Nancy Peters of the Hopkinton Board of Health has had her own issues with E.L. Harvey and Sons, whose trucks at times made it impossible for her to cross the street near her Woodville home.
"I've been complaining to the Harveys about the speed of their trucks for years," said Peters, who gives the Harvey family the license numbers of both the speeding trucks and the courteous drivers who stop to let her cross. "But during the hearing process, I noticed fewer trucks, and everybody was going the speed limit."
Peters had the unenviable position of casting the deciding vote on Nov. 12th to approve Harvey's proposed recycling facility on the Hopkinton/Westboro border. The health board's approval clears the way for Harvey to pursue the remaining local and state permits it needs to build the facility, which will include an 80,000-square-foot building to sort recyclables, a 20,000-square-foot construction and demolition (C&D) waste building, and a 20,000-square-foot maintenance garage.
Harvey agreed to a list of conditions to reduce noise, traffic and ground pollution around the facility and to assure the neighbors that they would not be handling hazardous materials. The conditions also ban Harvey trucks from several Hopkinton streets.
All three members of the board - Peters, Richard DeMont and Dr. Jeff Hersh - expressed personal reservations about voting for a project that would add a bustling recycling operation to a once-bucolic piece of land, and was bitterly and doggedly opposed by neighbors who live nearby.
But because the Harveys submitted their proposal for the new facility when an older, more liberal state law on such facilities was in place, the board said that they had no choice but to approve it. A stricter law, effective on June 8, 2001- just two days after the Harveys submitted their plans - would have prohibited the facility altogether.
"We are limited in our decision making to the rules in affect on June 6, 2001," said Peters at the hearing. "The newer rules address open space and other issues. But the Hopkinton Board of Health is not allowed to consider open space, and this is regrettable. But if we don't follow the rules, we open ourselves up for an appeal," by the Harveys.
An official approval will be posted by today, and those opposed to the project have the right to appeal the decision within 30 days from that posting.
Hopkinton's Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Commission and building inspector, along with some state agencies, must also approve Harvey's plans. Hopkinton (Mass.) Town Crier