[MassHistPres] MassHistPres Digest, Vol 44, Issue 18

[Pam Howland]

Regarding demolition by neglect:

Please allow me to interject:
     We all have treasured buildings that ended up being demolished.  Many
cities pay $50K and up to demolish a house or school, or church or fire
station because water has gotten past the roof for too long.  The wood goes
to incinerators or is ground up for mulch or particleboard.  Sometimes the
demo contractor salvages beams for milling into flooring.  The value of
this timber is not returned to the community.
     The early built environment of our country became the repository for
our ancient forests.  When it looks like we've lost the battle to save the
building, it could be deconstructed to benefit the community. Also,
mechanical demolition contaminates the air and land around the site.
 Buildreuse.org has tons of information on deconstruction and
preservationists from all over the country serve as members.  Donovan
Rypkema's group did a lengthy study of deconstruction called "Treasure In
The Walls."

     Thank you all.
     Pam Howland (413) 552-9255




On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 12:00 PM <masshistpres-request at cs.umb.edu> wrote:

> Send MassHistPres mailing list submissions to
>         masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>         https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>         masshistpres-request at cs.umb.edu
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>         masshistpres-owner at cs.umb.edu
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of MassHistPres digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Demo by neglect bylaw violation by the town (Richard McGrath)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2021 22:44:36 -0400
> From: Richard McGrath <mastermasonmcgrath at gmail.com>
> To: Masshistpres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Subject: [MassHistPres] Demo by neglect bylaw violation by the town
> Message-ID:
>         <CAGQcf8STT-SdcAqr0j0VCVuqCV0JASpp-2sgfKZQHpGg94QO=
> Q at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Greetings! The town of Lunenburg has a vacant 1929 brick high school that
> has been vacant for 10 years, or so, and has been undergoing demolition by
> neglect because the town has refused to properly mothball the building.
> Demolition by Neglect is a violation of the town bylaw. The Selectboard
> says that they can't properly mothball the building because the public has
> not authorized them to spend the money to do so.
>
> My questions are, can a town be in violation of its own law? Is there some
> way that they can be held accountable? Is there anything that the state can
> do? If a town can just disregard its own bylaws and continue on as it
> pleases, or as it is dictated to by the public, what is the purpose of
> having the law? A citizen cannot disregard the law. How is it that a
> selectboard can?
>
> Has anyone had an experience with a situation like this.
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard McGrath, Chair
> Lunenburg APDC
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: <
> http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20210825/9b7d6a80/attachment-0001.html
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of MassHistPres Digest, Vol 44, Issue 18
> ********************************************
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20210826/4c247732/attachment.html>