At the 09/19/11 meeting, despite numerous complaints from citizens of both Winchester and Swanzey, filed with the Town's Code Enforcement Officer and the State DES in regards to numerous violations committed by Mitchell, including operating and selling asphalt commercially before he even had a compliance hearing and a passionate plea from State Representative Jane Johnson of Swanzey and another letter from State Representative Daniel Carr of Winchester, the Board, minus regular members Kim Gordon ( recused at the request of Mitchell's attorney), Jack Marsh ( absent ) and Princess Blodgett ( absent ) voted 5-0 to approve Mitchell's application even though they knew he had not complied with all of the conditions they set for him in January of this year. Dean Beaman, chair of the board, who had expressed great joy at the decision of the ZBA hearing to grant Mitchell a special exception and again at the January Planning Board meeting where he stood and applauded the Board's decision to grant Mitchell a Conditional Approval, participated in the hearings and voted, despite being asked to recuse himself for his obvious prejudice; but refused to do so saying," I will abstain from voting".
Members of the public had also asked the Board to hold off on making a decision and continue the hearings until the Town's Code Enforcement Officer was present to answer questions regarding his incomplete report given to the board on August 11th in which he stated he could not inspect certain conditions, as the plant was not running when he went there. Dean Beaman and Margaret Sharra who had accompanied Leroy Austin to the site, knew this; yet refused to relay this information to other board members and despite the board also requesting Leroy to be there at their previous meeting, didn't feel it necessary to have him present to answer questions or explain his incomplete report to the public.
The Board, on their own, without any formal request by Mitchell waived certain conditions and the time lines they had previously set and gave Mitchell until December to comply and then voted to approve his application .
Does anyone now wonder why this Board constantly gets sued? Can someone explain the rush to approve despite his not complying with all of the conditions they set for him? Was the Board rushing because the Town had committed an illegal act using asphalt from the plant to pave roads before he had his Compliance hearing and knew they had broken the law?
Once again, the more than questionable decision by this board will lead to another expensive lawsuit and court case costing thousands, which could all have been avoided by simply waiting until Mitchell had complied with all of the conditions they had previously set for him in the time they had allotted him to do so.
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3 comments:
This is not acceptable conduct why wouldn't they wait until all the regular members were present and have Austin there? Why give someone an opportunity to file a lawsuit because it wasn't a fair or just hearing? What the hell is wrong with these board members that they are willing to risk thousand of tax payer dollars to defend these actions when all they has to do is wait until this guy had done everything they wanted. It is time to vote these people off this board and get some responsible level headed people to take their place, this is nuts doing things like this and costing the town
I can see this is a no-brainer, they'll be sued and back in court again blaming the people that sued them crying we couldn't do it any other way. What a crock, why do we stand for this wasting of our money on this kind of crap? What in hell is wrong with these idiots using common sense and following the town regulations? Why do they always give waivers and these special exemptions to these contractors and developers? Why can't they just say no to them and let it go. Whatever few tax dollars we may get is it worth the lawsuit expense and the ruining of neighbor's properties? I think not!
Haven't we all seen this time and time again? Last lawsuit they blamed that Mr. Towne for everything now I wonder who they'll blame this time? They should all look inward and there'd be no questions as to who is to blame, no one but themselves. Trouble is we all pay for their inexcusable behavior.
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