To Zoning, Planning, Code Enforcement and the Selectmen:
November 1, 2012
I am asking everyone who is involved in this decision
to realize the life threatening risk that is at stake and to use common
sense, good judgment and to be responsible with your duties to the
residents of Winchester regarding their safety and security and the towns liability and accountability should something catastrophic happen.
Now let me ask you all this question. A variance requires a
hardship and this person is claiming that he has to move these trucks
because his insurance co. has now notified him that he is in a flood-zone.
A hardship to me would be if he had no other options of where to put
them, yet I see many other better suited options in and around town and
they are not surrounded by homes...
The possibilities that come to mind are Kuliclks, Oneal's Mill, the lady who owns the discount store in town has several locations
that would work well and my biggest question is that if the town is
currently renting space to this person at the old tannery site, then why
not move him to the sand pits and continue to collect the money? Can
the town afford to turn away money? Are our taxes not high enough
already? Shouldn't we be looking for ways to reduce the tax burden on
our residents since we are already the highest in the state???
There are also other options in Hinsdale, Swanzey and Keene that could and should be looked at.
Everyone who is part of the town system has an obligation and is accountable for these types of decisions and you should all be concerned about doing the right thing...
Below are my top concerns regarding the placement of these containers:
1) Acts of nature; forest fires & lightning strikes could set off these bombs.
2) Mischievous youth trying to get into the trucks for some fun could set these off by accident.
3) Crooks and vandals could accidentally ignite them.
4) They could be set off on purpose by someone.
5) They could be used for terrorist acts.
6) My families safety and security.
7) My animals safety & security.
8) The decreased property values of all the surrounding homes due to the dangerous nature of the stored explosives.
9) The fact that anyone who is trying to sell their property in an
already down market, will now have to disclose the fact that there are
large amounts of explosives stored close by.
10) And this should really be number one is the fact that there is a
school less than a quarter mile from where these will be stored. If
children are playing in the school yard and these go BANG; it could be
tragic! Lets not forget that many of these explosives are also missiles and that what goes up, down and sideways will it something somewhere...
Below is a video of a test explosion on one 20' trailer with fireworks stored-in it (My Neighbor is asking to store nine 40' trailers!)
This is a quote from a container that
went up in Bainbridge this year "I heard that a man was target shooting
along with his daughter, and a shot ricocheted into the storage trailer.
I heard he was going to pay for the fireworks that were destroyed. Saw
it on a couple of TV news broadcasts last night. They didn't mention
that some of the fireworks were for Bainbridge. But then Seattle news
almost never mentions Bainbridge, or talks about us in the forecast or
anything. It's funny.
But a wild story. They played the 911 tape,
which by the way is a lousy thing to do. What does it say about us when
we sit back and listen to 911 recordings for entertainment?
Anyway, the guy is supposedly going to pay for what was destroyed, so we should be okay."
PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT NOTHING IS GOING TO
HAPPEN. TAKE THE NESESARY SAFETY AND SECURITY PRECAUTIONS TO PREVENT A
DISASTER; IT IS YOUR DUTY...
