[MassHistPres] Info for writing your senator about scrap metal bill - and please write!

Tue Sep 16 14:00:09 EDT 2008

As Dennis DeWitt and others have noted (see below), this scrap metal dealer regulation bill is an important for the preservation community to prevent theft of statues, monuments, iron fences, etc., as the price for scrap iron has risen from $150 per ton in 2005 to over $600 per ton today. 

Although a majority of the states have such a bill, the Massachusetts legislature has been talking and talking for three years...without result.  We on this list need to write and to encouage other local officials to write as well.

The bill is S. 228.  Here's a link to it: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/185/st00/st00228.htm

Here's a link to all the members of the state Senate: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm

In your reply, please include my original message. AOL users please note!

David Temple 
David F. Temple, Inc. 
300 South Street 
Medfield, MA 02052 
508-359-2915 

--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Dennis De Witt <djdewitt at rcn.com> wrote:

From: Dennis De Witt <djdewitt at rcn.com>
Subject: [MassHistPres] Scrap metal legislation stalled
To: "MHC listserve" <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 11:26 AM

In case you haven't seen this morning's Globe.  Here is a link to an  
article about bills concerning the regulation of scrap metal yards.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/16/regulating_the_scrap_heap/

29 states, including Rhode Island, regulate scrap dealers to reduce  
theft.  Even the scrap dealers' national association supports more  
regulation than Mass. has.  (Presently there is none on the state  
level.)

Any town that has ever suffered the loss of historic metal artifacts  
and building components has a stake in this legislation, which is  
currently stalled.

Legislators act if they know there is interest.  If historical  
societies and Commissions and other affected groups were to contact  
their local State Reps and state Senators (as well as Senator James E.  
Timilty who is sponsoring the bill) -- and asked their boards of  
selectmen to do the same -- it could truly make a difference on Beacon  
Hill.

Dennis De Witt
Brookline

Here are excerpts from the Globe article:

They come in nearly every day, trying to sell him copper wire, old  
radiators, air conditioner coils, doors, gutters, just about anything  
made of metal.

In his 68 years buying other people's garbage, Ruben Lenox has never  
seen so many charlatans walk into his Dorchester junkyard - the kind  
of people who have stolen city manhole covers, ransacked religious  
buildings and foreclosed homes for copper pipes, and as recently as  
last month robbed a Salem fraternal organization of its 1,400-pound  
steel wheelchair lift, during a daytime funeral.

As the price of scrap metal has rocketed to record levels this summer,  
Beacon Hill lawmakers are seeking to join the majority of other states  
in the country that have passed laws to increase regulations on how  
scrap metal is bought and sold.

But in Massachusetts, where police last week arrested two government  
employees in the theft of $500,000 worth of decorative cast-iron trim  
from the Longfellow Bridge, the efforts to hold scrap dealers such as  
Lenox more accountable have made little progress.

In the past year, state Senator James E. Timilty has pushed a bill  
that would require scrap dealers and pawnshop brokers to record the  
name, address, date of birth, photo, and other details about the  
seller and the items being sold. That information would be sent to an  
online registry accessible by authorities.

"Stories of thefts are now a weekly occurrence," said Timilty, a  
Walpole Democrat who serves as cochairman of the Legislature's Joint  
Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. "Something has to be  
done."

But the bill has failed to attract enough support to pass a full vote  
in the Legislature because of a combination of budget pressures and  
industry lobbying. Timilty estimates building and staffing such an  
online registry would cost the state about $1 million.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a Washington-based group  
that promotes the industry and tracks scrap legislation, said that in  
the last year, 29 states have passed scrap-related laws.

Delaware, for example, now requires scrap dealers to adhere to State  
Police record-keeping requirements and hold copper wire for at least a  
week before sending it to a smelter. In Florida, dealers must review a  
government-issued identification card for all scrap sales and no  
longer can accept cash transactions. Hawaii requires scrap dealers to  
pay sellers of metals by check, sent via mail no sooner than five days  
after the purchase; Louisiana mandates those selling vehicles as scrap  
to provide a sworn statement to prove they own the goods; and  
Minnesota bars scrap dealers from buying beer kegs from anyone other  
than the manufacturer.

The trade group has encouraged state lawmakers around the country to  
pass legislation to regulate what it says was a $71 billion industry  
last year that employed 50,000 people and recycled 15 million metric  
tons of scrap. With demand for metals rising in developing countries  
such as China, India, and Brazil, the group said the price of scrap  
iron and steel rose from $89 a ton in summer 2000 to more than $600  
this year.

State lawmakers and law enforcement officials said the online registry  
would be modeled after a similar program in Rhode Island, which they  
said has helped solve everything from break-ins to arsons. They said  
anything less than an online registry of sellers - visible only to  
police and prosecutors - would be impractical as a means of helping  
police solve crimes.

Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of  
Police Association, said the registry would make it much easier for  
officers who track stolen property.

"At the least, this bill would set uniform standards around the state,  
and that would be a big help," Sampson said.

"Metal thefts have become a big problem, and the state should be doing  
more. Law enforcement officials around the state strongly support  
having an online registry."

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