What do you do when every Marion Conservation Commission agenda item is continued and there is a quorum of members assembled with only meeting minutes to approve and no new business? You watch them make jokes, approve a set of meeting minutes or two (without arguing over them), and witness them adjourn in under 15 minutes.
The March 25 meeting would have concluded faster; however, the individual items on the agenda – LEC Environmental Consultants and Saltworks Marine – had scheduled times for 7:00 and 7:10, respectively. Chairman Norman Hills waited for each set time to open the public hearings and continued LEC Environmental until April 25 and Saltworks until April 8.
In the meantime, commission members caught up on current events, perused the Town’s 2015 Annual Report which had just been released that day, and laughed when commission member Cynthia Trinidad accused Hills of chewing gum too loudly and gave her copy of the annual report to ConCom member Jeffrey Doubrava. (There was no gum, however.)
Conservation Commission member Joel Hartley – ten minutes late to the meeting – almost missed it entirely.
Although it is nice to have a break every once in a while, acknowledged Hills, future agendas will get longer and longer as nicer weather brings in new applications for outside work in addition to the continued items.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for April 8 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry
