At last night's continuation of Robert Van Dyke's compliance hearing, Margaret Sharra once again demonstrated that she is not fit to remain sitting on the Planning Board and needs to be removed immediately for her grievous conduct towards a citizen of Winchester who was attempting to give testimony at the hearing.
Mr Van Dyke, who didn't even bother to show up at the last scheduled meeting, once again showed up empty handed without the state approvals needed for his "newest" septic and community water supply systems, which he was has yet to even design and submit to the board and instead rendered excuses as he needed permission to once again perform more testing and was seeking the board's approval to bring another excavator up onto the property to construct another temporary road in which to perform these tests. Knowing full well that he can not do this, not only because this project is in litigation and waiting on a decision from Superior Court; but also without a Joint Use Agreement from PSNH, he can not construct any road to cross under the power lines.
Carl Hagstron, who has been hired by Van Dyke to design his septic systems, attempted to sway the board commenting that without being able to perform these tests they cannot receive state approval as the board has requested. When asked if they had submitted their designs to DES, they replied they were still working on them. They have had since April to accomplish this and yet after nearly four more months of meetings and delays and continuances, they still have not complied.
After making several phone calls to state agencies and inquiring as to the status of Van Dyke's permits, the abutters attempted to submit written proof through emails that Van Dyke's driveway permit had expired and was no longer valid; his site alteration permit was incomplete and did not include information on changes he had made to construct a bridge on site and therefore was voided. He also does not have a Joint Use Agreement from PSNH, which he needs BEFORE any construction can begin, as made clear in a letter from PSNH to Van Dyke's engineers and yet he has already excavated and altered the terrain on site, constructed a temporary road and sunk septic and water test pits and drilled a well inside the wetland's set-back. Depending on the depth of the pilings he will need to install and the width of the wetlands his bridge will span, he may need a 404 wetlands permit and a dredge and fill permit to fill in the swamp land on the site; he hasn't even applied for one.
During the discussions, a member of the audience was given permission to approach the board and give testimony. While speaking and laying the ground work for his questions he was once again rudely interrupted by chairperson Margaret Sharra who began arguing and shouting his name and demanding he stop speaking. She shouted at him several times, asking if he had a question to ask, to wit he replied yes each time and asked her politely to stop interrupting him and allow him to continue. She did the exact same thing to this person at the last board meeting disallowing him from giving testimony to the board. When she was asked to "please allow him to continue, she emphatically stated "no". When she was asked why she was being so rude to him, she threatened him with arrest if he did not leave the building. At that point tempers flared and both began shouting at each other until he left the building of his own free will. Once again, this person's 1st Amendment Right was violated by the board's chairperson. His right to give testimony at a public hearing was denied by someone who is obviously biased. She once again demonstrated she is unfit to sit on the board, let alone be it's chairperson.
After a short tirade by Ms. Sharra, the board continued the meeting, closing the hearings to the public; yet instructed Mr. Van Dyke to submit his new plans to them when they were ready. This is a complete violation of law; to not allow the public to view or comment on these new plans is not right. They also instructed him to prepare to put down top soil and seed all open ares of the site by Sept. 1st, which he refuses to do because in his own words, " it will just wash away ". So much for his adequate soil erosion measures which is allowing sand and silt to wash under the highway and onto abutters property already. This farce has gone on long enough and why he has not been shut down is the question of the day. The board continues to pander to him at every turn. If he had been made to follow the rules from the beginning and submit a completed application as the town's regulations require, he would have had to have all of his t's crossed and i's dotted and all state approvals and permits in hand before discussions started; but the PB acted improperly and has allowed him to proceed without all of the required by law permits and without meeting the other requirements they set forth for him.
Another call to the LGC in Concord and the ACLU and State Attorney General's office is forthcoming and a personal lawsuit may follow. Just how long are our selectmen going to allow this outrageous conduct to continue?
