Access Road

• I judged at the Epic 5K on Mar. 28, and while I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was, I had a good time and learned a lot about the game. We had 99 players, which exceeded expectations, so that’s a good sign for the game.
• I did leave a bit early as I was feeling sick, which lasted for a few days. That wasn’t fun.
• As a thanks for judging, I received a promotional Epic card. I decided that it should be my first item to attempt to sell on eBay. It seems to be going well so far.
• Hannah continues to grow quickly. I’ve got to get around to posting pictures sometime.
• The Telegram today reports that MassDEP has approved the Southbridge Industrial Park access road that comes from Rte. 169 (and thus not through our land). So, it seems likely that Southbridge will continue with the project. One never knows with these things, though.

Today’s Telegram & Gazette reports that a business wants to move into the Southbridge Industrial Park, and wants the access road completed as soon as possible. The access road they’re referring to is the one from Rte. 169 (not going near our land), and has a pending appeal to MassDEP that may be resolved within the month.

Best case for us would be that the appeal causes the people wanting the access road to consider the alternative that comes from Rte. 20 and through our land. I find that scenario unlikely, but one can always hope.

• I’ll be head judging a PTQ this Saturday at TJ Collectibles.
• There’s a group of people trying to stop the Access Road from Rte. 169 to the Southbridge Industrial Park, in the hopes of having the road go from Rte. 20 in Charlton (and through my land) instead. It seems that perhaps the effort to change the route is a bit late, since they’re trying to stop the Conservation Commission’s approval of the route, and they really should have tried to change the proposed route many years ago. So, I place the odds of the road eventually going through my land as rather slim, but there’s still hope.
• Yesterday Hannah turned 5 months old. She’s still doing wonderful. She’s very much more seeing and interacting with people and objects, which is really nifty to see.

On Tuesday, the Charlton Board of Selectmen discussed briefly the possibility of an access road going through Charlton (including our land) to the Southbridge Landfill. They seemed generally supportive of the idea, which makes sense because it would significantly increase Charlton’s tax base without significantly increasing its expenses. So, that’s a good sign.

Yesterday (Thursday), there was the first of the restarted public hearings on Casella‘s new site assignment request, to change from taking in construction debris and start taking in municipal solid waste. Apparently, there was quite a crowd protesting the change. I certainly want there to be some regulation and oversight that Casella is doing what they are supposed to be, but conditions at the landfill have improved immensely since they took over from the previous owner, so I’m thinking that they want to be good corporate citizens, if only so that MassDEP isn’t always breathing down their necks. I think I’m hoping that the change happens, with correct oversight, such that Casella builds the access road, and living half a mile from the dump doesn’t become a nightmare. So, let’s hope that we can, in fact, get both.

Today’s Southbridge Evening News (4.9MB PDF) reports that Southbridge is once again thinking of building an access road to the Southbridge Airport and surrounding industrial park from Route 20. This road would go through the back of the land, and would be a wonderful benefit for Charlton, Southbridge, and us. (The value of land goes up dramatically when people can, you know, get to it.) We are one of the landowners who was approached and wrote a letter saying that we would be interested in such a road.