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Child, 4, gives to HPD for others

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Officer Michelle McIntyre and Halifax Police Dept. Administrative Assistant Antoinette Tripolone Ross fill their baskets at Halifax Walmart shopping for toys for children in need. All these were made possible by the donation of a 4-year old boy in Halifax. (Photo courtesy Halifax Police Department)

HALIFAX — In early December, says Halifax Police Administrative Assistant Antoinette Tripolone Ross, a four-year-old boy walked into the Halifax Police Station with his grandfather. The young boy wanted to make a generous donation– $100– to children less fortunate than him in the area, said Tripolone Ross, who was touched by the gesture.

“I had goosebumps. What a way to raise a child,” she exclaimed.

She accepted the donation on behalf of the department, which went to their gift fund. Under the direction of Chief Joao Chaves, the department decided to match the funds given by the child, bringing the total donation to $200.

Tripolone Ross and Officer Michelle McIntyre, the department’s School Safety Officer, contacted John Mather, the manager of Halifax’s Walmart Supercenter, asking if there was any possibility an employee discount might be used to extend the $200 and the number of toys that could be purchased.

The two were delighted to find out that Mather would instead match the money on behalf of Walmart, bringing the total donation to $400.

“It was uplifting. I was inspired,” said Mather. “Let’s keep this good thing going,” he said he thought upon hearing of the boy’s generosity.

Tripolone Ross and McIntyre spent just over $400 on toys for children in need. They were picked up by the Salvation Army for distribution, according to the department.

“We need more of this kind of stuff in the world,” said Mather.

The boy and his grandfather toured the police station, met Chief Chaves and posed for a photo in a police cruiser.

“Look at what he [the boy] started,” said Tripolone Ross. “I can’t wait for next year,” she added, excitedly.

Roofer hearing delayed

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Matthew Will stands before the court in Wareham at a previous hearing. (Photo by Abram Neal)

PLYMOUTH — A pretrial conference for roofer Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, scheduled Friday, Dec. 21 for two of five known open larceny-related cases in Plymouth County, has been delayed.

Will last appeared in Wareham District Court Dec. 7 on three other cases. A new alleged victim has come forward first to the Express and later to local authorities with a similar story to those of other alleged victims.

Will’s Plymouth-based attorney, Jack Atwood, delayed the two hearings because he was busy with another case in Quincy, according to court records. The proceedings were canceled at the last minute, on Thursday, Dec. 20, although Will’s cases still appeared on the court’s daily logs as late as Friday morning.

Will is currently facing a total of one count of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, two counts of larceny over $1,200, 19 counts of larceny over $250 by false pretense, one count of larceny under $250 by false pretense and one count of forgery of a document.

There were 23 area households in three communities claiming they have been victimized to date, who have lost a combined $153,197.34 in monies allegedly given for work not done, with individual losses ranging from $695 to $15,569. Most of these victims are over age 55, and many are elderly, according to police reports. The alleged victim who lost the most money is 78 years old.

These totals do not include the newest alleged victim, who is from Wareham.

Will had done work for him in 2017, before moving to Wareham, he said, with no issue. He appeared to have a good reputation at the time, the semi-retired man stated in an email and a later phone interview with the Express.

Previous work

Based on his previous positive experience with Will, when his daughter and son-in-law had major roof and chimney issues at their East Bridgewater home, he said he chose to help them out financially and reached out to the roofer, calling it a big mistake not to recheck his licenses.

Checking Will’s licenses, though, may not have shown anything as his CSSL-Roofing and HIC licenses are currently active, although he does have several pending arbitrations before the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, according to state records.

The Wareham alleged victim said he paid $14,000 for a roof that never vented properly, and waste shingles and trash are still on-site, weeks after work began on the home. He also said he paid $6,047 for chimney work that was never started, and siding was stripped on one section of the house, which is still bare. He estimates that there is $7,000 of outstanding work to be done.

The Wareham man reached out to local authorities, he said in a Wednesday, Dec. 19, email, who alerted Will to another complaint against him.

This prompted a phone conversation between the man and Will, who promised to come Dec. 27 to finish everything except the chimney.

“I don’t hold much hope but if by chance I can get any work completed I would like to try first before I move ahead [to press charges],” he wrote.

Will’s next court appearance, should no new charges be filed, will be on Monday, February 11, 2019, at 9 a.m. in Plymouth District Court for pre-trial hearings. The three Wareham District Court cases have been continued to March 4, 2019, at 9 a.m. also for pre-trial hearings.

Will could not be reached by email or phone for comment as of press time.

ITW made it a federal case

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Inside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse. (Photo courtesy United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.)

BOSTON — Attorneys Jeffrey Angley and Robert Hopkins, representing Industrial Tower and Wireless, LLC., of Marshfield, squared off against Plympton Town Counsel Robin Stein and her co-counsel, Jackie Cowin, representing the Town of Plympton Zoning Board of Appeals before US District Judge Denise J. Casper – possibly best known for presiding over the infamous James “Whitey” Bulger case – in courtroom 11 of the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in the Seaport District of Boston Monday, Nov. 26.

ITW is suing the Plympton ZBA, alleging their right to build a 120-foot, lattice-style cellphone tower at 0 Palmer Road, at the southwestern corner of Palmer Road and Center Street, which they now own, records say, was violated under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.

According to public records, the roughly four-acre lot was recently sold by Lawrence Marble, Jr. and Joy Marble, both of Halifax, trustees of ELBRAM Realty Trust, to Michael Umano, trustee of ITW Realty Trust, 40 Lone St., Marshfield, for $235,000. The sale was recorded with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds Nov. 9.

The court proceedings were brief.

Casper held a commanding presence over the courtroom. Angley appeared at ease before the court and spoke more than the other three attorneys present. Stein was not as vocal as Angley. Neither of the co-counsels addressed the court directly.

The event, a scheduling conference, informed the court of the parties’ proposed schedule for discovery, disclosure and depositions. Casper worked amicably with the lawyers to finalize the schedule they had jointly submitted.

The lawsuit, filed in early September, will likely continue on through at least next summer, according to court documents.

Casper asked if there were any settlement prospects.

Angley replied that there were not. He said that most of these types of cases were disposed of by a judge with a summary judgement – an order ruling that no factual issues remain, and a complaint can be decided upon the facts by a judge without a trial.

ITW has a history of suing local government boards in federal court who have opposed them, according to court records. They have some history in Plympton, as well, as the ZBA decision denying them a permit to build their cellphone tower took several months to arrive at and they have had their eye on Plympton for “years,” according to testimony at the hearing in Plympton.

The communications company first came before the ZBA seeking zoning relief under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which, according to Stein, was created to help build telecommunications infrastructure because most cell towers do not conform to local zoning bylaws in cities and towns across the nation.

According to Stein, the TCA of 1996 requires local zoning ordinances to be waived for a cellphone tower should a ZBA find that there is both a significant gap in cellphone coverage and that there are no alternate sites to locate it.

Stein warned the board that this type of case has been well litigated in the federal courts, in this circuit and others. However, there are examples where localities have prevailed against telecommunications companies in federal court on certain grounds, including aesthetics, such as the T-Mobile Northeast v. Town of Islip ruling of 2012 in the Eastern District of New York.

ITW made claims that 7,000 to 8,000 vehicles a day pass through an alleged 2.5 by 1.5-mile coverage gap. This was never independently verified, according to both ITW and town officials. ITW claims that it had been looking for “years” for a location to locate a cellphone tower and this one site was the only one of 36 they had exhaustively identified as suitable.

On Aug. 31, the ZBA voted down ITW’s application, 2-1, to build a tower on the business-zoned lot, surrounded by residential/agricultural zoned land, after multiple contentious hearings on the matter were held over the course of last summer.

Board members Dave Alberti and Harry Weikel voted against the tower, despite warnings by Stein that they were opening Plympton up to a federal lawsuit.

Board Chairman Ken Thompson voted for the project, with little visible enthusiasm, noting after that because the vote had to be unanimous, and he voted last, his vote didn’t matter. He then voted in favor.

During final deliberations, Weikel noted that he counted as 17 “significant” variances, not just the four in the application, that he believed the applicant required for the construction of a cell-tower. He listed other possible locations he found suitable, including several town-owned parcels of land.

The lawsuit takes special note of Weikel’s objections, stating in a document filed Nov. 16 that, “[a]fter the close of the hearing and during the Board’s deliberations, one Board member then recounted a series of properties that ITW allegedly should have considered but as to which ITW was given no advance notice nor opportunity to respond. The exercise establishes the hostility of the Board to ITW’s application and the utter bad faith tactics of the Board.”

Weikel, at a hearing in August, stated as previously reported by the Express, “I’m here to protect the people … that’s the only reason I accepted this appointment.”

May trial date for Kilburn

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Justin Kilburn, 30, stands in court at his latest appearance on Thursday, Dec. 13. (Photo by Abram Neal)

PLYMOUTH — Justin Kilburn, 30, was before Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty, II, Thursday, Dec. 13, in Plymouth Superior Court for a status hearing and a May trial date was assigned.  The Kingston man is accused in the death of Diane Giordani, 52, of Plympton, and her German Shepherd, following a collision on County Road, Route 106, in Plympton May 10.

Giordani and her dog “Blitz” died at the scene of the collision after her vehicle was struck head-on by Kilburn’s truck, according to a previous release from Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office.

Kilburn was indicted on one count of motor vehicle manslaughter by operating under the influence of alcohol and motor vehicle homicide by operating under the influence of alcohol June 5, according to the DA.

Several family members and friends of Giordani were present at the brief hearing, including her husband and sister.

The court selected two pre-trial hearing dates to address issues before trial, a March 1, 2019, status hearing and an April 30, 2019, final pre-trial conference. The court also set a trial date of May 6, 2019.

The judge, Moriarty, asked if this was the type of case that could be settled with a lobby conference, where both parties could agree on a disposition without going to trial.

ADA Russell Eonas responded that it was possible, but that the commonwealth would not be taking the vehicular manslaughter by OUI charge off-the-table.

The collision was investigated by Plympton Police, State Police detectives assigned to the DA’s office, the State Police CARS Unit and State Police Crime Scene Services. Police allege that Kilburn was driving his pickup truck at a high rate of speed, when he crossed the center line and struck the car driven by Giordani head-on. The investigation found that Kilburn had a blood alcohol content level of .17 percent at the time of the crash, according to the DA’s office.

Jack Atwood, a Plymouth-based defense attorney was appointed by the court to defend Kilburn.

Michael Giordani, Diane’s husband, when asked how he was after the hearing, said simply, “It’s a tough time of year.”

Kilburn remains confined at home with a GPS ankle monitor.

Parking issues dominate

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Asst. Assessor Wendy Jones was before the board for a tax classification hearing on Monday, Dec. 17. (Photo by Abram Neal)

PLYMPTON — The Board of Selectmen met Monday, Dec. 17, and spent the bulk of their hour and 15-minute long meeting discussing their “parking lot,” where they “park” issues that they wish to deal with at a later time. 

The page-long list of items was projected on a whiteboard, and each item was discussed and assigned.

The board reviewed the master plan for the town campus, noting that the most pressing issues were with the actual, physical parking lot in front of the buildings, and admitted there is as yet no long-term solution for those parking issues. 

They also spoke about the driveway for the new police station, and Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy said that the new police station construction management company, P3 Inc., planned to widen the driveway around the back of Town House, necessitating the moving of a utility pole.

The board appeared pleased with the progress at the new police station.

Selectman Christine Joy was concerned about the lack of lighting at the entrance to the campus, saying it is unsafe. Dennehy will look into a solution, she said.

The intersection at Ring Road and Main Street was on the list as well. Selectmen Chairman John Traynor labeled it a problem intersection and asked about the cost of moving a Verizon pole to modify it. Dennehy said she’d look into the cost. 

This is not the first time the intersection has been under scrutiny. In September 2017, former Highway Surveyor Jim Mulcahy presented a plan to change the intersection, going so far as to consult a design engineering consultant. Plans to “widen the curve” there never came to fruition, due to public pushback. 

Joy suggested a small rotary at the anecdotally troublesome crossroads, low enough for public safety vehicles to drive over. She also said that the Old Colony Planning Council might be able to assist, noting that they are great with small projects such as this. 

The “tech” master plan was also examined, and the new email server is slowly coming together, despite some technical difficulties, said Dennehy. The fire chief is the first with one of the town’s new email addresses, and is the only one on the new server right now. At first, he was not able to send or receive emails to or from the old town server, but this was resolved, according to the town administrator.

The Green Communities grant work is still underway, helping the town reduce energy use and costs by implementing clean energy projects in municipal buildings, facilities and the Dennett Elementary School. Dennehy is meeting this week with state officials to discuss further disbursements. She noted that the grant is unfortunately not for buildings like the new police station, just older ones that can be retrofitted.

Finally, the board agreed with the town administrator’s suggestion that the board survey various Town House stakeholders for the use of the former police department space after they move to their new building. Selectman Assistant Brigette Martins located a floorplan of Town House to assist with planning for the soon-to-be vacant space.

In other news:

• The board briefly discussed sending a letter to Attorney General Maura Healey regarding the town’s marijuana bylaw moratorium.

• The board is exploring the idea of hiring a grant writer and is bringing an expert to Plympton to introduce her to the town and further look into that possibility.

• The assessors were again before the board, to officially modify the tax-rate, which fell by a penny due to an upward adjustment in the residential classification.

• The board will next meet Jan. 7, 2019, at 6 p.m. at the Plympton Town House.

HFD grant gives free child car and booster seats; Chief Viveiros commends Hogan for work on grant

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HALIFAX — The Halifax Fire Department was recently awarded a $3,500 Child Passenger Safety Seat Distribution grant from the Baker-Polito administration for free child car and booster seats for those in need and to replace car seats that have been damaged in motor vehicle accidents at no cost to the owner, stated Halifax Fire Chief Jason Viveiros in a Dec. 10 letter to the Board of Selectmen. The department is also offering free car seat inspections or installations by calling 781-293-1751 for an appointment, according to the announcement.

The chief, himself a fruitful grant-writer, commended Firefighter/Paramedic Peter Hogan for his work in obtaining the grant.

In 2017, the chief said, Hogan recognized the need for a certified car seat installation technician in Halifax, after seeing many situations where children were not secured properly or were in seats that were not safe.

He attended a 40-hour child passenger safety technician (CPST) certification course and the department began offering the service.

The grant, for fiscal year 2019, is from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, Office of Grants and Research-Highway Safety Division (EOPSS/OGR/HSD). The Governor and Lieutenant Governor said they were pleased to support the department’s traffic safety efforts in a Nov. 29 letter to the chief.

“We thank you for the work you do to keep children safe on our roads,” they wrote.

Roofer Will won’t: More charges paint troubling picture

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Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, stands before the court hearing the charges against him. (Photo by Abram Neal)

WAREHAM — Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, was in Wareham District Court Friday, Dec. 7, facing six larceny-related charges stemming from two Middleborough Police Department complaints alleging he took deposits by check for roofing and household contract work from six residents of the Oak Point 55-plus community in Middleborough, cashed the checks but did not start or complete the work as promised.

Will faces similar charges in Plymouth District Court, stemming from Kingston and Hanson allegations.

These charges are in addition to a long list of others, including a separate case also stemming from alleged crimes at the Oak Point community, in which Will is facing 15 counts of larceny over $250 by false pretense. A pre-trial conference was conducted on that case after the arraignments on the latest charges.

Judge Douglas J. Darnbrough presided over the proceedings, to which Will had been summonsed. His Plymouth-based attorney, Jack Atwood, pled not guilty on his behalf. At one point, Will attempted to address the judge, but Atwood stopped him from speaking, bellowing “Be quiet!”

Police and court reports paint a picture of a once reputable roofer unable or unwilling to keep up with the amount of work he had committed to, and the Middleborough Building Inspector, Robert Whalen, alerting police to complaints about Will while continuing to issue building permits despite warnings from Oak Point residents.

Whalen, in a phone interview Dec. 10, stated that disputes between contractors and homeowners are outside of his jurisdiction, but that in an effort to protect the community, he contacted Detective Simonne Ryder, of the Middleborough Police, regarding Will when Whalen had received about ten complaints.

As of press time, Will is facing a total of one count of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, two counts of larceny over $1,200, 19 counts of larceny over $250 by false pretense, one count of larceny under $250 by false pretense and one count of forgery of a document.

There are 23 area households in three communities claiming they have been victimized to date, who have lost a combined $153,197.34 in monies given for work not done, with individual losses ranging from $695 to $15,569. Most of these victims are over age 55, and many are quite elderly, according to police reports. The alleged victim who lost the most money is 78 years old.

Grievances against Will date back to at least 2017, according to public records. By late May, 2018, enough residents from Oak Point had lodged complaints to catch the attention of the building inspector, Whalen, at which time authorities noticed Will’s insurance and building licenses had expired, according to police reports.

The detective opened a weeks-long investigation into Will on May 22, but police took no action on the inquiry until early August, by which time the number of alleged victims had grown and multiple police departments were investigating Will.

The report also stated that the building inspector was dealing with the issue, personally inspecting jobs and warning residents not to give 100 percent deposits as some residents had been doing.

Some residents were attempting to sue Will in small claims court for their losses, while the investigation was in process.

The building department was giving Will five licenses at a time because he said that he had 30 open jobs in Oak Point, records say. The report states that he was only able to complete a handful of those jobs over the course of a few weeks and had effectively disappeared by Aug. 1, 2018.

Between June 21 and Aug. 2, there is no record of any police action to stop Will in court files. The alleged victim in Kingston hired Will on July 15, and the alleged victim in Hanson hired him on July 31.

Whalen said that he reported Will to the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Association, which should have notified other local building inspectors about Will, according to Whalen.

He will next be in Plymouth District Court on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 9 a.m. for two pre-trial hearings. The three Wareham District Court cases have been continued to March 4, 2019, at 9 a.m. as well for pre-trial hearings.

Will cannot be reached by phone or email and the investigation in Middleborough is ongoing, police said.

Board upholds H’way Surveyor ruling

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Highway Surveyor Steven Hayward. (File photo by Abram Neal)

HALIFAX — Selectmen met Tuesday, Dec. 12, and swiftly voted on various classes of license renewals (alcoholic beverage licenses, common victualler licenses, automotive licenses and others) before quickly executing their relatively short agenda around appointments, including a closed-door executive session involving a Highway Department union grievance appeal. In a rare move, the board came out of executive session into open session and immediately announced their findings to the public regarding the appeal.

Highway Surveyor decision upheld

The Selectmen upheld a decision by the elected Highway Surveyor and Cemetery Superintendent R. Steven Hayward to deny highway worker Steve Waterman, of Kingston, a heavy equipment operator (HEO) position, with its requisite pay, in that executive session. After the hearing, the board released information regarding Waterman’s grievance, including allegations of his poor job performance and behavior on the job.

According to a letter to the board dated Dec. 5 from Dave Swanson, union steward of AFSCME Council 93 Local 1700, Hayward had denied multiple requests by Waterman for the HEO position over the previous 18 months, allegedly in violation of two articles of the union’s contract – article XXIX regarding heavy equipment operators and article XVIII regarding seniority.

In November, the months-long issue came to a head, and Waterman, along with Swanson and union representative Kim Silvia, demanded Hayward produce his reasons for denying the HEO position in writing.

Hayward wrote a letter outlining his reasons which included a lack of initiative for daily duties, not working well with others, lack of common department knowledge, causing delays in projects by not completing them fully, abusing equipment and working despite expired licenses.

“It has been a year and half [sic] since I was elected to my position and in that time, I have given Steve Waterman two verbal warnings, written him up twice and given him a two-day suspension. I have not seen any change or improvement in Steve’s work performance, attitude or ability…” stated Hayward in that letter.

Following the written explanation, the union filed a grievance with Hayward, which he rejected. Waterman next appealed to the Selectmen, who upheld the highway surveyor’s decision to deny Waterman the position.

Should Waterman wish to appeal the board’s decision, he would next select either the American Arbitration Association or the Labor Relations Connection for a binding decision, according to Town Administrator Charlie Seelig.

Police staffing changes

Chief Joao Chaves was before the board requesting that permanent intermittent police officer Andrew W. Lyczynski, 23, be promoted as a full-time patrol officer in response to police officer Robert Brigg’s impending retirement effective Dec. 31.

The board enthusiastically accepted the chief’s recommendation, on the condition that he pass a physical and the full-time police academy, and there were handshakes all-around as Lyczynski excitedly signed paperwork.

The board, at Chaves request as well, voted to call up the civil service list to fill vacancies in the department, as he expects at least two retirements in 2019 and will also need a replacement for Lyczynski.

Popes Tavern Ethernet aging

Networking problems at Popes Tavern have left the Council on Aging with unreliable access to the internet and town intranet, said Seelig, and he says it’s not fair that town employees are not able to sit down at their desks and get their work done nor is it fair to the town’s IT director, Cesar Calouro, Jr., or to himself – Seelig also often deals with IT problems for the town as he is quite tech-savvy – to constantly be fixing problems there when a new ethernet wiring system and server are needed at the historic building.

The board approved Seelig’s request to go straight to the finance committee to ask for $8,000 in emergency funding to fix the problem so that employees and patrons of the CoA do not have to wait until a town meeting for a solution.

Next meeting

The Board of Selectmen will next meet Jan. 8, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room of Town Hall.

ITW makes a federal case of it

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Inside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse. (Photo courtesy United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.)

BOSTON —Attorneys Jeffrey Angley and Robert Hopkins, representing Industrial Tower and Wireless, LLC., of Marshfield, squared off against Plympton Town Counsel Robin Stein and her co-counsel, Jackie Cowin, representing the Town of Plympton Zoning Board of Appeals before US District Judge Denise J. Casper – possibly best known for presiding over the infamous James “Whitey” Bulger case – in courtroom 11 of the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in the Seaport District of Boston Monday, Nov. 26.

ITW is suing the Plympton ZBA, alleging their right to build a 120-foot, lattice-style cellphone tower at 0 Palmer Road.

According to public records, the roughly four-acre lot was recently sold by Lawrence Marble, Jr. and Joy Marble, both of Halifax, trustees of ELBRAM Realty Trust, to Michael Umano, trustee of ITW Realty Trust, 40 Lone St., Marshfield, for $235,000. The sale was recorded with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds Nov. 9.

The court proceedings were brief.

Casper held a commanding presence over the courtroom. Angley appeared at ease before the court and spoke more than the other three attorneys present. Stein was not as vocal as Angley. Neither of the co-counsels addressed the court directly.

The event, a scheduling conference, informed the court of the parties’ proposed schedule for discovery, disclosure and depositions. Casper worked amicably with the lawyers to finalize the schedule they had jointly submitted.

The lawsuit, filed in early September, will likely continue on through at least next summer, according to court documents.

Casper asked if there were any settlement prospects.

Angley replied that there were not. He said that most of these types of cases were disposed of by a judge with a summary judgement – an order ruling that no factual issues remain, and a complaint can be decided upon the facts by a judge without a trial.

ITW has a history of suing local government boards in federal court who have opposed them, according to court records. They have some history in Plympton, as well, as the ZBA decision denying them a permit to build their cellphone tower took several months to arrive at and they have had their eye on Plympton for “years,” according to testimony at the hearing in Plympton.

The communications company first came before the ZBA seeking zoning relief under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which, according to Stein, was created to help build telecommunications infrastructure because most cell towers do not conform to local zoning bylaws in cities and towns across the nation.

According to Stein, the TCA of 1996 requires local zoning ordinances to be waived for a cellphone tower should a ZBA find that there is both a significant gap in cellphone coverage and that there are no alternate sites to locate it.

Stein warned the board that this type of case has been well litigated in the federal courts, in this circuit and others. However, there are examples where localities have prevailed against telecommunications companies in federal court on certain grounds, including aesthetics, such as the T-Mobile Northeast v. Town of Islip ruling of 2012 in the Eastern District of New York.

ITW made claims that 7,000 to 8,000 vehicles a day pass through an alleged 2.5 by 1.5-mile coverage gap. This was never independently verified, according to both ITW and town officials. ITW claims that it had been looking for “years” for a location to locate a cellphone tower and this one site was the only one of 36 they had exhaustively identified as suitable.

On Aug. 31, the ZBA voted down ITW’s application, 2-1, to build a tower on the business-zoned lot, surrounded by residential/agricultural zoned land, after multiple contentious hearings on the matter were held over the course of last summer.

Board members Dave Alberti and Harry Weikel voted against the tower, despite warnings by Stein that they were opening Plympton up to a federal lawsuit.

Board Chairman Ken Thompson voted for the project, with little visible enthusiasm, noting after that because the vote had to be unanimous, and he voted last, his vote didn’t matter.

During final deliberations, Weikel noted what he counted as 17 “significant” variances, not just the four in the application, that he believed the applicant required for the construction of a cell-tower. He listed other possible locations he found suitable, including town-owned parcels of land.

The lawsuit takes special note of Weikel’s objections, stating in a document filed Nov. 16 that, “[a]fter the close of the hearing and during the Board’s deliberations, one Board member then recounted a series of properties that ITW allegedly should have considered but as to which ITW was given no advance notice nor opportunity to respond. The exercise establishes the hostility of the Board to ITW’s application and the utter bad faith tactics of the Board.”

Weikel, at a hearing in August, stated as previously reported by the Express, “I’m here to protect the people … that’s the only reason I accepted this appointment.”

Area 58 Community Access Media threatened by proposed FCC rules change

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CARVER — The Federal Communications Commission is proposing new rules that would, among other changes, alter the way Area 58 Community Access Media— Plympton, Halifax and Carver’s local cable access provider— and other local cable access providers across the country are funded, according to Area 58 Executive Director Rich Goulart.

Currently, funds are set aside from cable franchising fees, or the fees that the cable companies pay for access to a particular community, for community television channel access, broadcasting equipment and other monies needed to run local cable television studios.

The channels are known as public, educational, and governmental or PEG channels. This is part of the Federal Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, which requires cable companies to allocate a percentage of the profits they make from subscribers toward PEG channels.

Goulart said the proposed rules would allow cable companies to deduct from their franchising fees a value for these PEG channels, at a assessment they determine, as an “in-kind” donation.

He said this could lead to a situation where, if the rules were to go into effect— and he says they would go into effect immediately if they are enacted— the studio would be able to “keep the lights on,” but would not be able to pay its two full-time salaries, part-time salaries or purchase equipment to produce and disseminate television.

“This would have a crippling effect on public access,” he said. “This [proposal] came out of left field.”

The proposal has prompted the state’s two federal senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, to send a letter to the chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, along with nine other senators opposing the rules:

“…[T]he proposal puts at risk critical funding for … [PEG] stations as well as broadband connections to schools and other public buildings. Our constituents watch PEG channels to monitor local government proceedings, hear the latest news from nearby college campuses, and consume other locally produced programming including emergency alerts and directives. Your proposal may jeopardize these important functions.”

PEG channels and their trade groups across the state and country have been united in their opposition to the proposed rule changes.

The rule was proposed by the FCC on Oct. 15. Although a comment period on the change has passed, comments to those already made are being accepted at fcc.gov/ regarding MB Docket No. 05-311.

Reply comments, letters of support or opposition and supporting documents have until 11:59 p.m. Dec. 14 to be submitted according to the instructions online.

“Massachusetts is one of the most vibrant states for public access,” said Goulart. “This is not good news…It’s a mess right now. It’s uncertain what it’s going to mean.”