About me and my background
I’m Joseph Wagner. I’m based in eastern Connecticut, and my background includes municipal inland wetlands work, aviation maintenance, marine systems, and practical fabrication. Over The Reef is where I collect practical notes, examples, and project writeups from those overlapping areas, especially where written procedures, aging equipment, and real-world conditions do not line up neatly.
On this site, I write about Connecticut inland wetlands and municipal land-use process, practical commission and agent resources, older sailboat repair, marine systems, and small fabrication projects for lab and field use.
Much of my work has involved dealing with complicated systems where rules, equipment, and real-world conditions intersect. My background spans aviation maintenance, municipal land use, vessel maintenance, and mechanical maintenance and fabrication. I also hold a degree in Marine Affairs, which originally sparked my interest in coastal and environmental systems. These experiences continue to shape how I approach difficult problems today.
Aviation Background
Before working in municipal land use and regulatory systems, I spent 13 years in aviation maintenance and I am an FAA-licensed Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. Most of that time was spent as a civilian contractor overhauling UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, followed by work on BK-117, EC-135, and EC-145 helicopters.
That work required careful diagnostics, practical and methodical work, and a disciplined approach to systems where small details matter. I bring the same mindset to regulatory problems, equipment design, and marine systems today.
Land Use and Regulatory Experience
I spent more than 5 years working as a municipal wetlands agent and have served for more than 18 years as an appointed member of a wetlands commission.
Those roles provided experience on both sides of the regulatory process — helping applicants navigate complex regulations while also supporting commissions as they make difficult decisions about land use and environmental protection. The work also involved field inspections and enforcement actions, where decisions made in the meeting room intersect directly with real-world conditions on the ground.
That experience continues to inform my work today, particularly in understanding how regulatory systems function in practice rather than just on paper. Having worked with municipal regulations as both an agent and a commission member, I’m particularly interested in making regulatory processes clearer, more practical, and easier to administer.
My thought process, and how I approach the work on this website
There are some common patterns:
- regulations that technically say one thing but get applied another way
- equipment that works fine until it’s used in a slightly different context
- processes that made sense at one point but have drifted over time
Most of the time, nothing is completely broken. It just doesn’t quite work the way it should.
I start by figuring out the root of the problem. Sometimes it’s in the wording. Sometimes, it’s in how a piece of equipment is being used. Sometimes, no one has stepped back and looked at the whole thing in a while. Sometimes, someone based the whole project off of outdated material.
From there, the goal is to make it workable again without overcomplicating it or breaking what already functions.
What that looks like in practice:
- rewriting a section of regulations so it can actually be used in a meeting
- organizing or clarifying a process so it holds up over time
- building or modifying equipment to solve a specific, real-world problem
The details change, but the underlying work is usually very similar.
If you’re dealing with something like this, I’m happy to take a look and see if I can help. Send me an email at joe@overthereef.com, or use the contact form on the homepage.