If a tree ordinance falls in public and nobody in attendance gets to makes a noise, will anybody be hearing about this?
People in the audience had some trouble understanding what happened, but it appears the Chestertown tree ordinance has been re-re-re-amended.
That is, on another 3-2 vote, the Town Council on Monday night did away with the same amendment that it did away with at its last session, and which it had adopted only a couple months previously. What this means — nobody in Chestertown will need to get a permit to chop down a big old tree on their own property.
Once again, no person in the audience had a chance to speak out.
The vote was Marty Stetson, Mabel Mumford-Pautz and Harrison C. Bristoll Jr., voting to kill the permitting requirement, and Mayor Margo Bailey and Gibson Anthony voting not to.
It went so fast and with so little discussion that one lady raised her hand to say she had trouble following what just went on. Weren’t residents allowed to have their say about it, she wondered?
“It passed,” explained Town Manager Bill Ingersoll. But he said that under the rules, and before the amendment takes effect, people have 15 days in which to post their comments.
Ingersoll said the Town Council might reconsider its vote then, “If we get 400 letters.”
That was a just for example. It didn’t seem like anyone was expecting any such outpouring of citizen complaint.
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