Officials are hoping an educational loophole in the state's wetland regulations will allow the Town to have its bridge, and keep the surrounding land too.

As part of executing the Master Plan for the Gull Crest property between Spurwink Avenue and the Town Center, the Town is seeking permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection to construct boardwalks and a bridge through wetland portions of the parcel.

The Town Council last month was poised to accept the permits from the DEP, but balked at the thought of surrendering easements to the state for approximately 75 acres of the land to the state.

By a unanimous vote June 14, councilors opted to investigate the likelihood of winning an appeal to the state Board of Environmental Protection before approving the DEP and Army Corps of Engineers permitting with such a heavy string attached.

During the last month, however, attorneys have found an exemption in the environmental protection law that allows construction of boardwalks used for public education, without compensation to the state.

Town officials are planning to amend their application for permitting to include the educational use.

The town is submitting supplementary information to prove its case, including photocopies of educational bollards already in place at Great Pond, and a letter from Pond Cove School teacher Ogden Williams testifying that the wetlands area is a rich educational opportunity for the town's students.

Councilor Jack Roberts said at the July 12 council meeting that the bollards at Great Pond prove the town's capability as stewards of a natural resource. "With the history at Great Pond, that would play in our favor," Roberts said.

Also at the July 12 meeting, Councilor David Backer thanked fellow Councilor Mary Ann Lynch for her efforts to convince the council not to accept the easement condition. A first motion to accept the permits passed 4-3 last month, but was reconsidered and tabled in a second vote later the same evening. Backer thanked Lynch for her persistence in labeling the DEP's easement as "draconian and uncalled for."

The easement requirement was offered by DEP staff in exchange for its waiving a dimensional requirement that the bridge, planned to be 8 feet wide, be mounted as high as it is wide.

Town Manager Michael McGovern said at the July 12 meeting that the town has a verbal agreement with the DEP that the educational exemption would be honored, but also said that recent conversations indicate the state is having second thoughts. "It would be foolhardy of us to give you an assurances based on previous DEP assurances," McGovern said.

Because of the state's requirement to allow time for appeal of any DEP permit application, the Town will likely miss this construction season for actually building the boardwalks and bridge.

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• Officials unhappy with deal for Gull Crest trail permits (0617/04)