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Dock Permit
process on hold
By Ryan Halliday
Webster Times
August 7, 2002
WEBSTER – The Board of Selectmen has temporarily
suspended enforcement of the town’s dock-permitting process on
Webster Lake until a public forum can be scheduled with lakeside
residents, selectmen, a representative of the state Department of
Environmental Protection, and the towns Lake Conservation
Commission.
About a dozen lakeside residents attended the
selectmen’s meeting Monday, July 29th after receiving
notices from the Webster Police Department on Sunday stating that
the fines would be assessed within 10 days
unless dock owners either paid the town’s $10 dock fee and fill
out the application or showed proof of a state dock permit to
Webster Police Officer Reid Bagley, who is in charge of marine
control.
Speaking on behalf of the lakeside residents,
Richard Cazeault questioned the method used to deliver the late
fee notices, saying that those that weren’t delivered by hand were
illegally stuffed into residents’ mailboxes and may have been
subsequently destroyed by a letter carrier.
“We have a bunch of people on a 10-day notice, and
because the notice was left in their mailbox illegally, they are
now subject to a fine and they don’t even know they’ve been put on
notice”, he said.
Selectman Robert Stawiecki, who would later move
that the permitting process be suspended, said he was “confused”
by this.
“I thought at (the July 1) meeting everything was
left up in the air, and nothing was going to happen until we get
these people in here to clarify this”, he
said.
The notices did not specify the fine amounts, but
the town dock permit bylaw says that the first notice comes with a
$50 fine, $75 for the second, 100 for the third and $200 after
that.
"Review the penalties imposed by the bylaw and tell
me that the dock registration has not become a punitive and
adversarial situation against Lake Residents” Richard Cazeault
wrote in a letter to Selectman Mark Dowgiewicz dated July 22.
Lake residents first voiced their concerns to the
selectmen at a heated meeting on July 1. At issue was how the
money that the town collects for dock fees is used. The nearly 100
residents in attendance went away upset with Selectman Chair Irene
A. Martel, who ended the discussion on the matter while some
residents wanted to be heard and than threatened to have the
police remove residents who she said were being abusive to her.
“Are there going to be more plain-clothes officers
at our next discussion to bully us out of
the meeting when the chair doesn’t like the questions?” Cazeault
wrote. “Using parliamentary procedure and the police to end a
meeting might be legal, but leaves a perception of denied
democracy and ‘jackboot’ justice.”
Cooler heads prevailed at Monday’s BOS meeting,
which was devoid of the fireworks that characterized the July 1
meeting. For her part, Martel has said that before the July 1
discussion started she told residents that only one representative
would be allowed to speak for them all.
Lakeside residents have voiced concerns that,
because the money collected for the dock permits goes into a
general account, it will not be used for maintenance of the lake.
“Most Lake Residents don’t mind paying an
additional fee as long as it is used for improving the lake, “
Cazeault wrote. “Weed control would be a good application.”
Residents have also contended that registering
their docks through the state is cheaper and easier
than registering them through the town. All docks must be
registered, whether through the state or through the town.
Cazeault told selectmen that the state fee is $50 for the first 10
years and $100 for 30 years, as compared to the town’s fee of $10
per year.
Dowgiewicz suggested that the town offer a
five-year permit “because it’s a hassle to do it every year.”
According to Cazeault, residents also want to know
why the Lake/Conservation Commission requires that a Webster Lake
resident who applies for a state dock regulation submit engineered
drawings to the commission, which can be very costly, when he says
the state does not require these drawings for the application.
Martel told lakeside residents to be patient,
saying that a meeting with the DEP representative would likely not
take place until after the summer.
“I’m telling you right now, you’re not going to get
anyone down here in the summertime,” he said. |
