Chairman Mike Izbicki responded to accusations from a fellow councilor that the postponement of a public hearing on the Bedford Village Common is an insult to the committee proposing it and the public turning out to comment on it.

The 6.2-acre village common is between Route 101 and Bell Hill Road. The committee is hoping to turn a small pond into a skating area, and build a skating hut, walking trails and birdhouses that resemble town buildings. The purpose of the hearing was to solicit public feedback on how to pay for the park. The council has approved the plan, but it has not decided how to fund it.

The hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 8, but Izbicki was out of state on business and was supposed to return by 5 p.m., two hours in advance of the public meeting. However, his itinerary changed, forcing him to return a day late.

In his absence, Izbicki decided, about a day before the meeting, to postpone the hearing to Nov. 5. At the Oct. 8 meeting, Councilors Michael Scanlon and Chris Bandazian tried to override his decision.

“I really hope the council does not vote to insult everybody in this room who came here tonight to speak, either for or against this, and ask them to come back. Hopefully, they can come back, Nov. 5,” Scanlon said.

In an interview, Vice Chairman Bob Young said the two councilors who had voted against the hearing in the first place were now the ones adamant that it had to be held.

“You didn’t even want this and all of the sudden it has to happen that night,” Young said.

At the meeting, Scanlon suggested that it was not appropriate to delay one agenda item since one councilor could not attend, asking why the other items were not held off as well. Several committee members and residents said they too were disappointed the hearing had been moved.

Izbicki said there were two reasons he had rescheduled it. First, he has led the effort to keep the Bedford Village Common Committee “in line,” making sure it met with other town committees for their input and got approval from the Department of Environmental Services as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, he said.

Also, in his absence, Young would fill in for him. Izbicki said he did not want Young, who would be chairing for the first time, to preside over what he expected could become a heated debate.

Before canceling the hearing, Izbicki said he checked with the town attorney, who told him that as chairman he controls the agenda and could move items around.

“This park’s been going on for 12 years,” Izbicki said. “I don’t see an issue ... if it’s delayed a little bit. I mean they have five years to build a park according to the DES permit and you can get extensions on that. That’s not a big deal. So I didn’t see the issue of putting it off.”

At the Oct. 8 meeting, Councilor Paul Roy said there were several advantages to putting it off to Nov. 5. He said the general election will be over, freeing time for people whose schedules are tied up with campaigns.

Also by that date, the town manager will present his budget for 2009 and the state Department of Transportation will update the town on how much funding it will provide for expanding the Nashua Road and Route 101 intersection, Roy added. If faced with a choice between the park and the intersection, Roy suggested he would rather fund the road work.

Councilors Bandazian and Scanlon were not the only people unhappy with the postponement. Beverly Thomas, chairman of the Bedford Village Common Committee, said she had been “very disappointed” to find out the night before that the hearing would be postponed. She said she had spoken with Izbicki and told him she disagreed with the rescheduling.

Several other members of the committee took the allotted five minutes of public comment to talk about the village common, in spite of the canceled hearing. Several residents who had come out for the meeting, both pro and con, said they, too, were displeased with the situation.

“I am extremely disappointed that they did not hear this agenda item,” said Susan Tufts- Moore. “The volunteers have been working on this project for many, many years and this is something that many people in town want and everyone would benefit from.”

Later in the meeting, the Town Council gave the Town Manager Russ Marcoux the go-ahead to sign off on about $22,400 in expenses for the village common, including surveying, establishment of a fund for managing a conservation easement, purchase of a sign, and clearing work.

The council had initially voted against authorizing as much as approximately $34,000. Scanlon charged his fellow councilors with putting many “roadblocks” in the way of the village common committee, after Roy said he wanted the expense request to be an agenda item at a future Town Council meeting.