The majority of the Conservation Committee is against the name change and the Friends of EBC are adamantly opposed and will fight this that is why we need supporters to come to the ATM and help us get this passed. I initially approached the Conservation Committee about a survey to the townspeople to see how many would support a name change. I even told them I would put in the time and effort to send out the survey and they told me they had no interest. This is why I formed a group with others that felt strongly the name should be changed and submitted an Article for the Town Meeting to let the taxpayers decide. The opposition keeps talking about this being a waste of time and there are more important issues. They want to preserve the history. It just doesn't make any sense. Put a commemorative marker near the camps talking about how they use to be used for East Boston kids. But put a sign at the entrance naming the area "Westford Woods" and show that we own it now!! And I think spending 16 million dollars and wanting to put our name on what we own is NOT a waste of time!!

Ahhh, the straw hat crowd. Enough said. You will have a very difficult time at TM because as you know they will send town wide email lists they have put together and rally their troops. You be cast as an evil doer who is trying to destroy tradition and the fine memory of EBC. I will be there in support. Good luck

Hi Sam, Thanks so much for your support!! We are hoping that common sense will prevail and win this for us!! Spread the word and rally the troops so we can win this!! :->

R. Gagnon, Friends of EBC and Conscom are our biggest opponents and of course the former EBC alumni who are out of town. But things change in this world and time marches on. This land has a much deeper history than EBC. The Algonquin Indians once lived on the land etc. It is time to turn the page and start a new history of the usage of the land by the residents of Westford who are paying for this land with our hard earned dollars!

I agree! The name should have been changed when we purchased the land in 2005!!

Interesting proposal that has precedence in town, if the majority decides it wants to urge the Conservation Commission to rename the parcel. We have Emmet Conservation Land, Day Pumpkin Patch, Slifer Conservation Land, and Tom Paul Trail. Personally, I prefer East Boston Camps to Westford Woods, which sounds like a housing development, because of the history. I also think it should not be combined with Stepinski because they are separated by Stony Brook. Combining them into one name is a ruse that will not help people realize they exist. People who are not interested in outdoors activities will often be oblivious, even when reminded. Also, the Stepinski parcel is shared among Conservation, Water, and Recreation, each of which controls what it wants to call its section.

The condition of the camp facility deteriorated under the "care" of Goerge Fletcher to the point that it has cost hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars to get back into almost useable condition.

George Fletcher's most recent display of how important the EBC property is when the fuel tank in his tractor sprung a leak and he simply drove off and allowed it to soak into the soil and threaten the wetlands along the main access road to the boys camp. I saw it and there was NO mistaking the smell. He has left gates and chains unlocked so his freinds can drive up with boats to access Burgess Pond while the rest of us have to carry them in. The list of waisted resources, conservation restriction violations and examples of George's neglect goes on and on. If anyone wants to know about it, set an hour or so aside and contact me. I'll fill you in complete with documentation and pictures. Every time I go past the building with the sign "George's workshop" it makes me sick over the disrespect and neglect he has shown for EBC. I strongly support a name change for the reasons I mentioned in a previous post. But I would rather keep the East Boston Camps name than put George's name up. His "care" of the property has been legacy of neglect and nothing but smoke and mirrors to the taxpayers and special access and privilege to his freinds.

2:38 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013

No!! George did not spill fuel oil all over and did not have to report it to the state since the spill was less than 10 gallons. While clearing some stumps, his tractor was damaged and leaked less than 2 gallons. George reported the problem to the local authorities. The local authorities applied appropriate protocols to take care of the spill.
A local resident that felt that local authorities had not handled the spill correctly contacted the state, who regardless that the spill was less than 10 gallons, become involved which wound up costing in excess of $5,000 to do it the state way.
Sorry Winston but throw no rocks when you live in a glass house because you driving record could be posted for all to see.

Hi Winston, here you go -- http://westford.patch.com/articles/town-responds-after-east-boston-camps-tractor-accident

Jesse James, nice revisionist history. George said he leaked about 4 gallons. Its documented. Nice try. Also, the 4 gallon estimate came from him alone. No verification and nothing to support that estimate but George's word. I saw the spill at sunrise the following day. The smell was so bad you could almost taste it and the spill went on for some 1,700 feet. It was raining that day and the oil was floating on top of the rainwater and running off the road threatening the wetlands and bog along the sided of the road. When I went back at noon, I saw that the local authorities, for reasons only they can explain, set down a little speedy-dry for the first 30 feet of the spill and left the rest. I am that resident that you speak of and I had good reason to call the MA DEP to look into it. Did you see it youself?

To correct one more erroneous point that you made JJ, George did not report anything. George drove his tractor away from the spill and stench he left in his wake and didn't say a word. I reported it to the WPD at first light and they notified the WFD. I met a rep from the FD and showed him where the spill happened while George was probably still snug in his bed. Again, George did nothing about it.
Well, George did take some action. When his insurance company covered only part of the cleanup cost, George went to the ConsCom with his hand out for what the insurance did not cover. Of course, his good freinds voted (1 in opposition) to pay George the balance. Its all a matter of record.

All true, Jesse. Let's change the name and move on.

In the past, I invited you to meet me at the Westford Police station to review your record. You have chosen to ignore my invitation and keep making false statements in order to boost your depleted ego.
BTW If George Fletcher is in your words "Westford's Favorite Son", I do not understand your opposition to renaming EBC to "Fletcher Memorial Woods."
BTW I have been told that the money used to make up the insurance shortfall in the incident in question came from remediation funds not taxpayer funds.
Of course, if you had not jumped the line of action by going whining to the DEP , the cost to clean up the spill would have been covered by the insurance carried by Mr. Fletcher. In my opinion, you should reimburse the ConsCom for the excess cost.

JJ, when I refer to GF as "Westford's favorite son", its just me being facetious and poking fun at the situation. I understand the lights are a bit dim for you but I thought you would at least get that not-so-subtle poke. The job description for the caretaker position at EBC was custom written so that GF was the only person who could possibly qualify for the job. It was a gift from the beautiful people of Westford (as opposed to us 50 year or less residents) to their "favorite son". By the way, I have a copy of that description and documented proof of all of the duties he does not do every day. If I had an employee who did not measure up to his job description the way GF doesn't measure up to his, I would have terminated his employment for cause a long time ago. If you want to see the records, I'll meet you on neutral turf. The police station, being the home office of one of the officers who was willing to encroach on my 1st amendment rights in order to defend "Westford's favorite son", is in no way neutral turf. I'll be happy to bring my evidence to a very public but neutral place like Dinkin Donuts or some other non-interested location.
As far as the money that the ConsCom used to pay the contractor's insurance deductable, it is public money. It belongs to the Town of Westford collectively. It is not the property of any individual sitting on the ConsCom and should not have been gifted to the contractor who was so demonstrably negligent.

And you conveniently neglected to answer my question (nice dodge) so I'll ask again. If a contractor that you hired to work on your property damaged your property, would you compensate him for the deductable that the insurance company did not pay? Just a simple yes or no answer would suffice.

Now, back to the discussion at hand. I believe the name "Westford Woods" without any comemoration to East Boston Social Center or Westford's favorite son, George Fletcher would be a great idea!

Just a thought JJ, there is another genuinely neutral teritory. The internet. For short money, I could buy a domain name and upload all of the documentation I have collected over the past 7 years then circulate the URL here, the westfordforum and other places so you could view it at your liesure from your safe spot, hiding behind your keyboard. I've already mulled over the idea some time ago. I decided not to becuase there are names of good albeit misguided people who could suffer various levels of embarassment, depending on their role in this scam called East Boston Camps Caretaker. But, if you would like me to ... Your call. Just let me know.

Now, back to the discussion at hand. I believe the name "Westford Woods" without any comemoration to East Boston Social Center or Westford's favorite son, George Fletcher would be a great idea!

Local!!! You must belong to the 47% group totally dependent on handouts from government at the local, state and federal levels.
The good old boys that voted against civil rights in the 50s and 60s were Democrats not Republicans.
You choose whatever pseudo brother and sisters that you want, I prefer the advice of the Holy Book.
Sorry Local that your hero, Teddy Kennedy, could not buy passage to Heaven and wound up in the hot place.

I recall the 1948 Dixiecrats under Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Bull Connors, ... all good democrats would be found in 5th grade books written before 22 Nov 1963.
I recall good old Ike federalizing the national guard and calling out the airborne to integrate Little Rock, Arkansas.
No the 47% include many wealthy people who the fortune of having special tax loopholes do not pay any taxes. There is another group those that pay artificially low taxes like Mitt and Kennedy family because of special provisions in the IRS code. I certainly would not label these individuals right wing zealots.
If you check the history of 42USC 1980-1987, you will find that Teddy Kennedy in 1978 had the 5 years prison term deleted from the penalties that could be imposed on an individual found guilty of violating a persons civil rights.
BTW Did you know that Joe for Oil Kennedy receives more than $500,000 for running an oil distributorship that gets cheap/free oil via the graces of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.

I am willing to reimburse RG for any costs associated with posting the document that he claims to have. I also have some of the documents but I do not feel I have a complete set.
The documents that I would be interested in are the transfer documents showing who got paid what. Federal Forms 990 show that Land Preservation Trust paid Hyams $14 million for EBC. The Registry of Deeds shows Hyams selling the property to the town of Westford for $13.5 million and the 2005 Form 990 filled by the Hyams foundation shows that they received $12.7 million for EBC.
Oh, I forgot the private funding that the beautiful people promised was short by $240,000 which caused the Chairwoman of the Community Preservation Committee to become somewhat concerned about closing the deal.

Those two men from Concord have access to one of the most historicaly significant 1600 acres of undeveloped land in the country. Estabrook Woods lies between Lowell Rd. and Monument St. It is where the patriot militia marched from to confront British soldiers at the North Bridge and stopped their progress towards Colonel Barrett's fields to find and confiscate weapons. The stones that formed the foundations of some of the houses are still visible as well as the pound and lime quarries. It is a complex of privately owned land with conservation restrictions that will protect it in perpetuity. I get a kick out of all the tourists from near and far posing in front of the Concord Inn thinking that that's where it started. The plotting and planning for that fateful day went on about a mile to the north of the inn. To walk those woods and see the remains of the dwellings bring a sense of awe of the greatness that started right there and everything that came after.
While the history of EBC is kinda interesting in the 19th and 20th centuries, there is much more that went on before. Unfortunately, ingnorance of the history and a rush to exploit the resources will force the rich history of our past into the stale words of history book texts. I agree with Westford Voters that the historical comemoration, if there is to be one, should go back farther than the Hyams ownership of the land. One might argue, historicaly speaking, their stuardship was the beginning of the end for that land.

RG, I am with you on a lot of what you have posted here. I am curious on Jefferies. JJ has stated you are a big supporter of his. Yes or no on this.

Sam, JJ is just trying to bust my, well, you know. He knows I'm no fan of Bob Jefferies. So in answer to your question, a most emphatic NO!!!! Jefferies and all the rest on the BoS must go when their terms are up or sooner if possible.

Your comprehension of Presidential powers is sadly lacking. What Ike did was to effectively declare war against the state of Arkansas. A federal call up of a state military asset had never been done before. Ike was morally right and ethically correct but skating on thin ice.
Did Ike have to back up the SCOTUS, morally and ethically- Yes but POTUS does not take orders from either Congress or SCOTUS. Take DOMA. It is apparent POTUS Obama will not defend legal challenges to DOMA which is the law of the land. The only way a POTUS or a members of SCOTUS can be punished for a transgression is impeachment and conviction of crimes and misdemeanors.
If the GOP's platform supports family values over the sick and perverted agenda of the Lambda society or the killers of Jeffrey Daumer, I shall be on the GOP side.

What's incorrect? Educate us please. Broad statement are worthless.