by Frank Schroth

At their last meeting the Board of Selectmen agreed to a request from the Conservation Commission to conduct a habitat survey of the town farm as part of a peer review the Commission would conduct of a study being done by New England Environmental, Inc. The issue is determining if there are any rare or endangered species (e.g spotted salamanders, lady slippers) that would be damaged by the work Pulte is doing.

Pulte is performing some preliminary engineering analysis. This includes borings to determine characteristics of the ledge on the property. The concern of the Conservation Commission as explained by Commission members Judith Kemp and Michael Blute is that they do not know what is there and therefore what might be damaged by the equipment and work that Pulte is performing.

Pulte had appeared before the Conservation Commission and heard this concern directly from them. They agreed to do a complete habitat study and from comments made by representatives of NE Environmental, they have already begun. There was some disagreement on two points; New England Environmental agree to do the study and also agreed to fund a peer review of that study. However, Con Comm wanted their own firm to perform their study simultaneously. NE Environmental did not agree with that approach. NE Environmental also wanted to understand the process and choice of an independent third party to perform the peer review.

The Board of Selectmen agreed on the need for a peer review and the reasons for the habitat study. However, they did not see an issue with the process as recommended by Pulte and NE Environmental. They gave approval to the Conservation Commission to hire a firm and walk the property as part of peer review. Pulte will have opportunity to review the Commission’s selection,