The Palmyra Land Use Board held its annual reorganization meeting Jan. 15 and swore in several new members, elected a new chairperson and underwent training essential to its position on the board.
Among the newly sworn were Palmyra Business Administrator John Gural, Mayor Gina Tait, Tanyika Johns, Lewis Yetter, Emma Melvin, Kwan Hui and Mindie Weiner. Despite being new to the Palmyra board, Johns was nominated by Gural to be its chairwoman.
“The land use board is just an exciting board because it plans what’s going on in the town,” said Johns. “I’m excited about leading the town into the future.
Johns has never been on a board but has 20 years of municipal experience, including several years as a Land Use secretary. That experience has given her valuable insight on how different processes are supposed to work and what things can benefit the town, she said.
After swearing-ins, the board meeting agenda continued with selection of the Land Use Board solicitor, Land Use Board engineer and Land Use Board planner.
For engineer, the board accepted a proposal from CME Associates. Heyer, Gruel & Associates was selected planner and Andrew Brewer was named solicitor.
All have worked with Palmyra in the past.
“Be that as it may, I don’t take my responsibility lightly,” Brewer noted. “I appreciate you [the Land Use Board] for putting your trust in us … I know that I have to earn it every month.”
The board closed its meeting with a brief training segment called JIF Land Use Training, essentially a description of the do’s and don’ts regarding what board members can and cannot do.
“The training is to protect the board members and tell them what they’re allowed to do and what they’re not allowed to do,” Johns explained.
“A lot of times when you’re coming in new — and we do have a lot of new members — they may not understand that although we are volunteers, the decisions we make could possibly be harmful,” she added. “So you want to make sure that people are making decisions based on facts. That was basically what the training was about.”
