Editorial: VBT loses interest in the environment

The June 15 meeting of the Van Buren Township Environmental Commission has been cancelled – again. All the monthly meetings this year have been cancelled. In fact, the Sept. 15, 2021 virtual meeting was the last meeting held by the Environmental Commission.
And then there were eight cancelled meetings before then with the only other meeting held in 2021 being the Jan. 20 meeting.
We know COVID-19 could be blamed for some of this, but let’s get serious. Even before COVID arrived, the Environmental Commission was treated as an unimportant meeting by the township. Matthew Best, who in his job used to be the liaison from the township administration, had some environmental training and he presented items well, but he was kept so busy with other things the township was doing that his heart wasn’t in this commission’s work.
But, the people on the commission are very interested in the environment and very knowledgeable, as well. They asked good questions and pointed out things that needed addressing.
There has been a vacancy on the commission for some time that has not been filled. The June 15 meeting cancellation notice said it was because of a lack of quorum. We would suggest it’s a lack of interest in what citizens have to say about what’s going on with the environment in Van Buren Township. The next meeting is set for July 20. We’ll see.