If a well-known Taunton business owner of a concrete manufacturing facility doesn’t make major changes related to noise, dust and physical vibrations, then he should be prohibited from doing business with the city, according to a lawyer who spoke Tuesday night to the City Council’s council as a whole committee.
Thomas E. Workman Jr., in a document presented to the committee on behalf of himself and some of his Weir Village neighbors, said that’s the price Gilbert Lopes Jr. should have to pay — as long as Lopes continues to ignore city ordinance and disregard the complaints and concerns of people living near his Red-Mix Services
concrete batching plant at 120 Berkley St.
Workman, who said he is working pro bono as the official counsel of his neighbors, said Lopes, whose construction company has been a mainstay in the city for more than 50 years, should be required to apply for an earth and materials removal permit.
The last earth-removal permit issued to the owners and operators of the former McCabe Sand and Gravel Co., which was the long running forerunner to Redi-Mix, was in 1981.
Gilbert Lopes wasn’t at Tuesday night’s meeting, but his vice president Joseph Tutsch and a handful of Lopes associates were. Nearly 40 residents and their supporters helped fill out the seats in the City Council chambers inside the temporary City Hall setting of the former Lowell Maxham School.
The day before the meeting Workman participated in an interview with the Taunton Daily Gazette in front of the Red-Mix Services site to describe ongoing complaints of neighbors. Earlier in the day he issued an appeal for a boycott of Lopes but apparently failed to draw enough willing participants.
Tutsch, on Wednesday, said Gil Lopes isn’t averse to working out a solution with the Weir Village neighbors who live on Berkley, Pratt, Jerome and other adjacent streets.
The City Council ended Tuesday’s lengthy meeting by adopting motions to meet again within the nest few weeks after it has gathered information and opinions from City Solicitor Jason D. Buffington as well as multiple city boards, departments and committees
“We would hope to work out a solution with the neighborhood prior to the city council meeting,” Tutsch said. “However, we do not feel we need (an earth-removal) permit to operate at that facility, because it is not an earth-removal operation. It is not a mining operation.”
Tutsch said the question of an earth-removal removal is a moot point: It’s been many years, he said, since anything has been dug up and removed from the Berkley Street site.
He also contends that the sand-and-gravel site has always operated in accordance with city zoning board rules as a “grandfathered non-conforming-use” business.
The origins of the McCabe business in Weir Village dates back 100 years.
City Councilman David Pottier cautioned against overreacting and attempting to issue any sort of cease and desist order. which he said could land the city back in court facing a lawsuit.
He cited a 2015 suit brought against the city by both Verizon and a cellphone tower company alleging that the City Council's rejection of a new tower near Alfred Lloyd Boulevard was arbitrary and ran contrary to federal law and scientific fact.
John Zajak, an attorney representing Lopes Construction, said he would welcome clarification as to whether the business does in fact need a permit to operate.
Complaints of noise, vibration, cement dust and rumbling trucks that alllegedly sometimes travel too fast came to fore this spring during the time that Redi-Mix was supplying large orders of concrete to the massive Amazon building being built in Freetown.
Since then the number of
cement mixing truck and deliveries has significantly diminished, but neighbors still claim that they are suffering sleep deprivation and other effects of a stone-crushing machine and trucks going in and out of the plant.
Red-Mix Services uses a batching plant to manufacture concrete from stone, gravel and cement powder. But it also uses a rock crusher to create various materials for different types of businesses and manufacturers.
Complaints began to circulate in 2013 when Lopes and his then business partner Gregory Keelan revitalized what had been a declining business. As contracts and jobs increased so did discontent among neighbors.
Nearly half a dozen residents spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, some of whom described vibrations and rumblings so strong that their houses have been structurally damaged.
One resident, Charyl Calfina, described how she has to wear headphones to bed every night. Ironically, Calfina said, she hired Lopes Construction to build her house three years ago.
A common complaint of residents has been what they claim has been nearly round the clock operation of
wet mix concrete batch plant equipment and trucks.
Redi-Mix Services up until now has had no restriction regarding its hours of operation.
Councilman Gerald Croteau, who has been hailed by the residents for taking a strong stand against the Lopes-owned Redi-Mix Services, was the only council member to vote against referring the matter to various department heads, including the DPW and police, and boards and committees.
Croteau said he's instead in favor of requiring the company to seek a permit.
Croteau received a round of applause after he drew an analogy to a 24-hour department store that needs a permit to stay open.
As for any grandfather clause, he said: "Yeah, it was grandfathered, and the grandfather died."
Haomei machinery equipment CO., LTD.
Name: ANN MA
Website: www.haomeibatchplant.com
Office Add: No.14 Waihuan Road, New district, Zhengzhou, China
Tel: +86-371-65621392
Fax:+86-371-86616825
