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Commission says Gay Road work proceeded without full notice; schedules follow-up site visits and asks highway superintendent for remediation details
Summary
After an anonymous complaint about Gay Road road work, Brookfield commissioners said they found missing erosion controls and incomplete notification. They will do another site visit, invite highway superintendent Kyle Ratowski to the next meeting and pursue remediation or replication if work encroached into wetlands.
An anonymous complaint about road construction on Gay Road prompted Brookfield Conservation Commission members on Nov. 19 to review engineering plans and two site visits and to demand closer coordination with the highway department.
Commission staff reported receiving a phone tip describing widening near resource areas, stockpiled materials close to wetlands, removed drainage culverts and “insufficient erosion controls.” The commission’s inspector said she visited the site Nov. 9, reviewed engineered plans and found straw waddles shown on the plans were largely absent in the field. “There were minimal erosion controls — mostly absent,” the inspector said, noting loose shoulder material and rip rap around some culverts.
Commissioners said they notified the highway superintendent, who subsequently installed straw waddles at several vulnerable locations. The commission also flagged a makeshift contractor parking area near a power-line crossing that appears to be inside the wetland buffer and may require remediation once the contractor clears equipment.
Commissioners expressed frustration that they were not invited to a pre-construction meeting and that the road project was handled without a clearly assigned project manager, which they said led to communication breakdowns. "We should not give preferential treatment even if it is a public project," a commissioner said, urging the group to take the same enforcement posture it would with a private applicant.
Next steps approved by the commission include one more site visit before the next regular meeting, an invitation to highway superintendent Kyle Ratowski to attend the commission’s next meeting to explain the project and the timeline, and coordination with the Select Board about funding or hiring a wetland specialist to quantify any encroachment and necessary replication. Commissioners discussed using remaining grant funds to pay for a third-party review but noted available grant money and contract language will guide who pays for any additional engineering review.
The commission did not vote to issue enforcement orders at the meeting; commissioners said they preferred remediation and better process coordination first but reserved enforcement if necessary.
