I would love to talk about how our esteemed Town Manager is leaving (hoo-rah!), but this morning I got a call from a friend, who talked to a friend, who talked to another friend to deliver some bad news. The subject of conversation was the giant truck stop they plan on building on Route 3, right off Exit 1. Apparently, this thing is in the advanced stages of planning. The 18 acres directly north of the commuter parking lot are going to be turned into a 24 hour truck stop.
There a lots of reasons not to let this happen. Can you say crime? Can you drugs? Can you say prostitution? Can you say giant trucks hauling ass through Hopkinton at all hours of the day and night? They plan on building it on top of our aquifer. Who pays to truck in bottled water when all of our wells are full of hydrocarbons? How will we sell our houses when we have no wells? How much lower would you like you property taxes to go? And finally, how historic do you think historic Hopkinton will look with acres of trucks on its backdoor?
In exchange for turning Hopkinton into industrial Warwick, we’ll get a measly $50K in taxes a year.
How do we stop this insanity? Show up to the Planning Board meeting at the Town Hall on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7pm and raise hell. Listen, you may like economic development, but there is no good reason for this atrocity.
This is a stupid, stupid idea. We need to fight it, we all do. There are a lot of things that go on in this Town that happen by either fiat or plain apathy. Don’t let this be one of them. A lot of Town meetings dont really matter. But this truckstop does matter. And this meeting is very important.
The Planning Board will need all the ammunition we can give them to shut this down. What we need is a mob. Apparently there are 3 other cases that night and no one is sure of the agenda, but we need to fill the halls. Get a baby sitter, get off work, do whatever it take to make this meeting.
May 29, 2009 at 9:16 pm
PLEASE HELP STOP THIS! Show up at the meeting on June 3rd, PLEASE!
May 30, 2009 at 4:35 am
Because a little while ago Staties taught HPD Lyman how to stop trucks . Now he is the truck detail and has been witnessed going under trucks examining them left and right. Oh so now they’ll grab them coming in , double dipping/edge sword !
Just like Municipal court ahh making money for town but turned out towns people got zapped 5-10 mi over speed limit ? ! How appreciate our officials are . After all we pay their salaries,ins,sick days,vacation, enormous pension we can’t afford etc, etc.
When will we collectively put our foot down and say no more.It’s our town for God’s sake.
June 1, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Hi!
I have contacted Michael Healey mhealey@riag.state.ri.us of the R.I. Dept. of Attorney General on this.
Also the Rhode Island Medical Examiners office. See http://www.health.ri.gov/contact.php ,. IT appears clearly Hopkinton Historical Cemetery#80 would be disturbed in regards to this propsal.
There are legal consequences dealing with human remains. To my knowledge not all burials were removed from this cemetery when the “town farm” closed for that purpose.
While I will not be present Wednesday evening, it certainly is in my thoughts.
Regards,
Scott
June 2, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Please attend the Planning Board meeting tomorrow night – Wednesday, June 3rd at the Town Hall – especially if you have specific questions or concerns that you could tell or discuss with the planning board. They generally can’t answer in any detail but they can document your concerns and address them with the applicant.
It is important and it does make a difference when citizens step forward and let everyone know their point of view. Please attend if you can.
Thanks.
June 14, 2009 at 2:27 am
I got a funny email the other day. I think it was a friendly warning. It was about bloggers inciting violence (one in particular) and being arrested for such activities. Now I’m not sure what you may or may not interpret my post about showing up to the planning meeting means, but I in no way endorse violent protest. When I say we need to “raise hell” and need to form a “mob”, what I mean is we need to have a lot of people show up and make sure their opinions are heard loudly and vocally. Since there was no violent protest on June 3rd, I have to figure that people did not interpret my post in such a fashion. For the record, I try to fight stupidity with words, laws and votes, not violence – just in case you were confused.
Starting a fist fight at a zoning meeting gets us nowhere, it’s just plain stupid.
June 14, 2009 at 4:05 am
email messagenot intended for this blog ,it’s re: : aj algier may of selected this story for her paper whereas she stated she went to Westerly PD and issued a complaint that Hopkinton First because she believed they were slandering her. Complaint went no where especially when she related she rejected comments against her sent to westerly sun’s talkback column stating she would sue. But it was presented that might turn right back at her for same allegation that yes she/paper slandered others. Interesting though how comments against everyone else are posted in talkback/
westerly sun story they posted from ap
Blogger surrenders on cyber-threat charge
■ Blogger who urged Catholics to “take up arms” has been charged with inciting violence. Will appear in court June 22.
HARTFORD (AP) — A New Jersey blogger who urged readers to “take up arms” against Connecticut lawmakers and who suggested government officials should “obey the Constitution or die” surrendered Thursday on a charge of inciting violence. Harold “Hal” Turner, a former radio talk show host from North Bergen who broadcasts commentary on his Web site, was angry over legislation that would have given lay members of Roman Catholic churches in Connecticut more control over their parish’s finances. The bill, brought by state Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Michael Lawlor, was withdrawn in March.
Turner was charged by Capitol Police in Connecticut with inciting injury to persons or property, and released after posting bond. He is due in court June 22. On June 2, Turner wrote on his blog, turnerradionetwork. blogspot.com, that Catholics should “take up arms and put down this tyranny by force,” and promised to post the lawmakers’ home addresses. “It is our intent to forment direct action against these individuals personally,” Turner wrote. “These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die.”
Writing about police or prosecutors who may try to stop his cause, Turner wrote, “I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down too.”
Last week, Turner explained the posts as “crude political hyperbole uttered in a context which did not lend itself to imminent lawlessness.”
On Thursday, Turner’s attorneys issued a statement saying that his First Amendment rights need to be protected, even if people disagree with his views.
McDonald declined to comment. Lawlor did not immediately return a phone message left Thursday.
Late Thursday afternoon, Turner’s blog had been taken down, apparently by the company that hosts it.
Turner’s views have drawn scrutiny before. The FBI questioned him, but did not charge him with any crime, in 2005 after the mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow were found shot to death in Chicago.
In an interview with The Associated Press at the time, Turner said he was questioned because two years earlier he had said on his radio show that Lefkow “was worthy of being killed.”
Two years ago, police in New Jersey beefed up security for four state Supreme Court justices whose addresses Turner revealed in his Webcast “to show they can be gotten to.” Turner released the information after the court ruled that gay couples were entitled to the same rights as married couples.
” AFTER RESEARCH THIS WAS FOUND ”
In 1969, the US Supreme Court upheld a person’s free speech rights as “political hyperbole” even when someone directs a death threat at the President of the US. That case was based on a draft dodger who was protesting in D.C., and when asked by a reporter “what would you do if you got drafted” the person replied “LBJ would be the first person in my gun sights.”
Hal Turner will win this one based on that 1969 case.