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Date: 7/14/2021
WILBRAHAM – The Wilbraham Board of Selectmen, in its capacity as the Board of Health, voted unanimously to approve expansion plans for the recycling facility at 120 Old Boston Rd., despite outcry from residents concerned about road conditions, traffic and perception of the town.
The July 12 decision was made based on the information and documentation presented by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); the town’s consulting firm, Tighe & Bond; two consulting companies hired by the petitioner and the petitioner itself, 120 Old Boston Rd., LLC, which operates Western Recycling.
The company requested an extension of operating hours, opening at 5 a.m. Monday through Saturday instead of 7 a.m. and closing at 7 p.m., rather than 6 p.m. during the week. Additionally, while trucks would be limited to coming and going during those hours, the facility would run 24 hours per day. The change in hours was to accommodate an expanded capacity, more than doubling its 645 tons per year to 2,000 tons annually.
Town Attorney Stephen Reilly said that the working group that has overseen and negotiated the community host agreement for the expansion has included a phased-in timeline, the ability for the Board of Health to revoke the expansion and 40 other stipulations.
A resident of the Gardens of Wilbraham, about half a mile from the recycling facility, said that the virtual forum conducted on June 15 was “ineffective” and that the expanded capacity would make the town “less attractive.”
John Broudreau, president of the nearby Woodcrest Condominiums Board of Trustees, noted that the company stated there wouldn’t be an increase in employees to and from the site. “I find it hard to believe that a 300 percent increase in business wouldn’t increase payroll,” he said and added that the numbers the company gave out couldn’t be accurate. “What else is off in their application,” he asked, rhetorically.
Resident Jim Anderson complained that no other town has a recycling facility operating 24 hours per day. Another resident said that she represented 40 of her neighbors. She pleaded, “Please not 24 hours.”
Chair Robert Boilard said that he understood the residents’ concern and read from a statement, “The commonwealth has limited the reasons a facility like this can be denied,” he said. He quoted the state laws that govern this type of approval, stating that denial must only be due to a “danger to public health, safety or the environment.” Boilard said there was no reason to doubt the veracity of the findings from the company’s consultants, the DEP, and Tighe & Bond. He also noted that denial in absence of those factors could open the town up to litigation.
“The town should fight a legal battle on this, because it’s wrong for the town,” Anderson said.
Vice Chair Carolyn Brennan said that she listened to the working group and trusted that they worked in the town’s best interests, noting that they spent three years hammering out the agreement. “I’m a townie, I love this town,” she said, but added that the legal fees to fight the expansion would be “exorbitant.”
Clerk Theresa Goodrich echoed Brennan’s comment that the decision was hard, but said that as the Board of Health, they needed to weigh the facts. “We’re the jury,” she said.
A resident shot back, “And we’re your jury.”
“Absolutely,” Goodrich responded. “We are of the people, for the people.”
On a separate note, resident Donald Flannery asked the Board of Selectmen to host an open house at Memorial School prior to the Special Town Meeting in October. At that meeting, the question of whether to fund a newly-built senior center behind the town hall at 240 Springfield St., will be put to voters. Flannery said that he wanted residents to see for themselves how the school could be used for a senior center and that he would have mock-ups of the possible layout available.
Boilard pointed out that Flannery is not an architect. At that point, Brennan interjected, “I’m not going to listen, Don,” and began to walk out of the room.
“You don’t want to listen, you just want to talk,” Flannery said. She responded, “No, I don’t want to talk about this at all.”
Boilard calmed the tempers in the room by asking Brennan to come back to the table and Flannery to sit down.
Brennan later told Reminder Publishing that her “outburst” was the result of frustration and insult that Flannery insists the Senior Center Feasibility Study Committee, of which she was a part, dismissed Memorial School without looking into it.
“Don Flannery has made it a point to make Memorial School the new Senior Center. He will not listen to reason, he won’t listen to experts,” Brennan said. “I am so insulted that all the work this committee did, and he says we didn’t do our due diligence.” She added that the information he gives out to residents is false, and that adds to her frustration.
Brennan noted that the committee had worked for seven years on the project and vetted 19 potential locations for the facility. She added that despite the Police Station Feasibility Study Committee getting underway at the same time in 2011, there were no objections to the site that was chosen for that building.
“I want the best for seniors in Wilbraham,” she said. “I want them to be able to age in place and why we would give them an old building blows my mind.”