Dear Editor:

Alna’s March town meeting defeated by a vote of 93-73 a new mining ordinance proposed by Alna’s Planning Board.

Rejecting the normal process of remanding a land-use ordinance to the Planning Board for revision, two members of the three-member Selectboard have appointed a new committee to write a completely new ordinance.

The Selectboard has invented a new process violating Alna’s ethics policy in letter and in spirit, in several ways.

First, Topsham-based Crooker Construction, the owners of the large quarry and gravel pit straddling the Alna/ Whitefield town line, and two local gravel pit owners are on the committee. Although stakeholders’ comments should always be considered along with those of other residents and landowners, those with direct financial interests should not be writing the ordinance. Alna’s ethics policy states that those with financial interests in the outcome cannot serve on town committees.

Second, the Selectman most vehemently opposed to the Planning Board’s draft ordinance has appointed himself to the new committee, after having expressed his uncompromising comments at every opportunity. Now he has strong-armed the creation of a new committee on which he will sit, while reserving a second bite at the apple as a Selectboard member having the final say on the new ordinance. This also violates Alna’s ethics policy prohibiting selectboard members from “unduly influencing” other town committees and boards.

Whatever the possible shortcomings of the defeated mining ordinance, Alna’s Planning Board spent months reviewing ordinances from other towns, considering both written and oral comments from the public, including Crooker, consulting with legal and technical experts, and developing and revising multiple drafts of an ordinance.

The new committee is an end run around normal and proper land-use ordinance development procedures, and it runs roughshod over Alna’s ethics policy.  It imposes one Selectman’s personal opinion over the public’s interests; this ordinance is needed to protect Alna’s ground and surface waters, including the Sheepscot River, as well as residents and neighbors who are directly impacted.

One biased Selectman and committee members with financial interests should not control the development of this important land-use ordinance.

Tom Aldrich

Alna