After two months of heated debate on a proposal by the Department of Transportation to build five acres of wetlands at Benedict Farm Park, Town Board members voted no to the plan at Town Hall last week. In a surprising decision, the Town of Montgomery Town Board voted 4-1 against the plan.  

Board member Ron Feller, who had expressed support of the project when the DOT offered help in the slated building of two ball fields at the park, acknowledged public objections that had been brought before the board.

“Everybody’s on one side of the fence,” he said. “Let’s not drill.”

The DOT proposal sought to mitigate the loss of wetlands caused by construction at the Rt. 17 and Exit 122 interchange. According to DEC regulations, those wetlands need to be located within the Wallkill River Watershed. The plan called for the construction of five acres of wetlands in the southeastern area of the park, adjacent to exiting wetlands along the river.

The DOT’s request to the town for approval of a slate of inspections and soil tests to begin as early as this week, brought the question to a vote by the board.

These tests, which would have included soil borings as well as a site environmental survey, had been called “preliminary.” Board member Dan Dempsey pointed out, however, that there was no sense in taking another step forward if the people weren’t in favor of the project to begin with.

“It’s more or less leading them on,” he said, referring to the DOT, which had already invested weeks of planning in the matter.

From the beginning, conservationists came out in full force to oppose the plan, which they claimed would destroy a rare type of grassland and disturb the threatened sedge wren habitat. (The bird’s federally protected status led to DEC imposed restrictions on construction at the park in October.)

Sandra Kissam, whose efforts to protect the sedge wren almost single-handedly slowed construction at the park in the fall, questioned why neither state agency had conducted site studies with specific regard to the sedge wren.

The question remained, however, whether protecting the sedge wren habitat outweighed the usefulness of the perks that came with the wetlands project. “The sedge wren may never come back,” said Town Supervisor Mike Hayes, who had been the project’s strongest supporter on the board.

Hayes explained how the DOT’s offer to transport excavated soil from the wetlands construction site to Field 4 for use in building in the ball fields, would save the town money. The DOT estimated the soil was worth more than a half million dollars as fill material.

Environmentalists called into question the claim that the soil was even needed, claiming that there had been soil left over from construction of the playground which could be used instead. “The engineers didn’t call for extra dirt,” said Richard Phelps, project manager of the Town of Montgomery Community Garden.
Phelps went on to suggest that the DOT use neighboring parcels of land along the river – which because of their location, could one day provide a bridge for a direct, public pedestrian route between the park and the Village of Montgomery.
Chair of the Town of Montgomery Conservation Advisory Council Patricia Henighan presented research from the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program stating that only 20 percent of mitigated wetlands in the U.S. achieved functional equivalency with natural wetlands.

“We already have a well-functioning natural system there,” she said.

When the motion was made to oppose the proposal, board members voted 4-1 in favor. Applause broke out and several utterances of, “thank you,” emitted from the seated audience.

Following up on recent concerns raised for both the sedge wren and the existing natural habitats within the park, the DEC has requested that the town look into reengineering the locations of the two ball fields.

“We’re asking them to look at alternatives,” said DEC Spokesperson Wendy Rosenbach.

Supervisor Hayes said that one of the most feasible possibilities would be to move the fields further south toward the river. Other fields at the park, including fields one and two, have already been deemed archeologically sensitive areas, while field five, where the DOT wetlands would have gone, has been identified in recent years by environmental experts as containing prairie grasslands that are becoming increasingly rare in the region.

By SHANTAL PARRIS RILEY
sriley@tcnewspapers.com