Politics & Government

Guilford Board of Selectman Approves Revised Harbor Management Plan

At a Guilford Board of Selectman meeting earlier this week, the board approved the revised Harbor Management Plan

 

After much revision and deliberation, the revised Harbor Management Plan for Guilford was approved this week at the Board of Selectman meeting. The plan passed with a unanimous vote and all around support from the board. Revisions took into consideration much feedback from the public.

"This plan has really taken into account all of the feedback from the town," said Charles Havdra. "The commission has looked long and hard over the tedious details of this plan. I think we are leading the charge as a town in making this kind of plan and collaborating at a local level."

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Both Havdra and First Selectman Joe Mazza expressed their support of the local control the plan offers the community. "The more interaction people can have with their government and policies the more local control we have," said Mazza. "And I'm a big proponent of that. As the state makes cutbacks, and the DEEP makes them, we, as a town, have to take control." 

"The folks involved have done an excellent job with putting this plan together," continued Gary MacElhiney. "The Board of Selectman has been open to feedback and has held two public hearings to provide adequate time for input from residents. There has been more than adequate time to address concerns that residents may have. I wholeheartedly support this plan."

Find out what's happening in Guilfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We also have to remember that this plan is not absolutely permanent," added Havdra. "As things change over time, we can amend the plan. After what we learned at the Jacob's Beach hearings, we know we are in for changes in our climate, so we will have to look things over in the future."

Cindy Cartier echoed Mazza's thoughts about local control, but did raise one concern about the new plan. "I'm just a little concerned about the duplication of processes," Cartier shared. "We want to make sure that people aren't running around in circles on the state level, and we are doing whatever we can do to make life easier. We don't want to be a roadblock, we want to support people."

After a few more comments, Veronica Wallace called the plan to a vote. "This has been looked at extensively and we still have flexibility in the future," Wallace said. "And it's time to made a decision."  

The revised Harbor Management Plan was then called to a vote, and passed unanimously.


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