The Third Street Sinkhole Commission held its inaugural meeting Tuesday in a conference room three blocks from the sinkhole, announcing that its first major undertaking will be to establish how many sinkholes there are. The crater, which opened on January 26 between Elm and Harbor Road and has since entered its third month, was described in the commission's founding charter as "one or more sinkholes," a figure the body has now been tasked with refining.

The nine-member commission was assembled by the city following sustained public interest in the crater, which remains approximately 40 feet in diameter and of a depth the public works department continues to describe as "significant." No member of the commission has a background in geology, though one, chairwoman Eloise Grantham, noted that she had "lived near a pond as a child." The commission's charter grants it the authority to count the sinkhole but not to repair it, a distinction Grantham said the body took "very seriously."

Commissioners deliberated for two hours before adopting a working methodology. Under the approved framework, a sinkhole will be counted as one sinkhole if a person can walk around its perimeter without leaving the sinkhole, and as two or more sinkholes if they cannot. The vote passed 6–2, with one abstention from a member who objected that the definition "presupposes the existence of a perimeter." A field count is scheduled for the week of April 21, weather and continued subterranean activity permitting.

Grantham told reporters the commission expected to deliver a preliminary figure by summer. Asked whether a final tally would trigger repairs, she said that question fell to a separate body that had not yet been formed. "We count," she said. "That's the mandate. Someone has to establish the number before anyone can argue about it."