NAHANT — The question is no longer whether a bylaw to protect the wetlands should be in place. The debate has turned into a question of democracy.
“You are not the rulers,” resident Tom Costin Sr., who served as the mayor of Lynn from 1955 to 1961, told the Nahant Board of Selectmen Thursday night. “You are the public servants and the people have spoken. They don’t want a second Town Meeting on this one issue that has already been decided.”
The panel has called for a Special Town Meeting on Dec. 1 to ask voters to rescind a bylaw that was passed at a Special Town Meeting in August and accepted by Attorney General Maura Healey on Sept. 13.
“Don’t you understand plain English? Don’t you understand that this is a home-rule organization here? We go by the rule of law,” said Costin. “The people voted. If you try to do this, I’m going to go to the Attorney General and to the Secretary of State to point out that you people don’t know how to run a government.”
Selectmen Enzo Barile called for the meeting, citing the heat and lack of space in Town Hall at the first meeting that lasted more than 3½ hours and left not a single chair — or square inch of floor space — unoccupied. A yes or no ballot was handed out, as voted by the body, and 285 returned the slip in favor while 278 were opposed to an amendment to the town’s bylaws to change the permitting process for projects within the town’s wetlands.
In essence, the bylaw prohibits the removal, filling, dredging, building upon, degrading, discharging into, or otherwise altering the listed resource areas (freshwater or coastal wetlands, marshes, etc.) except as authorized by the Conservation Commission. The bylaw establishes a permit application, notice and hearing, and determination procedure.
A petition asking the board not to hold the Special Town Meeting gathered more than 500 signatures in a week and was presented to selectmen Thursday night.
In addition to honoring the votes that were cast by 583 registered voters who attended the meeting, the petition calls for selectmen to refrain from spending more money on town meetings, and to instead address the other priorities of the town that need the Board of Selectmen’s time and attention.
“As residents of the town, we seek to preserve the democratic process of our Town Meeting governance and direct the Board of Selectmen to move on from this activity and focus on more important town priorities,” the petition reads.
Instead, the board heard from an attorney about the option they have to legally hold the meeting with satellite locations using two-way audio and video transmission and multiple voting centers. A second moderator would need to be appointed on the floor of Town Meeting and a sign-in process would need to be established. There was talk of using the Johnson Elementary School or a tent in the lowlands for overflow, and chairman Chesley Taylor suggested voters be removed from Town Hall, submit a secret ballot vote on the way out, and then re-enter.
But if the elderly couldn’t stand the heat in Town Hall in August, residents questioned, could they withstand the cold of December?
“We’ve heard a lot of complaints that the room was too hot,” said resident Roger Pasinski. “The room was too hot for both parties, not just one party that was participating in the voting.”
Resident Julie Tarmy said most of the town knows that she didn’t vote in favor of the bylaw, but she also doesn’t support “a redo.”
“I voted against the bylaw,” said Tarmy. “That was my right. But I also don’t support another vote. My vote was not on the winning side, but I’m OK with that. It’s the democratic process.”
The board did not nail down any of the details before moving onto other business Thursday night. Selectman Rich Lombard said again that he is against the meeting.
