Shelter Island Reporter editorial: Don’t pass the buck

Let someone else do it. We’ve got a lot on our plate.

That seems to be the attitude of the Town Board to shift accountability on protecting the Island’s wetlands to the Planning Board.

The process now is that the Planning Board makes recommendations to the Town Board on granting or denying permits to build or encroach on wetlands. Then the elected representatives of the Town Board make a decision. 

We hope the Board comes to its senses and doesn’t let a group of appointed — and not elected — officials pass final judgment on one of the Island’s most precious and endangered natural resources.

These resources are now “under siege,” according to former supervisor Art Williams, who is also a candidate in November for a seat on the Town Board. He’s not alone in using that right-on-the-money rhetoric.

The exact same phrase was used by Lori Beard Raymond, speaking on behalf of the Heights Property Owners Corporation (HPOC) at a recent Town Board meeting. Giving the responsibility to the Planning Board will result in “loosening of wetlands restrictions,” Ms. Beard Raymond said.

“We need more restrictions, not less,” she added, and was later joined by HPOC General Manager Stella Lagudis, who told the Town Board it should be making it more difficult for applicants to get wetlands permits.

“The wetlands are so precious,” Ms. Lagudis said, asking the Town Board to give more thought to the proposal.

At meetings and public hearings, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly in favor of keeping this essential duty with the Town Board.

Town Attorney Stephen Kiely said the idea was to “streamline” the process, and the Town Board has no environmental experts. Streamline, or not being responsible?

And as for not being experts, this is an extremely weak argument. Are the Town Board members hydrologists, with expertise in effluent flow and septic systems? No, but they have looked at the issue of the poisoning of the Island’s groundwaters and have made a case to solve an extremely difficult problem. Would they leave that decision to the Planning Board?

Of course not.

They have been elected to lead, not follow. They should retain their oversight of the wetlands and show leadership — through study, debate and knowledge — by being the guardians of the Island’s wetlands.