Wastewater
Treatment Plant
Information
Blog
I’ve
corrected two links and added more information at the end of the blog. That
will teach me to blog at 4:00 a.m. jf
Below
are links to very large files regarding the wastewater treatment plant lawsuit.
Please note that the Sewer commissioners were authorized to pursue litigation
on April 22, 1996 by a vote of the BOS. That vote has NOT been rescinded. After a careful reading of Attorney William
Hewig’s deposition, you may come to the conclusion that the BOS interfered with
the WWTP lawsuit.
There
are issues with the Assignee and Assumption agreement with American Tissue or
(NEWS). The Town’s interests were not protected by its legal counsel.
The Writs
of Attachment were allowed to lapse.
Vote
by the BOS giving Sewer Commissioners right to pursue litigation regarding
the treatment plant contract. This vote has not been rescinded.
Writs
of attachment – These writs are against American Tissue Mills of
Massachusetts…something K+P completely missed.
K+P
Briefs on case 02-2424 interesting
to note that K+P insists American Tissue Mills is in bankruptcy. No distinction
is made between American Tissue Mills and American Tissue Mills of MA.
Templeton.
Attorney
William Hewig III deposition June 27, 2005. Sewer commissioners are still
in charge of the lawsuit.
American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants powerpoint
presentation regarding American Tissue .
The journey continues…
The
BOS refused to pay attorney Scott Graves for his work in reviewing the issues
surrounding the WWTP lawsuit.
Judge
Fox decision – Town spent roughly $23,000 to “defend” the BOS right to
interfere in lawsuit; while repeatedly denying the Sewer commission access to
legal counsel. Please refer back to:
Vote
by the BOS giving Sewer Commissioners right to pursue litigation regarding
the treatment plant contract. This vote has not been rescinded.
For
more information, please check out the Citizens4Templeton
website.
My
opinion…supported by FACTS ! ! !
Julie
Farrell
In my opinion the town should vote no on question two of special town meeting in regards to funding ($135,000)for more testing of sludge in the lagoon. It is an insult the Sewer Commissioners have even proposed this article. The testing and ultimate disposal of this material is the responsibility of Erving Paper Mills under contract and 40 CFR Federal User Charge Regulations. If you read the documents involved with the WWTP contract and believe the town was well served by Leonard Kopelman and that Erving was not a party to the contract than by all means vote yes on question two, of course you will be living a lie, in my opinion. If you have taken the time to inform yourself on the reality of the situation and see that the town has been taken to the cleaners and that Erving is a party to the contract, then no town money should be spent on matters that should have been paid for under the 1974 contract with Erving Paper Mills. It is time to hold those accountable for screwing the town in regards to the WWTP contract. At some point in time we as a town have to stand up for ourselves. I welcome a response from our Sewer Commissioners. Pete Farrell
ReplyDeleteI liked the power point presentation because it was like a cartoon but serious.
ReplyDeleteI think it is fair to say we don not feel responsable for cleanning up after the mill. WE HAD A DEAL, NO ONE ASKED US IF WE DID NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THE DEAL ANY LONGER. WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WILL DO TO US? PUT US IN JAIL?? ARREST US?? OH MAYBE THEY CAN ARREST US ON AT A TIME. I'LL SEND VIRGINIA FIRST, I'LL GO SECOND. THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ON OUR ASS TO GET THE LAGOON FIXED FOR AGES. THEY CAN WAIT, A LITTLE LONGER, UNTIL WE GET THINGS STRAIGHTENED OUT. BEV.
DeleteIts not like we're going to instantly get money from the settlement. So, how do we refuse to pay for testing right now and not get fined from the EPA? Seems like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't.
ReplyDeleteHere is a letter sent by the Sewer Commission to the DEP regarding the lagoon: The DEP is aware a problem exists in Templeton in regards to the WWTP contract.
ReplyDeleteDear Sirs
After much confusion over the last three years on who is the responsible agency for upholding the Grant Conditions for monies received by the Town of Templeton to build their Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) I have found myself back at the EPA. Mr. Chin of the EPA asked me if I believed a crime had occurred concerning the Grant Conditions. When I answered yes to Mr. Chin’ question he directed me to the Compliance and Enforcement Division. I have filed a complaint.
I would like to thank the DEP for their email of 7/19/10 directing me to the EPA.
As you know when the Agreed Consent Order (ACO) was issued in 2002 the facts involving case U.S. District Court, Civil Action No. 96-40140 or the Federal portion of the town’s lawsuit showed that Erving Paper Mills was a party to the contract signed on March 4 1974. As the Industrial Cost Recovery Act (ICR) repayment plan was one covering thirty years it could be argued that Erving Paper Mills is still on the hook until 2011 even though the ICR was repealed. In any event the Federal Judge certainly believed that Erving was a party to the contract in 2002.
As the contract operator for the Town of Templeton’s waste water treatment plant (WWTP) and major user it is believed by this Sewer Commissioner that Erving Paper Mills is responsible for a major portion of the closing costs involving the town’s lagoon located at the WWTP site according to the contract and the Grant Conditions both parties agreed to when the original contract was signed.
As you know the lawsuit (Worcester Superior Court case 02-2424C) involving the WWTP contract has been settled. After the settlement it was learned by reading William Hewig III deposition taken after Judge Cornetta’s decision on or around May of 2005 that possible interference by the Selectmen’s office had occurred. Mr. Hewig is an attorney for Kopelman and Paige (K&P).
K&P represented the Town of Templeton in 1991 when at that time K&P allegedly failed to protect the town’s interest involving a contract transfer involving the operation and maintenance of the town’s WWTP. This inaction by K&P may have caused an incredible financial burden to be shifted from Erving Paper Mills to the Town of Templeton.
Should K&P have recused themselves from case 02-2424C due to their inaction in 1991? Why did K&P omit the Federal lawsuit from the discovery phase of case 02-2424C? Why were key witnesses omitted? Why were the Selectmen acting in a unilateral manner allowed to interfere in case 02-2424C? What right did K&P have to allow a settlement that may have been fraudulent? These are just a few of the questions needing attention.
I have filed a complaint with the EPA Compliance and Enforcement Division and am encouraged that the EPA will make recommendations that the regulations be followed and that an investigation be opened to see how this interference and other irregularities in case 02-2424C occurred and where the Town of Templeton should legally go from here.
As it is hoped that the User Charge Regulations/Grant Conditions will be upheld and the Corporate interests that have abused these regulations will be held accountable it is not believed by this Sewer Commissioner that the town tax-payers or sewer users should put themselves in further debt by funding what should have been Erving’s contractual responsibility.
Sincerely yours
Pete Farrell
Chairman Sewer Commission
So, what was the response from the EPA to this letter?
DeleteThe day we were in E.T. for the block party, I introduced Deniese Andrews to Mark Moschetti. He spoke to her about the woman at the EPA that keeps making us do all this testing. It is not like this stuff has not been tested, tested, and tested again. Ok lady, enough11 We need our Reps., to tell her to be reasonable!! We do not have a endless bag of money. The PCB's in that waste came from the mill, we did not do it. I think we need to negotiate with them. If the EPA wants this stuff tested, let them test it. If they want it moved, let them move it. Look at gardner, the junk yard near Stop&Shop, the government cleaned it up, along with Kammans wood shop. I know you guys are doing what you can to protect the town, and I agree, but this mess is not ours, its the mills. In the end it is up to the people. The way it should be. Bev. I STILL SAY, LET OUR SENATORS AND REPS DO THEIR JOBS, AND HELP US11
DeleteHere's the first test as to how our slanderous state rep will 'help' Templeton. I bet she does nothing.
DeleteYou mean, you hope she does nothing so you can feel like you were right not to vote for her. How about wishing she DOES do something so that your town will benefit. Nice of you to wish for the worst in order to feed your ego. Thanks buddy.
DeleteResponse to Anonymous 8:00 am: 11/12/12
ReplyDeleteThe EPAOIG took my complaint and sent an agent James Kelley out to talk to me regarding the situation. Mr. Kelley informed me that he would look into the lagoon situation but the politics surrounding this was out of his league and suggested the FBI as the next step in the futile effort to get resolution for the town. All of the correspondence with EPA and FBI have been forwarded to the Selectmen's Office during the time period involved. It was about this time frustration was certainly setting in as the Sewer Commissioners had been denied legal representation from the Board of Selectmen and Kopelman and Paige. If Paul thinks the FBI complaint would make a good blog I can send it along. I will let visitors to Pauly's Templeton Watch know the Z word comes up in the complaint to the FBI and I have been told this is not a politically correct word here at PTW just the same it is on record at the Selectmen's Office for those who want the official transcript.
So, the paper trail of the complaints stopped at the BOS office when they denied the Sewer Dept to seek legal counsel in 2010. And that was because they didn't want the Sewer Dept to speak to another attorney besides K&P? Or rather the Sewer Dept did talk to an attorney but because it wasn't K&P they refused to pay the bill. Well, that sounds like the BOS interfered with the whole deal right there. Did anyone on the BOS ever explain WHY they were denying legal counsel to the Sewer Dept and/or WHY they didn't pursue the issue to its end? Was this also about the time that the BOS tried to make themselves the Sewer Commissioners? If so, that is suspect as well. It seems as if they were trying to gain control over the Sewer Dept to put a lid on this issue.
DeleteWith so much evidence, sometimes its hard to read through it all and still hold on to the overall story. Thank you for explaining further. I'm beginning to put the puzzle pieces together. I just hope other citizens in town will bother to try to understand it as well. Once one understands the back story, all these other events begin to make sense and fall into place. As an objective observer, I would say yes, wrong doing occurred. And I really hope other citizens will come to the same conclusion.
The BOS had already signed a settlement with Erving Paper Mill for $50,000. Ooops! That was top secret! Yet another settlement agreement that was not brought before town meeting for approval. The sewer commissioners felt they had the right to hire legal counsel as they had in the past. The vote from 1996 has never been rescinded. So the sewer commissioners hired Attorney Graves to review the lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteThe BOS did NOT want any of this information to come to light so they withheld payment of $3,500 to Attorney Graves (The same "powers that were" that allowed a $399,925 payment for 252 Baldwinville Rd on the basis of an e-mail...yes Chris that is your signature on that e-mail invoice!) Then they (BOS)spent about $23,000 of tax payer money defending the BOS right to refuse payment to Attorney Graves. K+P was only too happy to assist in that case.
Yes, anonymous 4:10 pm, at the same time the BOS led by BC and gang tried to take over control of the sewer department by denying the sewer commission access to legal counsel and taking away any hiring authority. There was also a warrant article to request special legislation for the BOS to become sewer commissioners.
It's a lot to take in.
Looks like a warm fuzzy relationship between our BOS and K&P. Too bad that our selectmen felt free to throw the town to the wolves. If anyone can explain to me how that relationship did anything to help the residents of this town, tell me now? I smell a skunk, more than one. Looks to me like our old friends at K&P, helped Charlie Housen get rid of Baldwinville Products, to a very unsavory bunch, and found a slimy way to wash his hands with the town. This was a really rotten thing to do, and I can not see how It could be legal. K&P was working for us, not Mr. Housen. Their responsability was to US!!!, NOT CHARLIE!! WITH THE LAWYERS, IT IS MORE LIKE A ISSUE OF ETHICS, OR THEIR LACK OF. Ok, you want to say, thats ok, we will just pay, and pay! I say like hell, It is not ok! WE WILL FIND OUT IF WE HAVE A SINGLE HONEST JUDGE IN THIS STATE OR NOT. IF NOT, THEN WE ARE ALL IN TROUBLE. I think we should find out, we owe it to ourselves, and the people in this town. MY OPINION BEV.
DeleteDid Mr. Graves ever get paid? He should have. It seems these people who were on our BOS, did not have much a problem throwing away our money, on so many things that turned into nothing. What did I hear, it cost us 10,000. for a appraisal of the golf course? What was spent looking for land for the school? Wasn't it something like 200,000.? Gee, how much did K&P make last year? I know they were paid $5,000. in one week. You know, I have been around for a while, but the old saying is right, YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME, BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME. BEV.
DeleteYep,
DeleteGot an appraisal for the golf course but not for 252 Baldwinville Rd. Wasn't Chris Stewart on the golf committee? Who else??
First thing to find out is if Temleton by-laws are binding, as in stand up in court, next have a judge rule on the "settlements" if those transfers of money are ruled settlements and town by-laws are binding, then we have a legal case, from my vantage point anyway. We, the town can then make a list of all instances where the law was broken and see if a case for conspiracy can be made against selectmen and then perhaps we can send some to jail where they belong. One thing is for sure, don't expect Len Kopelman to sit by and watch his name & law firm get black listed without using his contacts and influence (former attorneys who now work for the state or present employed lawyers who use to work for the state, Lauren Goldberg is one. This can be checked by going online print out list of attorneys at K&P then check bios of those attorneys and see iif they ever worked for state, I believe you will find quite the web of deciet and influence peddling. Also ask the selectmen for a copy of the letter Anne Gobi wrote to the DOR admonishing them for the financial report on Templeton, then ask the selectmen and rep Gobi who asked that letter to be written.
ReplyDelete