It can't be easy being the Daily News.
I mean, how do you come out from between a rock and a hard place when a prominent Newburyport businessman/conservationist is engaged in a land dispute with a Newbury selectman?
It reminds me of when my dad was reprimanding his mother's favorite grandson, my cousin, for some misdeed (that involved me).
"Freddie! Eddie!" Grandma cried, unsure of whose side she was on.
The Daily News had apparently decided to ignore the dispute, which from what I can glean from this garbled account in the Current, involves access to 'land locked' land abutting Old Town Hill (a reservation) in Newbury and potential for development of the land by any of the parties involved. Old Town Hill is owned by the Trustees of Reservations, a non-profit conservation group.
Hall, who lives in Newbury (and, from what I know of him, is not an attorney), is contesting the alleged 'right' of two other property owners to have access to their 'land locked' properties through the reservation. One of the other property owners is Newbury Selectman Joe Story, who is running for re-election.
I guess that unless Hall concedes an easement through his property, or Story and Jackman (the other family involved) get someone to acknowledge the existence of an ancient public way through the Old Town Hill land, neither family has access to their land.
At least I think that's the issue. At any rate, David Hall wrote this letter that appears in Friday's Daily News. He refers to the dispute:
Regarding ethics, despite our efforts of mediation, Selectman Story and I have an on-going disagreement over building permits for 40 acres of farmland next to Old Town Hill that was formerly designated landlocked (unbuildable) by the assessors office...
His lack of wetland permits and his claim to the existence of a buildable public road (which bisects Old Town Hill Conservation Land off Newman Road) has put my regard for Joe as the public official on it's head. Such a road would make development of 60 acres of his own farmland adjacent to this claimed roadway a developers goldmine.
You would think the DN would be all over this story. Someone, unaware that I no longer work for the Current, called me about the story earlier this week. I referred the person to Current Editor Ms. Buckley, the author of the aforementioned story.
From the comments made online about the letter, it seems that the DN turned the story down.
That, by the way, was how a number of stories came my way while I worked on the Current.
"David! Joe!" Whatever has happend to reporting a story simply as a story, no matter who the players might be? It's at least as interesting as the clam shack debacle here in Newburyport.
Friday, May 9, 2008
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7 comments:
Hi Gillian, the dispute has been going on for more than a year now. I was going to write it up last year but really was resistent to getting back into Newbury news. (Plus I was very burned out at the time and the story needed a lot of energy, more than either paper has given it.)
Nevertheless I kept an eye on it. David Hall and his wife are right on in this one and they have been through hell at times. Consider it good, old fashioned stinks-of-rotten-fish, ould Newbury politics as usual. A lot has gone on behind the scenes here and I'll let you guess who the heavy in this story is.
(By the way, it's a lot more enjoyable and stress-free watching the bears and moose up here.
Oh I've never seen a moose in the wild. It's one of my dreams. There are all those signs in Maine promising a "Moose Crossing," but they lie.
I find it hard to imagine David Hall doing anything "bad" on or around conservation land.
I've heard a lot in the last few days about the "good, old fashioned stinks-of-rotten-fish, ould Newbury politics." A lot of people are hoping for the beginning of the end of it, next week.
Thanks!
I saw wild moose in Alaska.
On the other hand, I almost ran over a turkey a few days ago in Rowley.
I almost creamed a wild turkey on Rte. 1A a couple of summers ago. With my car, I mean, not over a stove. After it had sauntered off the road (causing a near accident in the oncoming lane), I looked over and there were 5 more, hanging around in someone's yard. This was in Newbury.
It was the most wild turkeys I have ever seen in one spot.
Be careful what you wish for. A moose on I89 was the last thing one of my wife's cousins ever saw.
Oh, Dick, that's terrible. So sorry.
My (now ex-) boyfriend was from Maine and he would say much the same when we would be driving along and I'd be moaning about not seeing a moose. He gave me instructions about what to do if I ever did see one, in front of my moving vehicle, and expressed his hope that said moose would not be large enough to make my ducking down to avoid it as it came through the windshield futile.
He then took me to an animal rescue place in Maine, where I saw a moose in an enclosure. And got the gist of what he had been telling me.
My wife hit a moose on the Maine Turnpike years ago just after getting her license.
Thankfully, she and her folks walked away from the scene, but the Jeep Grand Cherokee she was driving had to be put down.
So did the moose.
As for me, I've only seen them from the safe confines of a Grand Laker. Wicked cool.
And my largest contributions to the road kill fund have been a few wayward squirrels.
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