Who Is Protecting Greenway Now and In the Future?

As an advocate of the Tri-Community Greenway, I have been excited to follow the progress of construction through Winchester and Woburn since May. Now that construction has finally reached Stoneham, I am greatly troubled by the rate of encroachment on the Rail Road Right of Way here in Stoneham, even as the construction is within a block or two of the areas being encroached upon! This is not something the contractor building the Greenway, Northern Construction, has had to deal with, as they made their way through Winchester and Woburn. In Stoneham, MWRA, and subcontractor Albanese have been using the RRRoW as a lay down area for their equipment and construction materials for many months now. A contractor building condos at 42 Pleasant St. has encroached 25 feet into the RRRoW. An owner of a property on Pomeworth Street continues to pile his materials on the RRRoW even after being ordered to remove all his materials. My concern and question to the town officials is who is protecting the integrity of the RRRoW/Greenway, now and in the future?

I thought we had an advocate for the GW on the Board of Selectmen, with the former Chair of the Stoneham Greenway Committee, now a member of the BOS, Selectman Anthony Wilson. Mr. Wilson, who ran for the Board of Selectmen on his record of advocating for the Greenway, I expected, would continue to advocate for the GW in his role as Selectman. Surely he would step up to defend the integrity of the Greenway and fight to protect the GW from present and future encroachment issues. However, during a recent meeting of the BOS discussion of whether the TA had the authority to negotiate a "license" to contractors to encroach on the Greenway, surprisingly, Selectman Wilson, apparently has flip flopped on his past practice of advocating for the Greenway by suggesting the TA continue to authorize negotiating license agreements to contractors who need space for their construction. This is a dangerous precedent being set, which will lead other contractors and business owners to clamor for the same easement rights, however temporary.

While past Town officials have treated the RRRoW as "abandoned property up for grabs" for the last three decades, with completion of the Greenway only10 months away, a project paid for by state and federal funds, I thought that the Greenway, a gem of a multi use linear park, that Stoneham is lucky to receive, would be protected from "the vultures." It's time for town officials to send a clear message that the Greenway is not up for negotiation, indeed there are laws in place to protect the Greenway. Why are town officials not following the laws in protecting it?