RJ Turcotte Appointed To Conservation Commission

RJ Turcotte, the waterkeeper for the Nantucket Land & Water Council, was appointed to the Nantucket Conservation Commission on Wednesday by the Select Board on a unanimous vote.

Turcotte was appointed over island resident Grant Sanders, who was the only other applicant, to fill the seat of Mark Beale, who resigned in protest back in July.

"I have been for five years now going to the Conservation Commission meetings and watching this commission in particular get crushed under an avalanche of weight of notices of intent and certificates of compliance and what have you," Turcotte said to the board.

"I'm from a town called Millbury and we might have 20 notices of intent in a year, and that's on one single agenda for these seven volunteers (on Nantucket). There's aways been, at least in my time here, a dearth of applicants. This is my area of expertise so I really wanted to throw my hat in the ring and see if I could help not only with reviewing projects that are coming in but also trying to help Jeff (Carlson) and Will (Dell'Erba) and the rest of the NRD (Natural Resources Department) staff with making some systemic changes to the Conservation Commission, some things that will make it run more smoothly for anyone who comes after us who has such a workload."

Turcotte, who has a bachelor of science degree in marine biology from the University of Rhode Island, also addressed how he would serve on the Conservation Commission given his extensive prior involvement in matters that have come before the commission in his role with the Nantucket Land & Water Council. After meeting with the non-profits legal counsel, Turcotte said he had filed a disclosure form and committed to recusing permanently from any project on which he had previously commented on for the Land & Water Council. Moving forward, he said, if his employer decides to comment on a project before the Conservation Commission, he would similarly recuse himself from those deliberations.

"I want to give back to a town I've lived in for awhile now and really love," Turcotte added.

Turcotte's appointment to the Conservation Commission follows a period of contentiousness that included Beale's resignation, as well as the controversial ousters of the previous two chairs of the commission - Ian Golding and Ashley Erisman. The commission has been at odds with the Select Board on numerous occasions over its handling of the 'Sconset Beach Preservation Fund's erosion-control project at the 'Sconset Bluff.

The Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, a group which has been opposed to the SBPF's geotube project, stated its support for Turcotte's appointment in a statement issued on Thursday.

"Grateful that a qualified applicant has been appointed to the Nantucket Conservation Commission: RJ Turcotte," the group stated. "RJ continues in a long line of outstanding commissioners who followed the science and the law, despite enormous political pressure to do otherwise: Sarah Oktay, Ernie Steinauer, Jen Karberg, Ashley Erisman, Maureen Phillips, Ian Golding, and Mark Beale. Thanks also to Grant Sanders for stepping up and putting Nantucket first, as he always does."