Saturday, January 16, 2016

Deja Vu Destruction


 Triangle of land is a "wetland resource area" (Connecticut River on left)

So this unfortunate incident of clear cutting trees without permission and then saying it was all a terrible misunderstanding reminds me of the regrettable incident at UMass a few years back when a contractor demolished the historic old Trolley Station thinking it was all approved.



Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 demolished 2012

Or the Thomas Becket affair when old King Henry asked a little too loudly, "Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?" And some of his henchmen did so, thinking they were doing the King a favor.

Pretty much the first thing you see when entering Hadley coming off the Calvin Coolidge Bridge is this swath of property with nothing on it now but an abandoned gas station.  And until recently the next thing you saw was the rotting remains of the Aqua Vitae restaurant.

It looked pretty lousy three months ago, and today with the clear cut trees scattered about horizontally, it still looks pretty lousy.  Although removing the old Aqua Vitae building was a huge step in the right direction.

I'm told there were at least a half-dozen trees that were in good shape and did not deserve to die.

Hadley has a right to be pissed over Pride President Robert Bolduc ignoring a Conservation Commission order to leave the darn trees alone.  Don't mess with a volunteer commission in a tight knit farm community like Hadley.

So assess a fine on Mr. Bolduc for a couple thousand per healthy tree whacked, make him replant a bunch more (some of them sizable) to replace the slaughtered ones, and allow the site to be cleaned up and construction of something nicer to commence.

It is as after all, Hadley's front yard. 

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's face it-the type of people who do these un- authorized destructions are blatant CRIMINALS..this is the norm for the trade-this brazen arrogant-ignorance pervades-they know what they do-and why they did it-and they got off dirt cheap-this type of CRIMINALITY needs to be PROSECUTED-ASAP-these criminals prey on the public overlooking this-I cherished the old Umass trolley stop-Umass is guilty in this too-say no go !

Anonymous said...

Soon to be a beautiful gas station.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You get this exorcised about trees. I can just imagine how you feel about the selling of baby parts!

Anonymous said...

Larry, how many of your commenters do you suppose are on stimulants?

Anonymous said...

Lawsuit over shot-down drone could set U.S. law

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He calls himself the “Drone Slayer.” And William Merideth, who shot down a drone over his Hillview home last summer, says he’d “do it again, with a smile.”

Dismissing criminal charges against him for firing a gun within city limits, a judge said Merideth was within his rights when he took out the $1,800 unmanned aircraft, which Merideth said he feared was peeping on his teenaged daughters on the back porch.

But a lawsuit filed this month by the drone’s owner, John David Boggs, could settle an issue that experts say has never before been addressed by the courts: the conflict between a homeowner’s right to privacy and the federal government’s exclusive sovereignty over the skies.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it has sole authority over the national airspace, while Kentucky law gives landowners the right to use force necessary to prevent trespassing.

Continued at

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/16/suit-shot-drone-set-us-law/78919334/

Larry Kelley said...

Don't mess with the FAA.

They're tougher than Conservation Commissions (and they have way more lawyers).

Anonymous said...

The only good lawyer is a dead lawyer.

Anonymous said...

You can say that until you need one. And someday you will.

Anonymous said...

Until you need a lawyer.

Anonymous said...

The landowner did not give permission to cut the trees????? That is a big deal, that would be timber trespass, theft, etc. Someone is a criminal and should be punished.

Now if the landowner did not get permission from the some government body, well then that is just a protest against government theft and not really a big deal at all. This would be moral and rather adult.

Now if this is used for firewood, no permission needed, except for the landowner, the only person that should be making decisions about his or her trees. Usually illegal clear cuts refer to sections of forest, not small stands of trees in semi-urban environments. In Mass, I believe a clear cut greater than 10 acres is illegal, was this 10 acres? We all know that Massachusetts has a deficit of open space and browse environments since the end of agriculture and charcoal making. Should we encourage tree cutting as a result?

Now if this firewood is sold by the cord, well that is very illegal, as in Massachusetts, the cord is not a legal measurement because it has been established that the people of Massachusetts do not know what a cord is, they get confused. It is a violation of the 1st, but this is Mass, no enforcement.

Anonymous said...

You typically only need a lawyer if you have done business with a lawyer.

Anonymous said...

And when your lawyer stabs you in the back?

I actually had TWO of them do it, paying thousands of dollars for someone to collude with the other side.

THAT is why I say the only good lawyer is a dead one.
You can't trust them.

Anonymous said...

What trees? If it floods, what do you need trees for???

Anonymous said...

What's this got to do with Amherst?

Larry Kelley said...

People are the same all over the world (Or: any excuse for a drone shot).

Anonymous said...

Not a fan of Pride- A woman working for them was fighting to get alcohol in our neighborhood stores while fighting against a group home in hers.
But- They finally did something to improve that property.

Hopefully the Getty station eyesore will be the next to go (I'm sure Getty is not aware that their sign is still there!)

Anonymous said...

9:19 hate speech . Nice.

Larry Kelley said...

Yes I thought about not publishing it (especially since one-third of my advertisers are lawyers) but I also think it's good to know that whackos like that are out there.

Anonymous said...

Ever think that much as smoke indicates fire, someone with a negative attitude toward attorneys might indicate a problem worthy of concern?