Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

griffs20soccer wrote:Any word on the progress of their push to Milford? Have they reached Hopedale yet?

Was in Hopedale and Milford last week, nothing much has changed, except the weeds and trees on the roadbed are growing in abundance. There has been some clearing work done in Grafton center behind the cumberland farms, and there were some tanker cars on the siding there.

J

Beginning of March i hiked up the line from Freedom St Hopedale and foudn they are past Chestnut Street and about 2 miles from Hopedale. I havent seen anything from Freedom St yet. I did notice alot of activity and some rail construction "speeder" cars around the Grove Street Upton crossing this morning.

I agree, there definitely are signs of work along that stretch. A couple of weeks ago we hiked up from Freedom St. halfway toward Chestnut St. - there were stacks of ties at Freedom Street, as well as some about halfway up to Chestnut St. It looks like they're working on it! There was also a "derail" installed near Freedom Street, just before the small informal crossing at the entrance to the Parklands trail - I guess they don't want any more mishaps with a runaway maintenance car (like what happened by Upton center several months back). There are also several huge stacks of new ties in the Hopedale yard, but they still haven't gotten to any track building there yet.

Does anyone know if the clearing and gravel removal at the Grove St Upton crossing is G&U related?

Any news from the "fact finding committee"? The silence is deafening.

b&m 1566 wrote:Any news from the "fact finding committee"? The silence is deafening.

Meeting
26 April 2012, Meeting Agenda - Minutes Worksheet Here.. Related Exhibit A. Here..

papabarn wrote:

b&m 1566 wrote:Any news from the "fact finding committee"? The silence is deafening.

Meeting
26 April 2012, Meeting Agenda - Minutes Worksheet Here.. Related Exhibit A. Here..

In other words: "We got nuthin'...schedule another meeting."


Meanwhile, the track gangs keep marching east undaunted...

Railroad owner slaps Upton resident with $20M lawsuit

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1 ... z1tvjc5sBx

UPTON - The owner of the Grafton & Upton Railroad filed a $20 million lawsuit this week accusing a local woman of defamation.
Railroad owner Jon Delli Priscoli filed a suit in Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday, alleging that former selectwoman and Board of Health candidate Marsha Paul, of 20 Josiah Drive, slandered him to the media, an allegation Paul adamantly denies.
In the lawsuit, Delli Priscoli accuses Paul of “slander and libel for false and malicious statements” in public, according to court documents.
Those statements, Delli Priscoli said, have “irreparably harmed” his reputation and integrity.
The suit alleges that Paul “consistently states false facts in public,” some of which were printed in newspapers, one of which is the Daily News.


Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1 ... z1tvjkPBJb

Its getting good!

From the Middlesex News today "Railroad owner slaps Upton resident with $20M lawsuit"

One way to quite a NIMBY bring them to court!

The Milford Daily News wrote:The owner of the Grafton & Upton Railroad filed a $20 million lawsuit this week accusing a local woman of defamation.

Railroad owner Jon Delli Priscoli filed a suit in Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday, alleging that former selectwoman and Board of Health candidate Marsha Paul, of 20 Josiah Drive, slandered him to the media, an allegation Paul adamantly denies.

In the lawsuit, Delli Priscoli accuses Paul of “slander and libel for false and malicious statements” in public, according to court documents.
...
Paul said she plans to defend her innocence with documentation and meeting minutes from her time as a public official.

“I’ve never said anything negative about this man,” Paul said Thursday. “I really am shocked. I’ve never, ever said anything unfactual about (Delli Priscoli).”

http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1 ... z1tvpolt4h

That's awfully weak sauce if it's the meat of the complaint, so Priscoli probably isn't helping himself much there staking it to that statement. Unless he's got evidence that she was behind some of the activities of that Protect Upton scareblog or something.

But I can see the reasoning behind firing a warning shot at this point. I mean, what more can G&U do here...it's bent over backwards, it's come up with every regulatory citation in triplicate affirming the legality of its operation, it's gotten the FRA to appear multiple times in person to do the same. Sooner or later this crosses into harassment for harassment's sake and does start causing harm to the business. They're lucky it's a mom-and-pop and not CSX...that lawsuit and many others would've been filed years ago, and it would've brought the pain financially.

A copy of the suit filed as made available for download at the Milford Daily News: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive ... 76772/file.

I was going to post the agenda for the Thursday, May 4th RRFC meeting but it appears the wrong agenda got posted on the town's (Upton) web site. I'm certain one topic at the next meeting'll be the suit.. This'll sure as heck get everybody's undivided attention.

That just made my day Lets hope it will hold up in court.
C.J.V.

I think this is a smart move on his part. Like it was mentioned before, he has bent over backwards for the communities he works in and the NIMBY's are still not happy. This will cause everybody to think twice about what they say publicly; nobody wants to be served with a lawsuit, so this should quite some of the NIMBY's.

I think it was D. M. Wenc who wrote:You won't find photos of the 1750 or the 1501 in this series of photos. What you will find is a visual update of the ongoing transformation and growth of the Grafton & Upton Railroad's, Upton Yard, also known as Grafton & Upton Enviro-Bulk Terminals.

Read more and view some nice photos at http://dmwenc.zenfolio.com/blog/2012/5/signs-of-change.