To the Editor,
"CST Landscaping and Stormwater Discussed", June 28th edition ofThe Cricket; Matt Connor of Hancock Associates, explaining the scope and nature of the proposed project, said, "As you can see, we don't have many neighbors." This should sound familiar to alert citizens, because Geoff Engler often made the same statement in regard to the impacts of SLV's proposed 40B project on the other side of Upper School Street. I do not mean to put CST into the same basket with SLV, as they (CST) appear from all indications to be good corporate citizens with a strong environmental ethic, but in both cases this statement refers to the absence of human habitation nearby.
As I and many others went to great lengths to point out during the SLV hearings, there are all kinds of neighbors in the abutting and other nearby properties: the assemblage of plants and animals that make up the Manchester and Essex woodlands north of RTE 128. Relative to the CST proposal, Sawmill Brook and its watershed are right nearby, and the Trustees of Reservations owns and conserves 11 parcels north of Atwater Avenue and west of the project area. There is also conservation land across the Town line from the CST project, in Essex.
The CST facility would lie in a previously, and profoundly, disturbed area and no doubt will in many ways improve upon the mess left by the quarry operation, but it will also bring major potential impacts in terms of stormwater, traffic, artificial light, and noise, among others. It will be up to the Town, CST and the citizenry to look after the well being of all the "neighbors" around Atwater Avenue.
Mike Dyer
Essex
