NORTHFIELD — The Historical Commission wants to put more teeth in the town’s rules governing archaeoloigcal excavations.
The commisson wants to turn its Archaeological Accountability Policy recommendations into a bylaw.
The current policy lays out guidelines for projects that involve excavation, so as to preserve and account for any buried artifacts. Basically, the policy requests that the Historical Commission be kept in the loop regarding the relevant permits, plans and maps; and also asks for a final inventory of any uncovered artifacts.
But the policy has no legal power. It recommends that people and companies inform the Historical Commission if they are excavating in Northfield, but it doesn’t legally require them to.
The Historical Commission is now working on rewriting the policy as a bylaw, with the goal of putting it to a vote at this year’s Town Meeting, Chairwoman Carol Lebo said.
“We hope this will have more teeth in it,” Lebo said.
The rewriting is still in early phases, but the commission hopes to refine the current guidelines and maybe add to them, Lebo said. She expects the commission to have a firmer idea of what the new bylaw will do by the end of February.
Last year the commission had hoped to present a similar bylaw at Town Meeting, Lebo said. But the town’s lawyer felt that it wasn’t written strongly enough. So rather than ask for a vote on the law as written, the commission pulled it from the warrant.
Demonstrating the relevance of the guidelines: last September, the First Light power company undertook an archaeological study of the Connecticut River from Vernon, Vt., to Turners Falls as part of its relicensing.
The point of the study was to approximate the locations of any historically sensitive materials, so that the power company wouldn’t unknowingly destroy them in its future work. The Northfield Historical Commission advised on the study, along with the Nolumbeka Project, an organization that promotes knowledge of New England’s native cultures.
A bylaw wouldn’t restrict projects like that, but it would likely keep the work within the purview of the Historical Commission and guarantee good record-keeping.
“The intention of this commission is not to veto projects,” Lebo said. “It’s to educate people.”