ConCom seeks funding to defend against town-issued lawsuit
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

In a meeting with Selectmen on Wednesday, the Westminster Conservation Commission asked for the money to hire an attorney to defend themselves against a lawsuit filed by the town.

The meeting, which occurred after press time, is being held because the Conservation Commission is expecting be served before May 12, with a lawsuit by the town appealing their denial of a proposed access road for the Crocker Pond Recreation area.

"The town has left us no choice but to seek our own counsel, and to seek funding for counsel, unless they decided not serve us," said Lois Luniewicz, the chairwoman of the commission.

The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court on Feb. 12, according to court records. The deadline for serving the papers is 90 days after the papers are filed.

"We do need an appropriation from the town to pay our counsel," Luniewicz said.

The Commission has found an attorney that is willing to represent them, but the committee needs to be able to access funds to pay the attorney. The town's legal expenses usually come out of a general account that is separate from departmental budgets. As of press time, Commission members would not reveal the attorney's name, or how much they think attorney's fees would cost.

"We made the only decision we could make. They presented this as a limited project, it does not meet the definition," Luniewicz said of the ConCom's decision.

The proposed road would start on Route 2A/State Road East (near TRW) and run close to the discontinued Depot Road at a nearly parallel path to the railroad tracks, before cutting toward the pond near the Frog Pond and entering the parking lot from the north.

"They have an acceptable entry to the Crocker Pond area. There was no other decision we could make," Luniwicz said. "The [local] bylaw is actually secondary to that but it is still impacted by that."

The Commission, according to the denial, rejected the project because "the proposed work cannot be conditioned to meet the performance standards set forth in the wetlands regulations."

"The Commission was told by both Whitman and Bingham and the Board of Selectmen that the timeframe for utilizing the existing roadway was limited and that in order to access the recreation area this roadway must be built," reads the decision.

The town's deed shows that there is 24-7 access permitted over the bridge running from South Ashburnham Road to the existing parking area.

Selectmen said in previous interviews that the permission for access was granted with the understanding that the town would build a new primary entrance from Route 2A.

The decision also lists a number of other issues the Commission had with either the presentation of the plans or the designs themselves, including that they believed more than 17,000 square feet of wetlands would be disturbed by this project. Another is that the Commission did not want to grant the town a variance for its own bylaw stating there needs to be a 25-foot setback from a water body.

The Selectmen filed an appeal with the state Department of Environmental Protection in January after the Commission rejected the plans for a proposed road.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has made a site visit as part of it review process and is waiting for a decision on a separate review of the proposed plan from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office.

"We more or less suspected that they would have to go forward with the Superior Court Appeal as well," Luniewicz said.