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ust before the May 8 noon time meeting of the Oriental Town Board, Commissioners were handed copies of the proposed contract for a land swap with Chris Fulcher on and near the Oriental harbor.

The Town’s attorney, Scott Davis, who has been working on the contract since the Town Board gave preliminary approval three months ago, was not present at the meeting. (That was also the case a week earlier when the Town Board was to get an update on the swap from Davis.) Instead, at the May 8 meeting, Mayor Bill Sage read five pages of the 8 page document aloud. (Copies were not provided to the 7 residents who turned out for the meeting.)

After spelling out the terms, the Mayor said, “if there is a motion, we can consider entering in to the contract today.” The mayor added that he understood that “Mr. Fulcher is standing ready” to enter in to the agreement.

Earlier in the meeting, one resident, Jim Privette, questioned whether the Board could sign off on the contract since the agenda for the meeting only said that the Town’s Attorney would be updating the Board on the swap. Commissioner Larry Summers said they could have, and later in the meeting another commissioner, Sherrill Styron said he was ready to vote “and get it over with.”

However, some commissioners said they wanted to have a chance to go over the contract they had just received and to have a meeting where the public could comment. Commissioner Barb Venturi asked that the contract and the map that goes with it be posted on the Town’s website. The Board voted unanimously to hold a special meeting at which the public could comment and which the Town’s attorney could attend.

By law, 48 hours notice is needed to call a special meeting and none was set as of the end of the May 8 noontime session.

One curiosity of the contract is that it has the town giving up not only rights of way for Avenue A and the harbor end of South Avenue but also for rights of way for old streets that may exist under Chris Fulcher’s fish plant. (See second paragraph of contract.)

To download the 8 page contract, click here.

View the full map that goes along with the contract, to which the Exhibits A, B and C apply. Click here to download.

Posted Tuesday May 8, 2012 by Melinda Penkava