplier again, Smith said, would be like “getting the band back together.” That band was considered too anti-development by several vocal residents.
The issue is how strictly the commission will adhere to the town’s wetlands bylaw. Shreder was considered too strict in his interpretation of the bylaw. Dawes, an advocate for less stringent interpretation of the bylaw, proposed that the commission allow more “wiggle room.”
Rachel Bancroft, a SelectBoard member and vice chair of the ConCom, joined SelectBoard member Robert Hoover in saying the bylaw does not permit lax interpretation of the town rules.
After a lengthy discussion, Smith proposed to reject both Epstein and Repplier. That means the town must now look for other candidates for the commission vacancy.
It is not the first time the SelectBoard left vacancies on the ConCom. Before the last SelectBoard election, it refused to reappoint Rebecca Chane, a veteran ConCom member, and Repplier. After the makeup of the SelectBoard changed, Chane was reappointed and now serves as its chair. Ida Wye, who owns a landscape architecture firm, was also approved, after the makeup of the SelectBoard changed.
The ConCom did not meet last week because some notices were not posted properly. When it meets again, it is expected to discuss its next steps in dealing with the state Land Court’s decision to permit the G. Mello Trash Disposal Corp. to build a 500-ton transfer station near protected wetlands.
The commission will meet probably in January to decide whether to continue the fight against the controversial transfer station. The Board of Health and the Planning Board have approved permits for the station.