In our last issue, we reported that the first meeting of the Facilities Monitoring Committee for the Croton filtration plant would be closed to the public, but that the participants would discuss whether to open up future meetings.

We are disappointed to report that the Committee decided to keep the meetings closed. We are confident that Committee members will do a good job of advocating for their community, but transparency is always better for all concerned than closed doors.

This is a gigantic lengthy project affecting many different segments of the community. Someone living say, on East 212th Street and Jerome Avenue, has a very different, but equally valuable, perspective on the project than someone living on Knox Place. (There is only one Norwood resident on the committee.) The more people who are involved and able to report to officials problems or concerns with the construction progress, the safer it will be.

We can’t blame this on the DEP. It was reportedly representatives of the local community boards and other officials who argued in favor of the meetings being closed. We hope they’ll reconsider.

No representative of Community Board 8 was present, however. Maybe this is reason enough to reopen the discussion of opening the meetings at the next session on April 7.