Conservation/Environment

• Council representative to Recreation, Trails and Open Space Committee, a broad stakeholder committee charged with developing a plan for 8oo acres being returned to the town of Brunswick for conservation and recreation as a result of the closure of the naval air station.

• Council representative to the Land For Brunswick’s Future Board (LBF). LBF was created as a result of a 2006 advisory referendum that asked whether citizens favored creating a one million dollar fund for the purposes of acquiring and preserving open space in a manner consistent with the 2002 Open Space Plan, including both active recreation and conservation land.  Although the citizens approved the referendum, LBF remains unfunded.

• Assisted Brunswick Area Citizens for a Safe Environment (BACSE, a federally funded watch-dog charged with monitoring superfund clean-up on the former Navy Base) in reaching compromise language with the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority for ordinance language for the new town zoning districts on the base.  The language requires continued clean-up in a manner consistent with EPA superfund requirements and other existing environmental standards.
• Sponsored council item to purchase the “Coombs” property.  This 24 acre parcel along the Androscoggin was purchased as a joint venture between LBF and the Brunswick Topsham Land Trust (BTLT).  Adjacent to town owned land surrounding Coffin Pond, it is one more step in the conservation corridor envisioned by the town’s 2002 Open Space Plan to run along the Androscoggin from the bike path to the Durham line.  As a result of grant restrictions preventing BTLT from raising the entire purchase price, the Town of Brunswick appropriated the funds from a restricted use development impact fee account to make the down payment.  No taxpayer money used.  Once BTLT raises the remaining money (December 2012) to complete the purchase the land will be conveyed to the town with a conservation easement.  Creative funding and partnership with BTLT allowed for acquisition of this property even in the absence of LBF funding.

• Supported Kermit Smyth’s application for reappointment to conservation commission.
• PACE subcommittee (a state program providing low interest loans for energy efficiency upgrades).
• Sponsored new ordinance allowing “urban chickens.”
• Member, Brunswick, Conservation Commission, 1993-94.
• Member, BTLT, CREA, NRCM.
• Voted against 2010 municipal budget due to elimination of our Natural Resource Planner from planning department budget and elimination of Recycling and Sustainability Coordinator (Dep. Dir. of Public Works).  News coverage of that 2010 vote is here.

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