Report of the Planning Board Meeting
6/6/2000 ~ 7-10PM ~ Preble Fire Hall
The first two hours were dull as the board went over small details of deficiencies in the scoping document and discussed with Flying J's Teter and Shafer about how changes would be made. Most of it was covering protection of the aquifer. The Planning Board and Laura (the engineer for the town) were very adamant about these concerns over objections from Teter and Shafer. The Planning Board prevailed on every issue, which pleased me. Then the issue of the buffer zone came up and Flying J’s wish to put sewage drainpipes in it. I asked Fran during a quiet point and he said the previous lawsuit covered pavement as a structure only and not the drainpipes. The Planning Board started talking about it. Both Chris and Tom didn’t think that the pipes were a structure but then Dean asked for advice from Fran Casullo (Planning Board Lawyer) who said they should get advise from the code enforcement officer. Then Shafer told the board to ignore Fran's advice and take his advice. His tone of voice spelled arrogance and he acted as if he had told Fran that he would sue the town again if he weren’t allowed to use the buffer zone. Shafer was also pushing hard for a fast timetable and was turned down flat, which visibly ticked him off. He played the part of a nincompoop quite well. Fran and Shafer had several interesting heated ‘discussions’ that I’m sure left most in the room with a very low opinion of Shafer, I know it did for me.
The issue was decided by the board to follow the town's laws (to Shafers chagrin) and get an opinion from the code enforcement officer Doug Staley. The issue was tabled until the next regularly scheduled Planning Board meeting on the 15th at 7:30 after a public meeting on a non-Flying J issue at 7PM. Both Dean and Fran stated that there would be no ‘timetable’ and no rushing of anything. Everything would take place in the proper sequence and time.
The meeting adjourned at 10PM.
The usual group attended the backbench but the rest of the room was filled with Preble citizens. Joe, Lydia and Tina Oliver, Bill Griffin, Stan Kogut, Jennifer Molloy, and several others whose names I don’t know.
Analysis and my opinion:
First some basic ground information. The code enforcement officer is not Doug Staley as most think. He is actually John Steger, the town supervisor. Staley is a contract worker through his company. Also Fran works for the town and is hired by the Town Board to represent the Planning Board and ZBA. Our Town Board wants Flying J so they want to remove as many roadblocks as possible. When you hear Fran Casullo say he wants to avoid being sued by Shafer even though he won last time what you may really be hearing is the Town Board wanting to give Flying J what it wants. Therefore the Town Board may have told Casullo not to attract a lawsuit which told Shafer that if he threatened a lawsuit the Planning Board would be advised by Casullo to accept Shafers desires. Now on the 15th Staley/Steger will come to the Planning Board and probably tell them that Flying J’s plan meets code and Casullo may tell the board they should accept that and Flying J gets what the Town Board wants.
Just my opinion of course.
Frank Hogg
6/13/2000