New Land Not So Free after all!
It appears the land deal with the state may not be so great after all. There may be a problem with communication or it may have been just another nod and a wink deal. Seems there was a crew trying to do test borings on the land "given" to the town were kicked off the land by some state officials. After a go 'round with Senator Brewer and the governor, they may have gotten access to the land again. Now the state wants to be reimbursed for the loss of agriculture and hunting rights to that land. at the last meeting of TESBC, seems like a price of $10,000.00 per acre is now required. The town may also have to obtain some more land for entrance and a wide enough in and out lane (s). There of course may be some wetlands issues. I believe the next meeting will be on July 23, 2014 and I hope everyone looks for the meeting posting and attends.
The town building in East Templeton is looking pretty nice inside thanks to a lot of town folks who came to help. Thank you very much to all.
Jeff Bennett
Is there no end to the State agencies with their hands out ?? The fact that the old Fernald School never contributed anything to this town, but wants what ?? Oh yes, money !! I for one, would think the piece of land we traded is just as good as the one they gave us. I take that back !! The land on Barre Road is most likely better, so it may be they owe us. Land off 202 will cost a fortune to just make the driveway, and do the site work., so Jeff is right, this may not be such a good deal after all. Time will tell, and it will come out in the wash.!! Bev.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion i think we should give the State land back. Move the Highway department to another site. Build the Elementary School on Baldwinville Rd. I have said this many times and it is my opinion that this should have been the plan since the beginning. The Elementary School should be in the center of town near the other schools.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts are that the State/Big Business still wishes to stick a landfill in this area as was the plan back in 2004, this may be why they are making it hard for the town to access this property. It would be nice to leave this land for farming and hunting and move the school plans to something more centralized with infrastructure attached.
ReplyDeleteAround and around we go, where we stop nobody knows !! It would have been a good idea for Ms. Miller to have asked for a vote on whether the taxpayers want to support this project to start with, but that is just my opinion. The fact that another road block has been put in place with $$ attached just pushes the cost of the project up. Gee, I wish we had that two hundred and thirty thousand the earlier Elementary School Committee spent for nothing, looking for land with no result. It would come in handy right about now, but you can't beat a dead horse, even if the thought of pissing away so much money irks me to no end. Baldwin Templeton may be right, but when I was on the BOH we had a problem with Lilly Chemical's drains going into the little wetland on the side of their building. If the tank farm had a overflow or someone spilled the contents of the varnish they were producing, it all ran into this area. I do believe one of my partners on the BOH was trying to protect Mr. Kelly the manager, because "he was a nice guy" and as a result my water samples were lost. I called the EPA in Washington and because a little brook ran into he pond at the bottom of the hill and from there into the Trout Brook area, I was afraid it would have had a effect on our water supply. The people in Washington gave me the name and number for their Boston office. A guy by the name of John Hakkila came along with a hydrologist, who's name I can't remember. She and I looked over the maps of our old landfill, and was not in the least bit happy with the area it was in. We also took a ride through the area. I think the area needs to be left alone and we could fight any attempt for a second landfill and as long as our Town by-law stands against allowing rubbish and garbage from coming into town stands, we would have the grounds to say no. The money that is promised by folk that want to dump on any town may look good but as you know a town loses more than it gains. Bev.
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