Ayer vs. PAR/PAS

frrc wrote: I see lawsuits coming...

Maybe so. But where?
They already lost in Federal court years ago.
Now, all of a sudden 'oh my god we have to do something to stop this.'
They've had - how many years to try and take further actions, but made no effort.
If they keep it up, the lawsuit will be the RR'ds suing the town and the Spectacle Pond Association for intentional harrasments.

Peter

Bemused wrote:mick contends:

"Also, you can't forget the Teamsters union. They clandestinely fight every rail proposal in MA. James Hoffa has said their goal was to eliminate railroads east ofthe Hudson River."

mick-you may want to click on the following link:

http://www.ble.org/default.asp

Note that Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen are closely associated with the International Botherhood of Teamsters, James Hoffa President.

Now, why would you suggest Mr. Hoffa would "clandestinely fight" a proposal not only in the interest of his Union but also with the potential to increase the number of dues paying members of his Union and the BLE&T.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jimmy Hoffa is inside one of those old covered hoppers stored next to the site where the new auto unloading facility is planned.

The drama continues:

In a bit of self-admitted theatrical protest Friday night, some 40 demonstrators took to the Ayer traffic rotary that serves as a crossroads for motorists traveling to Ayer, Littleton, Harvard, and Devens. Evening commuters were "toasted" by protesters holding goblets filled with toxic "cocktails."

Dubbed "UnHappy Hour," the group stood alongside a makeshift bar, complete with dishes filled with cocktail peanuts, where the drink du jour was a mix of "oil" and water. It was a not-so-subtle razzing aimed at Pan Am railway's start of construction in April to pave much of the so-called San-Vel site off Willow Road. The group says it's trying to raise public awareness that any fuel or chemical spills on the site, and even the paving project itself, could threaten the cleanliness and the recharging ability of the overlapping Ayer and Littleton underground municipal water draw areas.

Read more at: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/ci_125 ... ost_viewed

More news from Ayer:

http://www.nashobapublishing.com/ci_12906071

I hope the timetable for the Patriot Corridor continues to lag. We support the Patriot Corridor- with one exception. Pan Am Southern is about to pave over 25 acres above an aquifer that supplies 15,000 with drinking water. With Pan Am's consistent record of leaking diesel fuel from locomotives, we oppose the proposal. The community has opposed it for a decade, and Pan Am and Norfolk southern have ignored our pleas to use the other lot now leased by Pan Am to competitor CSX until 2016. We are worried about our water.

Pan Am Southern cannot use the other lot leased to CSX until 2017. CSX has refused to back out of the lease and a judge ordered that Pan Am is not allowed to break the lease.

Pan Am has agreed to let the town of Ayer install monitoring wells on the site, and is being more cooperative and transparent than I can ever recall. I'm sure Norfolk Southern's influence has something to do with that. Norfolk Southern is the most environmentally friendly rail company out there.

I think the people opposed to this project really don't have a leg to stand on. Pan Am already idles it's trains there at Willow Rd. MBTA also runs over the aquifer on their own right of way. And there is already a bunch of industry built over the aquifer off of New England Way behind JMO Cold storage. There's even a diesel refueling facility in there. Why are there no complaints about any of that? This new project has a minimal chance of causing pollution. It's a paved lot. If it were a shopping mall instead of a Pan Am project I doubt there would be this much protest, even though the chance of pollution would be greater.

StopPanAmLot wrote:I hope the timetable for the Patriot Corridor continues to lag. We support the Patriot Corridor- with one exception. Pan Am Southern is about to pave over 25 acres above an aquifer that supplies 15,000 with drinking water. With Pan Am's consistent record of leaking diesel fuel from locomotives, we oppose the proposal. The community has opposed it for a decade, and Pan Am and Norfolk southern have ignored our pleas to use the other lot now leased by Pan Am to competitor CSX until 2016. We are worried about our water.

If It is such a big deal of importance to pollution, what ever happened to imminent domain? Now Pan Am is a company that should be shut down, but Do u really believe Norfolk Southern is at any part to blame of fuel leakage? They are not running 45 year old locomotives, or rolling stock, so i wouldn't judge them here. Like MCER401 pointed out, I think you guys hold too much of a grudge against the railroads... Just monitor it closely, and everything should stay safe.
PS.. The Patriot Corridor is helping your town more than it is hurting it

-will

I really dont consider it out of line for people to be worried about this. Pan Am seems to have a pretty bad environmental record already, and they seem to half ass everything in the first place, so why shouldnt people be worried about there drinking water being threatened by such a careless company? It wouldnt be suprising for the lot to be built and then run at half the volume it was intended. Sure, there might be industrial infrastructure in the area but that can't act as an excuse to keep building and building, eventually you just have to stop. I think the bottom line I'm trying to say is that, yeah you might be railfan and you want to see all your favorite spots filled to the brim with traffic so you can take your pictures, but in reality that has nothing to do with you, and whole lot more things are much more important than some new intermodal facility. You might label the people protesting as tree huggers or hippies, only because they arent psuedo-civil engineers on the weekends, and they just don't care about railroads, they care about drinking water

These people are NIMBYS, plain and simple. They originally tried to stop the project saying it was a "noisesome trade", there would be trucks coming in and out of there at all hours. That did not fly with the Feds, they shot them right down. They needed an excuse with more bite, so someone got the bright idea to bring up the Aquifier idea, and they all hopped on the bandwagon.
If the San-Vel site was threatening any water rescource, why was it an industrial zoned area, and why didn't the town try to take it years ago? Why now? Didn't they know that the RR, or someone else would eventually develop the property? Of course they did. They didn't take the property because there was no reason to then, and there is no reason to stop this project now.

;Not So Fast, according to an article in today's Boston Globe...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... _facility/

This article is a very clear example of the identity confusion between Pan Am and Pan Am Southern.

Looks like Pan Am, and/or Pan Am Southern, is going to be in court again:

On Friday, Judge Elizabeth Fahey set an Oct. 7 evidentiary hearing to decide whether Pan Am breached the law by paving its 26-acre lot off Willow Road in Ayer.
...
In a joint letter, state Department of Environmental Protection and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials rebuked the company for paving without pollutant-protection measures in place. They also faulted Pan Am for failing to appear at a Sept. 17 Worcester meeting meant to update regulators on the company's construction schedule.

Read more at: http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_13436830

Maybe now we'll find out how much patience/sense of humor the other half of PAS has...

For crying out loud, can they do anything right?? If they want to get anything done here with even a token amount of goodwill, they need to stop doing things like skipping required meetings. I do not envy NS.