Letter to the Editor: Yorktown Wetlands In Trouble

To the Editor:

Supervisor Michael Grace recently challenged Yorktown to have an “intellectually honest” conversation as to what is a "wetland". I'm always suspicious of any politician asking for an "honest" conversation, intellectually or otherwise. That’s an oxymoron.

I don’t want Grace to label me as a global warming alarmist but I have my doubts as to Grace’s true rationale. Supervisor Grace and his Town Board have green lighted several new development projects in formerly protected wetlands. I don’t want to be a stick-in-the mud, but Grace’s granting of those wetland variances has raised many eye brows.

Seems like Grace’s definition of a wetland is at odds with what most people actually know to be a wetland. In Yorktown, when it comes to developing in wetlands it appears that if there's a will there's a deal. The wetland laws were established to protect the environment and wildlife of Yorktown. Birds should be the only things using wetlands to feather their own nest. Grace is doing all of Yorktown a disservice when he randomly changes the definition of a wetland whenever it suits him.

How wetland decisions are presently decided leaves too much room for shenanigans. Who is providing oversight and what safeguards against abuse have been put in place? I don’t know how much of Yorktown is protected ‘wetlands’ but I predict that there will be far less in the near future thanks to Grace. Grace and company has allowed the constant drip, drip, drip of cronyism to accumulate and create the swamp that has become Yorktown politics.

Stephen Brown