RTM Blasts Clam-Digging Plan

In a rare confrontation with another town board, the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) took emergency action against a plan that would allow commercial clam digging in the Short Beach cove in violation of a town ordinance.

The Branford Shellfish Commission is set to approve the commercial plan at a meeting on Aug. 10.

The issue came up under new business at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, when RTM member Doug Hanlon, of Short Beach, told the RTM that he attended a ​“disturbing” shellfish commission meeting earlier in the week. He said the shellfish commission discussed moving forward with a plan to implement commercial shell fishing in Short Beach, from Killam’s Point to the Farm River. 

“We have an actual ordinance in our code book that prohibits this,” he said. ​“It was passed in 1998. Since 1988 it has been illegal to commercially shellfish in a number of areas,” Hanlon said. Section 88 – 8 of the town code says no lease, license or transfer of shell fishing grounds is permitted in the East Haven/Branford border, including Short Beach Cove and Branford Harbor, near Linden Shore and Indian Neck, near Haycock Point in Hotchkiss Grove and near Brown Point in Pine Orchard to the Branford/Guilford border. Typically, by law, there is no clamming 1,500 feet off these shores.

But the shellfish commission, which has moved forward as if it were in a vacuum, maintains it is bound by state statute, not the Branford ordinance and it plans to press forward. The shellfish commission says it is empowered to provide the resources to encourage shell fishing. Part of its plan allows for recreational clamming. Its charge is to regulate shell fishing and to oversee where, when and how shell fishing takes place. 

Not so fast, said the RTM. 

RTM member Alinor Sterling, an attorney, also represents the Short Beach area. She drew up a resolution on the spot. It reads: ​“Resolved that the Representative Town Meeting of the Town of Branford disapproves any lease proposed by the Branford Shellfish Commission in areas prohibited for leasing by Code Section 88 – 8 A‑D, and further we direct Town Counsel to take immediate action to enforce this resolution.”

The RTM action could well prompt a legal battle over conflicting goals between town government and one of its commissions.

Republican RTM member Peter Black, an attorney, also represents the Short Beach area. He was furious and suggested a more permanent alternative. He noted that in 1997, the RTM adopted the creation of a shellfish commission. Black said the state statutes ​“may well override our ordinance, but he suggested that the Shellfish Commission could just as easily be abolished.

“We created them by ordinance and we could just disestablish them,” said Black. ​“It is not something I want to do but if they are going to say ​‘once we are through the door we are going to do whatever we want’ … well hopefully that gets people’s attention.”
 
Then, in a rare showing of unity between Republicans and Democrats the resolution was approved by voice vote. The resolution has no legal authority except to say it is the will of the body.

The RTM was clearly looking to buy time, especially since it is not expected to hold an August meeting. When other jurisdictional fights have occurred, state law typically prevails. Last night a legal confrontation seemed inevitable unless the commission reconsiders.

The Board of Selectmen, which must approve any lease, license or transfer of shell fishing grounds owned by the town, gave every indication it would not approve this plan.
 
Republican Third Selectman John Opie stood to say that the RTM had his promise that ​“I will not vote for this until the jurisdiction question is worked out. This affects everyone,” he said. Earlier Black even suggested that the RTM direct the Board of Selectmen not to sign the lease. 
 
First Selectman Unk DaRos did not attend the RTM meeting. Second Selectman Fran Walsh did attend but did not speak to the issue. However, Hanlon said he had spoken to DaRos earlier in the day and DaRos said that at this juncture he would not approve the lease. 

Only Short Beach is under consideration at this point for commercial clamming, Hanlon said. ​“I can only speak for my area. The people are vehemently opposed to this. Yet the shellfish commission is planning to go forward at its next meeting on Aug. 10, leasing these properties to commercial fishermen. Can you imagine a 40-foot clamming boat coming into that packed harbor area?” he asked. 

Hanlon observed that the commission was willing to move forward without any legal advice or opinion. ​“You are asking for a disaster. Any commission that will not listen to four-to five hundred families who don’t want this is not a commission I want to support in the town of Branford,” Hanlon declared. 

The commission, consisting of seven members, first made public its plans to open Short Beach in May after discussing it for four or five months on its own. During that time William Davis, the chair of the commission, did not consult the Civic Association of Short Beach, the Yale Sailing Club, which has daily activities through the summer on these waters or town counsel. The civic association, one of the oldest independent special taxing districts in the state of Connecticut, first learned of the commission’s plans via a local newspaper notice.

The association then invited Davis, who is a resident of Short Beach, to outline his plans at a meeting. 

At the May meeting Attorney Barry Beletsky, who’s the president of the civic association, and others pointedly questioned Davis. Beletsky said then there were problems between local and state laws that needed to be resolved. 

Davis assured the association in May that no commercial clamming would take place near or directly beyond the Clark Avenue beach.

He said 104 acres had been divided into four beds, but that two of the commercial harvesters had reduced the 104 acres to 71 acres. All beds were of equal size. They also created three additional recreational beds. 

“At this point we had to advertise,” he said, indicating that was the best way to alert the community. Davis apologized to the board for not alerting it first.

He thought the commercial boats would operate from May 15 to Sept. 15, a period considered the heaviest time of recreational swimming, sailing and water use.

Representatives from the Yale Sailing Center have also been ignored. A staff member attended the May association meeting to say this was precisely the time not to have commercial clammers in the bay. He said students from the sailing club who are teaching youngsters how to sail are on the water every day during the hours that commercial fishermen clam. 

Harvesters typically go out six days a week, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. They are restricted by tide, wind, weather conditions. In two to three hours they can garner 80 bushels of clams. At the meeting, they said they would not go where people swim but beyond.

Davis said his commission had been working on the plan for months, apparently without seeking any outside information. 

He explained that under their rules, a commission member would have to be present on board the boats during shell fishing.
 
Davis explained that the work was too labor-intensive for the commission members whose ages range between 60 and 80. ​“If you have ever picked up a bag of clams, it’s heavy,” he declared. 

So the commission decided the best way around their lifting problem was ​“to go to a leasing agreement.” 

Why do it? ​“Because there is an economic benefit to the harvester and to the shellfish commission,” he said. 

Several Short Beach residents told Davis that they typically swim long distances. David Peterson, a board member, said: ​“I swim from May to October. To me this is a real liability.” Joe Piscitelli, a surfer, paddles out across the water every morning.

The swimmer-surfer issue was news to Davis. He backed off a bit at the May meeting. ​“Nothing has been signed,” he said. ​“We will reconsider. Nothing is on dotted line. This may not fly given we did not have all this information.”

Davis also conceded the commission had gone forward without consulting any underwater charts. And he said it had not taken into account criss-crossing swimmers and wind surfers.

Davis said he would consult state agriculture officials. ​“Maybe we should cease and desist or maybe we should modify our plan,” he said in May. 

But by July the commission was moving ahead full speed, a decision Hanlon characterized as ​“irresponsible and reckless. This has been brought forward without any consultation, with no contact with the association before we read about it, with no contact with the selectmen, with no contact with the RTM.”
 
###.