11/12/1998 CONSERVATION COMMISSION Minutes

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12 November 1998 Page 5. thing is ars issue near and dear to his heart. The only reason he acquiesced to working with Town Counsel on this truncated format is to get. an agreement in place prior to September 801h to protect the ova's abihty to get hose funds. One of the things that was successful in working with having g Elliot on the team and trying to get the money increased and did get it up to over $200,000 which is a fair amount for those two years. He is troubled by the fact that when presented to the military, the Board of Selectmen actin on it own did not have the authority to grant that interest in thero er . i That would take the Board of Selectmen doing they first action but also carrying out those other conditions. The A-imy immediately balked and said they were not going to pay any money until you do satisfy hese conditions. It vas a major sticking point in the negotiations. That was an issue we tried very hard to get resolved under this contract but were unsuccessful. We are going to try to work with the Congressional delegation to see what can be done to get that money. It is unfair for the Army to refuse to gave us the money now and try to make us wait until going through the State Legislature. That is being worked on with elahunt's office. Ivh-. Fitzsimmons asked if it would be wise for A Ir. vhritenour to talk to Town Counsel on .this? Mr. vhritenour thought that would be great. On that third point, it is important that the Commission consider that he has heard aproposed recommendation from the Commission nth respect t attempting to turn over responsibility for rntaining the hogs to the Army. He has grave reservations about attempting to pursue a course of action hke that. It would be a huge inistae. Mr. Fitzsimmons asked if he understood the rationale? Mr. Whritenour thought the logic behind that is extremely flawed. Mr. Rosenberg asked why they don't give the Town the money and we will pay Handy if he does his work? Mr. Whritenour stated it turns over far more -authority for that property than was ever intended to thetr . y Mr. Fitzsimmons agreed, but on the other side of the coma we felt there were two alternatives that would be acceptable. The one liked the most is for the military to give us .the money and we would then insure the maintenance of the bogs would be carried out because we have the maintenance contract with Handy. If they were unwiMmg to do that, if they are going to pay Handy directly, then they be the one to mainta n the bogs. That was the pont. The first one is Bauch preferred.