Ossipee—July 21, 2024—Executive Council member Joe Kenney on Saturday told Ossipee Lake residents he thinks DES “missed the boat” by not holding a public hearing as part of its review of an application for five boat docks on Leavitt Bay’s Loon Island.

Speaking to a packed meeting room at Ossipee’s First Congregational Church, Kenney said he wants to meet with the state agency to understand its mindset when it approved nine boat slips for the undeveloped 0.91-acre island, which is a loon nesting site.

“I’m all ears when it comes to this particular topic,” he said, referring to the Loon Island docks. “I’ve read your emails and I hear you.”

“I’ve got to go back to DES and say, you know, I think you missed the boat on this,” he said. “There should have been a public hearing.”

Acknowledging that there is no legal mechanism for DES to hold a hearing on an application it has already approved, Kenney said he would convene his own hearing and invite the Wetlands Bureau so it can hear directly from the lake community.

Kenney was one of several political incumbents and challengers who attended the annual meeting of the Broad-Leavitt Bay Association, Ossipee Lake’s largest such property owner group.

Members of the association have been vocal for weeks in asking the Governor and Executive Council to intervene with DES. Approval by the Governor and Executive Council is the final step in ratifying Wetlands Bureau decisions, a process Kenney said he takes “very seriously.”

Kenney said that at the time of its review, DES thought the dock proposal was an “easy application,” but the agency didn’t understand the “uniqueness of the bay and the activity around it and the environmental concerns.”

He said he wasn’t “making excuses” for the Wetlands Bureau, but it should be acknowledged that the agency receives hundreds of applications and is understaffed like many other state agencies.

Association member Edwina Boose pointed out that DES had a lot of information that the docks were controversial from the start of the process. That included a February letter from Ossipee’s Conservation Commission stating that the island could not sustain the additional use.

“That should have been a warning sign, right?”, Kenny said in response to Boose.

“Anytime a conservation commission has concern with a permit application, that’s when the flag goes up that says let’s take another look at this,” he added.

Kenney said he was just learning that Ossipee Lake Alliance this week withdrew an appeal of the decision to the Wetlands Council, in which it was joined by more than 200 lake property owners, three other conservation organizations and a children’s summer camp.

Alliance officials said the withdrawal was because of the expense of hiring an attorney for the appeal process, which is managed by the N.H. Department of Justice. Kenney said the group could have presented its appeal case without an attorney.

Kyle Copeland, Broad-Leavitt Bay Association’s president, said his understanding was that the appeal was also withdrawn because DES was issuing form letters implying that the Governor and Executive Council could not address complaints filed with them because the appeal docket remained open even though DES had rejected mediation.

Gloria Villari, the Association’s Secretary, told Kenney the application process and the appeal process were “topsy-turvy,” with the applicant for a permit being able to “check boxes” on a form, while someone filing an appeal has to submit “pages of legal documents.”

“There should be more detail in the application process and less detail needed to make an appeal, she concluded.

“That’s a good point,” Kenney said.

Association member Mike L’Ecuyer said he wished that DES and other state agencies showed more rigor and consistency in their review process, noting that not all permit applicants are treated equally.

The audience agreed that process variability was a great source of confusion and frustration.

Lake resident Boose said she and Villari attended the NH LAKES conference in June and asked a DES representative why the agency decided the dock application was not of major public interest and didn’t require a public hearing.

“He said it was because it’s private property, Boose said.

“If it had been public property, they would have held a public hearing. But because it was private property, they didn’t, and that’s what needs to be changed.”

After being asked when he might schedule a public hearing on the docks, Kenney said “in the next few weeks.”