Wastewater Treatment Plant
Information
Blog
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 That vote has NOT been rescinded.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 This vote has not been rescinded.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 .
My opinion…supported by FACTS
! ! !
Julie Farrell
Either Erving was a party to the contract or they were not. This is not a complicated situation. The town was allegedly cheated by Leonard Kopelman and Mr. Hausen. If you come to the same conclusion as I did, Erving was indeed a party to the contract as described in the original town meeting article,The original contract,the original WWTP documents held by EPA's David Chin, Mr. Dana Putnam's affidavit, The Federal lawsuit, The Federal appeal, the letters from Erving,the Assignee and Assumption Agreement and the testimony of our elder politicians then perhaps we were cheated in regards to the actions of Kopelman and Paige and Erving Paper Mills. This ain't rocket surgery.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand. With this much evidence, how did the BOS ignore this situation for so long?
ReplyDeleteBecause K&P screwed up and Jerry S and Carol S and Bob C etc etc were incharge - Lenny K's Dear friends!!!!!
DeleteIf my memory serves me correctly wasn't Mr. John Henshaw a sewer commissioner during the lawsuit? Can he give his side of what happened here. With all this evidence showing Erving being a party to the lawsuit and the millions of dollars the town owes in damages this smells to high heavens.
ReplyDeleteI just looked in my Annual reports and Mr. Henshaw was not the only Sewer Commissioner still around who may have information about this case. Other Commissioners include Mr. Sean Hamilton,Mr Joseph Farrell, Mr. Wayne Fontaine and Mr. Michael Kirby. Hope no one was missed.
ReplyDeletesean Hamilton OMG is anyone else seeing a pattern here?
DeleteDon't forget, when Gerry retired, he "Handed" his job to Hamilton, there were others who deserved and were qualified for the job but they did not have their noses up Gerry's ass. Sean will sink with the rest of them, why do you think he left his job here so abrubtly when things started to heat up.
DeleteThe checkbook speeks for itself, where did the money go?
ReplyDeleteThe bank that held the 25 million should know where the federal money was transfered to and there you will have the proof and how much it was in the end!
erving kept the 7+ million and the bank should be able to tell where it went!
shareholder
This stinks worse that anything that was ever dumped at the mill, or into the Otter River. Julie is right, and we can not let Chris Stewart tell us to let this go. There is alot to be gained for this town, if I am right. Good old Lennie and Mr. Hausen, did a deal. There is no doubt about it. Mr. Hausen got out of a situation that was not making any money for him, and in the end we as a town ended up in a very expensive mess. This mess will not go away, it will always cost us money, that we do not have. There is so much paper work, with this case, it seems that it would be easy to pick and choose what was looked at, by who. K&P is not going to run up to the judge and say they screwed up, {maybe to save Charlie Hausen a very large ammount of money}. This may be one of the reasons, Lenny hung in here so long, aside from the fact his firm made a ton of money off us, saps. You know, this investigation, is not going to cost us any money. The only concern I have that is this investigation is fair. I do not think the last one was. I expect alot of push back, from Echo Hill, and people who do not want our article to pass. The elephant is in the room, it is not going away. Lets kill it, for once in for all, so our town can heal. My opinion, Bev
DeleteThis was the complaint that was sent to the Inspector General's Office by then Chairman of the Sewer Commissioners, Farrell.
ReplyDeleteGregory W. Sullivan
Office of Inspector General
Dear Sirs
The following is a complaint against town attorneys Kopelman and Paige (K&P) and their fraudulent behavior in regards to their representation of the Town of Templeton and specifically the Board of Sewer Commissioners in a case heard before Judge Robert Cornetta in April of 2005 (case 02-2424C) in Worcester Superior Court. The law firm of K&P should have recused themselves from this case due to shoddy or fraudulent legal work done for the town in regards to the Assignee and Assumption Agreement in the early nineties. Instead the firm of K&P proceeded to botch the case so that they could escape any legal damages that might have been assigned to the firm of K&P by the Town of Templeton and or Erving Paper Mills. After losing the case on purpose the firm of K&P brokered what is believed to have been an illegal settlement between Erving Paper Mills and the Town of Templeton in early 2006. Then the firm of K&P kept the responsible parties (Sewer Commissioners) from taking legal steps to protect the town’s interest by working with town selectman Gerald Skelton and his wife town coordinator Carol Skelton to stifle any efforts for legal remedy for the town by the Sewer Commissioners. The allegation follows.
The Town of Templeton entered into a contract with Erving Paper Mills in March of 1974 (see Helen Flaster’s email (EHF)) to operate and maintain the town’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The contract was to last thirty years from the time the plant became operational in 1979.
Both the length of the WWTP contract and the responsible parties to that contract had already been established in the Federal part of this lawsuit, which began in 1996. Templeton Board of Sewer Commissioners vs American Tissue Mills of Massachusetts et. al; U.S. District Court Civil Action. No. 96-40140-NMG was that case. The case established as facts that Erving was a party to the contract and the contract ended 30 years from when the plant became operational in 1979.
The law firm of Merrick O'Connel Dimale out of Worcester handled the Federal part of the case for the Sewer Commissioners.
Attorney Joseph Hamilton who works for Merrick and O'Connel summarizes the case for the town in a letter sent to selectmen in 1999 (EHF).
In 1991 American Tissue Mills of Mass. bought the Baldwinville Products paper mill from Erving Paper Mills and took over the responsibilities for operation and maintenance of the Town’s WWTP. The law firm who represented the town’s interest in 1991 regarding the WWTP contract transfer was K&P specifically John Giorgio (EHF). This Assignee and Assumption Agreement in1991 (EHF) was a novation and therefore required the signatures of the original parties of the 1974 WWTP contract. The Town of Templeton and Erving Paper Mills were left off the new contract in 1991 by K&P.
Although the WWTP was in disrepair under Erving’s watch prior to 1991, American Tissue Mills let the plant continue to deteriorate. American Tissue also began taking in large amounts septage and other wastes from outside haulers. In November of 1992 a mixture of organic pesticide residues and acrylinitrile and
If anyone has any interest in the rest of this complaint perhaps Paul can post it as a blog if he wishes. I will send it along.
ReplyDeleteThe links to the Assignee and Assumption agreement are incorrect. I hope to repost tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there is a light and water meeting posted for Tuesday . I'll post the agendas tomorrow as well.