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Board acts contrary to will of voters

To the Editor:

At Milford’s 2014 Town Meeting, voters voted down Article 21 that would have given approval to the Board of Selectmen to sell earth materials out of the former Brox Property situated at the end of Heron Pond Road.

Not deterred, the BOS, at the direction of Selectman Mark Fougere who has taken on the gravel removal project as one of his goals as a selectman, decided on September 22nd to use $20,000 of operating budget money to hire Fieldstone Consultants to complete the Phase One gravel analysis at Brox.

Calling the BOS action “time-sensitive,” Selectman Fougere added that the “whole purpose of this endeavor is to gather information to present to the taxpayers and the voters our plans for the Brox Property.” These are the BOS’s plans, but what about the voters’ plans?

Phase Two, as explained by Sel. Fougere, is the obtaining of permits to do the earth removal. Phase Two is dependent on voter approval in March 2015 when a new Warrant Article would request voter permission for the BOS to sell earth materials at Brox. Permit applications with the town and state for Phase Two would occur subsequently.

The BOS’s funding of Phase One of the Brox Study raises a serious question about proper use of Town funds because the spending of $20,000 has not been approved for this purpose by the voters, who, in fact, already voted down the whole plan to sell earth materials. This $20,000 is money the Town cannot recover once it is spent.

To watch the video of the BOS’s September 22nd meeting, the reader can go to Milford’s website or watch it on TV Public Channel #21.

Suzanne Fournier Coordinator, Brox Environmental Citizens

Milford