Letters

Both property owners and politicians are obligated to follow our community’s environmental laws, or get appropriate exemptions. That is why there are studies and plans before development takes place at environmentally sensitive sites.

I recently resigned from the board of the North Haven Parks & Trails 501(c)(3). I had only joined recently, and was voted on unanimously, with one member (related to myself) abstaining.

The issue was never saving the Lovelady House, as has been mischaracterized by Mayor Chris Fiore [“Park Committee Members Resign After Lovelady Powell House Is Demolished,” 27east.com, March 29]. I always supported removing the house — the 501(c)(3) voted for removing it, and I never once spoke for keeping it. The issue for myself and two other board members who resigned was Mayor Fiore’s disregard for environmental rules and bullying of 501(c)(3) board members who raised concerns.

North Haven is blessed with wonderful estuaries. Maybe the largest is the estuary between the North Haven Manor and Fresh Pond neighborhoods (sometimes called Mashamuck), which is partially surrounded by wild land, including two large preserved parcels, the Zaykowski farm and the Lovelady property. Cilli Pond is the large pond in Lovelady that connects to this estuary. You can see the tidal ebbing and flooding of the estuary’s waters at the pond’s east end, and when the estuary floods, so does Cilli Pond.

Before I joined, 501(c)(3) members repeatedly questioned Mayor Fiore about permits for clearing down to the water along Cilli’s south edge, asking that he secure the required “Letter of Non-Jurisdiction” from the Department of Environmental Conservation. He refused.

More recently, a member of the committee Mayor Fiore set up to “advise the 501(c)(3)” presented a drawing of two bridges over Cilli Pond and multiple paths and clearing on the wild north side. Compromise was reached for a single bridge and path, but the majority of 501(c)(3) members voted against proceeding without a plan and its environmental review.

The path is to be made out of a base of RCA (crushed concrete debris). Is it legal to have RCA in an area only about 18 inches above its bordering estuary waters? I do not know — which is why I and others felt a design plan with environmental input was needed.

Feeling uncomfortable having donated to and being part of a 501(c)(3) that was now facilitating potential environmental damage to an important North Haven estuary, I resigned.

Jim Vos

North Haven