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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1943-05-17]'9 May 17, 1943 - The regular weekly meeting was held this date. All members were present and the weekly billswere approved'for payment. A ccmmunication~wns received fromMr~ James Smith of Salisbury, Mass. notifying the 8electmen that there will be a meeting of all Mayors a~d Selectmen in the Chamber. of Commerce Rooms May'25, at 8 P.M. A~eport was received from Chief Alfred McKee advising that he had talked with Mr. Ford owner of the open cellar on Lincoln street -'who promises to board the cellar up'as, soon as he can obtain the .lumber. · Mr. McAloon and Mr. Jenson owners-of the-property on-FaulknerStree£ ~'~do~ot feel that they want to spend anymoney on this property but have no objection to the town filling in'the ~ellar; .Mr. McKee advised that if the matter could be left for about three weeks he can have' the' cellar-.filled-in'at' no expense to the Town. 'The Board, on the motion of Mr. Thomson, voted'to wait'until Mr. . McKee could take care of the matter, as suggested and to extend . thanks to the chief-for his investigation and report of the ,~nWsti- gation. A:communication is received from'the Department"or'Corporations:and Taxation. in referenceto a substantial sum to be received soon by the town under provision of sections 20 and 24~ of~Ohaptar 58 of ,the'General Laws. A petition was received .from-the-New England Tel. & T~i. Company requesting the cancellation of various ~grants for telephone poles in North~ndover, which are no longer necessary.'' ~ Mr.~Finneran madea motion that^these grants'be cancelled as requested, .... : M~.'Thomsonseconded the'motion, whichwasUnnnimousty voted, '~' 'Mr. Flanagan was called~'in about the~above petition and said he thought isome of the poles listed had been removed years ago and the Company was ~.Just getting the locations a~d' plans straightened out. 'The meeting adjourned at this point to.the Legion Hall where the _ ~' '~earing on the removal of the twenty tree on Sutton Street is to he held. '" Mr. Foster opened the hearing"byreading ihe notice which was · posted on each tree advising' of'the, time-and-place"of the hearing. ~: He explained the hearing was called for the Selectmen's Office but · When he/w~sinformed of the crowd Shat'was' expected-he made plans -t~ have'the meeting in this hall. ' .... Xt the'rmqumst'of Mr. Foster, member'Thomsonread a letter received .'.d from .Hmn~rableJames P, Meehan,.Mayor of Lawrence, in which he .... stressed the need'for the removal of-the trees. - ~ ,Mr. Foster then called .for the petitioners to say anything they :' '"iwished to in favor of-the petition, and the first speaker was Mr. Gaffney, City Clerk. · A,,...Mr. Gaffney said he realize~ a great many people wanted to be heard and that he wouldnot go into the. pasthistory'of the trees which 'was well knownto all'present. '.~,i'~}£e said the C.A.A., which'has Charge'of all air-fields has insisted ~hat these' trees were a menace' to'safe navigation to the north-south ...runway and the runway, cannot be used while the trees remain. The "'height of the trees cause an extremely hazardous condition. Two years ~go, we asked for the removal of the'trees and the petition was denied. 'The military command at Mitchell Field and the First ~nterceptsr Oommand wrote to the Selectmen and recommended the trees be removed. ,~t that time we were interesta~dt~ extending the ~lrunway because '";~we were informed'the Intercept~rOCommand was interested in the field :~d wanted to construct the new runway. We acquired land for the new runway and work was started.' It was decided that~ we would not press for the removal of the trees at that time, butthat when the runway was ready for completion we would again request for removal. Mr. ~affney referred to various letters received by the Board of Selectmen urging the removal of the trees. The letters referred to are as follows:, 2/17/42 Headquarters First I~terceptov¢ommand, New York, N.Y., John C. McDonnell, Brig. General, 5~f43 Headquarters ol Fighter Command, Mitchel Field, N.Y. and 5/~/43 C.a.A. letter to City of Lawrence. - .... : : :~. ~ ...- -~ .-- _- · The W.P.A. has ceased operations'at all airports, Mr.' Gaffney said, and official word has been received' from Washington t~[~t the OAg will take over the uncompletedwork c~ the W.P,A. and will complete the runway now under construction. They are particularly interested in the N. NW - S. SE runeay which when completed-wil~ibe 3500' long and 150' wide. They cannot complete this runway u~essthe trees are remo.~d. The N. JN~,end cf the runway will. he e~c~nded 500' but no construction will he nearer than 500' to Sutton'~Street. ~t was the original intention to construct nearer than 500' feet but the plans were changed. Planes will not fly .lower than'40, in order to land on the runway so that there would be no danger for pedestrians or traffic passing ,on Sutton Street. They cannot land~vertically~a~d .'., ,.A fast or heaVY,ship could n6t i~nd at all~ wi~h the trees there beca~s~ of' the aircurrent which' t~eycause.' Mr. Gaffney noted some of the objections offered by the people of North Andover,as follows: 1. The beautF~of Sutton Street;, there are scores of other, streets in,town containing anY~,here, fr6m~loo~ to 1000 trees. 2. The possibility of the closingo~'$~tton'Street; This is not true, we will never ask you to do. that, he said.'3. Trees on Chadwick will have to come down; this is not true either. ':. If th~ request had been made in order to widen Sutton~$treet,'he did not feel that. anybody, would object. When the Newbur~ort..Turnpike' was constructed, .he said, thousands of trees had to'be cut down.~ .These trees onSutton Street are eye, more of a hazard to a flyer because if the plametouchad them it would cause, a crack-up. He.again said if the trees are'~ot removed the runway canno~ be used.'' In closing. Mr. Gaffney s4i~it was not their intentXon to antagonize ~nyone but as tax payers of,the North Andovsr they h~da right to make this petition and as property owners would like to be considered as such. Finally he said.that a great many of. the people who si~ned the petition opposing the'removal don0t live anywhere.near Sutton Street. The average per~cn who travels,over Sutton:S~reet in a machine passes there in 10 to 15 secb~ds'. Not 'many p~ople Work in that vicinity and he asked :the board to tak~ all these matters into consideration., Mr. ~amss'Ewar~ ,President ofthe LaWrence:Chamber or, Commerce was the next to talk £or the petitioners. Mr. Ewart is"a[so, a resident of North ~ndover, H$ 'said 'that this airport has ~been a' matter that the Lawrence Chamber of,~oommerce'has been interest in.since it start- ed. A great many conferences have been held':betwe~n the L.0.¢. and ' the 0i~il Aeronautics A~thorities andtha OityEng[n~ers. In every instance we have_been told we'.have one ofthe-best'4irports ,in this part of the state,~conducive to a very successful, airport. A great deal of money has been spent, but We.have come,to the, point now where something as got to'develops now. He said'he appreciated the, fact as much as anyone, perhaps mor~[ that there are'some beautiful streets in North Andover. However, ithasnowbecome a matter of human life, what would happen if one of.our boys coming on to number ~2 runway should get into those trees,and should lose his life? A plane has to clear 70 or gO feet which takes 1200' right 0ff, r~nway. The time is coming near when, it may be very beneficial'tO have a Place hereto house big planes~ Hitler might decide,to attack an indus- trial city like Lawrence. The p~titioners who signed~the petition would feel badly if one of our'boys were'~illed there. Nobody likes those trees more thah.I do, but where there is a question of life or deaththe',trees should come down. If we don't take those trees down, somebody is going to. We.mustm~ke this runway safe for our boy~. We all love.North Andover, it is an attractive town, but human life is the deciding point. If we should get awarning that planes are headed for'this district, Westfield, Bedford and Manchester would send plcnes here to protect us. ~ .Mr. Arthur Thomson read the letter received from th~ City of Lawrence, Hon. James P. Meehan, Mayor, dated 5/14/43 in'which.he urged further favorable action by this Board '' for the removal of the trees. Tha'Mayor was the next speaker to address the ~ath~i-ng~ He said that when he assumed the duties~-of ~vor of the City of Lawrence, he was very much interested in the com- pletion of that airport; Now the country is at'war and we are confronted with a diSferent problem than at first. Some peopl~i,~re opposed to having an airport in their neigh- borhood.,.,fTH~~ feeling should be past, the airport is there :'and $1,O~O,,0~0; ha~.~een spe~t in its development~ The~ City of Lawrence will not benefit' by this airport' in any way that the Town of North. Andover will not benefit equally. The airport, he said, is almost completed and with~ the country at war there':is an entirely different picture. The"fieldwill be used for emergency landings;~Qdite recently--the mayor said he was told bya friend who had'attended'an important meeting of army officials in New York~ that if' this country' were bombed or attacked by the enemy~ this'area wasconsidered,the most likely tobe their,target because we have in this district the largest worsted mills in.the world; There~are'mills in North Andover Just as well .as in Lawrence, and these mills will be the mark for bombers, -~ would be advantageSus if the airport "'~could be developed so tha~lt ~can be used by,the 'government if 'needed. These trees are on th~'public highwayand, not in front .ofadJacent property. No objections'can stop the use of the air- .,port, it isthere and planes cantand there now,:the'Mayor said. In conclusion the Mayor said peaceful relations-have-always existed 'between the City o'f Lawrence and the Town of North Andover. There 'has. always been cooperation between thetwo neighboring localities. 'There is a greater issue now than ever. Ourcountryis-at war; they nee~ that airport. We would .not want to be party to any fatal · accident. Many changesof plans must be made'andalso many sacrifices, at the request, of the war department. At this point the Mayor 'said the-entire City'Co~il came to the ~"hearing in a body to make a direct request~for.the consideration of '": ~"~the board. ~e do not expect.'any compensationfrom this airport. '~':' These shade trees that fa~e the airport'present an'obstacle. If we '.':,.i.were faced ~ith this problem in the City of Lawrence, we would not "hesitate, those trees would come.down, so that there'Would be a clear view on that runway. ~ The members~ of the City Council presentwereH~nJ James P. Alderman John McCarthy, Cornelius Roche, City'Olerk Gordon GaTfney, .'City Solicitor JamesP. Eane and Edward Gately, former W.P.A. Coor- 'dinator. ~11 wish, to herecorded as in f~or'-of the petition. At this point Selectman Thomson ~ead a letter dated 5/8/43 received : . ~"'from, Col. Glenn O. Barcus of ~ead~uarters First Fighter' Command, . Mitchel Field, New York in which he again requested immediate consider- ation concerning the removal of the trees, advising that he had received communication from the. CAA stating that work could not be started mn ',the Mass. airport'until these,trees were removed. A letter in favo~ of the petitionnrs was received from Mr. George Gage, 100 Great Pond Road, North Andover. He'~sked to. he recorded as in .favor of removing.the shade trees om Osgood Street near the airport. An other letter, enclosing an editorial was received from Irving E. Rogers, President of the Lawrence Daily Eagle andThe Evening Tribune ~,,was read. He urged the Board to,vote in favor of the p~titioners. ..~ Mr. Foster then informed those present that there were two petitions received in opposition to the removal of the trees; one petition con-. ,rained the names of ~? Persons and the other c~ntaining 30 names, ~r, F~sterthen asked those.opposing Z~ confine their objections to anything that has happened since the lasthearing and not'to bring facts that were discussed at the last meeting. Mr. Foster said further that ev~rybodyknew the feeling'of the Board in the matter. It takes seventy-five years to gro~ trees like ~hese and about twenty minutes to cut them down~..but if it is going to save a life we will be willing.to do it. Miss'Agnes Fi/negan was the first to speak~for the opposition. She said thc opposition was ~lacedin a difficult position with all the flag waving going on at this time. Afterthe last hearing was held, she said an:article,appeared,in the Lawrence Tribune of February~3,'1942 in which Mr. Gaffneywas~quoted as~ saying that the removal Cf the trees bm'Sutton Street: would not b~-necessary. The purchase of land from the Yungerba~er'Estate eliminated the necessity for the removal of the trees.. Some of the' North Andover people went down'to'the'end of'the ~2 ,runway and found ab0ut'a mile of undeveloped land there and womdered,'why that couldn't be completed there. She~wondered'if the Selectmen~ had-been invited'to look.the airport over. Talk of p~triotism and war is bewildering , she said Lawrence was'not in a defence area as late as 4/5/42 according to information in"the ~ribune of .that'date. The airport has been totally in active since the ruling was issued forbidding ciVilian'flying withim 50~miles of the-coast. According to.the Tribune issued ~/14/f~.s~ sa~d~. there isa legal way'to have those trees removed if theGovarn- merit wants them removed.. Miss Finnegan continued'~)sayi~gthat MrJ Gaffneyhad Called and asked her' to stop. her oppOSition. ~e read a letter to her received'from Brig..Gen'l. MCOormack, she said she was interested in this letter and later obtained a copy of'it. She referred~the lette~ to an attorney ~riend.who inter- preted the letter as an expression of a persomalopin~on~ That. letter'was written six months before Lawrence was 'declared n~t a'defence ~rea she~aid. Wehave.nnt'opposed the~irport although we havea great deal cfitroUble frond.it. The'dustwa~so.~bad~that we~could not sit cut of dours in the summmer;' the w4~H~ng~h~d~,t0 be'~done over; when they were dynamiting damage was 'done to ~our.house. The use of the airport was a matter.of conjecture.,' Miss Finne~an concluded~by saying that this airport has been tn the[,pro~ress,of construction for twelve years a~d nobodyoppos~d it'until, the air- port went beyond'the .bounds 'of the airport~ Non~ of us,~would like to see the. City of Lawrence lose any money, she said~ but if our property depreciates we will all lose money. Mr. F.B. Kittredge of Academy Roadwas the next speaker forth'el opposition. Hi said that about a year and a half ago:~hen this' matter was considered, he was inclined.to favor the completion of this airport. 0onditions are .entirely different todaylthanthey were a y~ar and'a.~,~e.ago. We are now at war; this field,might have been ,cdmple~eddbe£Oreliff the petitioners had stressed thefact that its 'location was of' tremendous strategic 'value..If this'statement had been made a yearand a half ago,it might~have had weight. There is the Bedford airport' about 15 miles away and ,the Grenier Field not much further and ~ am certainif the Interceptor command wanted this fieldfzhey would hkve stressed the import~nce'of the~emoval of the trees if they felt it'necessary. He'said hewas only an Engineer and did not pretend to know anything about aeronautics but he said he thoughtplanes coming from fields like Bedford andGrenier would be better equipped to protect this area than the planea,.coming out of this airport. These planes, single engines~co~e down where they fall into distress, they cannot pick there landing place. He said he would liketo know'from the'war office Just what.possibilities this field had for futurecommercial use. This field~looks very small, he said. The welfare of Lawrence and North Andover is un- questionably tied together.'~I personally would likg 'to see something definite, he said, before we do'a great~ injustice to a great many people. He said he hadn't heard anything stated where' the 6overnment or Inteptor Command said those trees hat to come done. He concluded by saying that he would be the last to oppose it if such were so, but until weknow something definite about what'we are going to do at the airport I womld oppose the removal of the trees. Mr. William Bolton also spoke for the opposition. He said that the Selectmen'decided at'the last hearing not'to take the trees down and he could see nothing different offered,at.this meeting ~. to warrant'the need for their removal. He said the proper way to handle the matter, as he saw it, was to put the'matter on the table.until more definite was obtained. There is no gas for ' civilian use at the present, time. If it becomes necessary to cut ~" the trees, he said, it"can'be done.in twentyminmtes. 'Mr. Davis asked Mr. Gaffney the length of the runways' and was in- formed, they were'3500 feet..Mr.' Davis then said that he had read ~an articleabout an accident in Florida where the runway was 5000' : and the pilot in landing hit a~fence. Zn the larger airports Mr. Davis .said the runways averaged 20,000'. '' Mr. Osten'Ramey of Brightwood Avenue speaking for the opposition "' said that at~ the time they were looking for the flyer who was down the army was going to bring in 150 planes to look for him. The field was plowed and made ready b~the only reason they did :not send the planes in Was because the field was~.~t~ with holes. ~f.':. Miss Greenwood referred to a-statement by one the previous sneakers for the petition who stated that very few people used Sutton'~ Street. She said she traveled along that street.everymorning ~ Haverhill and she passes the school buscarrying.children to school five days a"week. The defense workers going to the Portsmouth Navy ~'~.¥ard also,ravel along the street and all whopass there should have ?protection, as long'as it is a' public ~highway. When the Government needs-those trees I will get boys myself to cut them down, if ~ecessary sh~ said. -~The status of those trees and there need for removalis still ,.'. foggy, she said. Mr~Foster said he didn't believe any. plane: passing there is going . near enough to the road to-effect anybcdy; Mr.,WilliamBc~ton'stated that those trees~were,an· assurance and · insurance ~hat the planes' would not come-near-to, the~ street. Mr.,Gaffney answering a statement by~M~ss Finnegan said that he, ~ never atanytimesaid it would not be necessary'to cut those trees.' Miss.Finnegan offered to show him a newpaper item in which he was supposed to have said it. I woman representing the Elizabeth M. Poor Estate wished to be re- corded as.opposed to the removal of the trees. She said if the trees 'came down the land will depreciate. ~ Miss Finnegan stated at the last hearing Mr. Pillion asked a Mr. '...Ingalls what would happenif those trees~were.removed and somebody decided to, build a, three 'tenement house on the land there. He answered by'saying .no other'.buildSng could be built there. ~here are .also.stories circulating around town, Miss Finmegan said, that hangars are to be built'on the Poor Estate. Mr. Gaffnsysaid this is definitely not true. The City of Lawrence has spent $10,O00.for ~land takings so that there, would be no friction. ;,.Miss Finnegan asked why the #3 runway could not be brought back '~further from Sutton Street. The~e is aboutl400'~from present end 'of~.runway tothe railroad. Mr. Gaffney said they could not bring it right,back to the Railroad. Mr. Wm. Walsh asked if a medium '-'" bomber,could land on that'field. He. said he dodbted it. "~': Miss Finmegan 'said' 2he Sutton'Mills chimney was~obstructing the --west .side'of 'the ~ ~unmay and asked M~. Gaffney ,how he proposed ~to get around that?~ He said it would effect it very little. iThe following persons.,asked, to-be recorded in oppostion to the Mr. George Barker, Mr. Jq~nA. O~oni~, Mrs. J. McLaughlin, ~' ~ohn Everett, John F. O'Neil,' Mrs. Greenm,:410 Sutton Street. Mr. Gaffnsy said the Government has appropriated a great deal of. money for airports which they are imterested in. There is no o"civilian flying now, he said,·~o whywould the government,ha interested in completing this field if they did not intend to use it?. it the'Bedford.Airport, he said, a bill was passed to permit -s committee ~o.acq~ire the-land, After the.committee bought the land, it was developed by government'funds. Themoment the field was_ completed.the army took it over. Westover field is the only field constructed by.the army. .Under Chapter 87, of the G.L. the Selectmen of a town must he petitioned for the removal of trees.