Differences Remain Over Tarr Land Trust

Following two years of contention and litigation between the town of Bedford and the Florence M. Tarr Wildlife Sanctuary Trust, both sides claim to be satisfied with a resolution that permanently maintains 252 acres of mostly Bedford land for conservation, though some question why an accord wasn't reached earlier.

The present:

The settlement on the land was reached through mediation on Aug. 5 and now heads to probate court for approval.

The agreement stipulates:

•     “The parties recognize and agree that the Bedford Land Trust may be substituted by the Probate Court with an equivalent charitable land trust …”
•     “The town shall waive any payment/claim/fee due from the Trust for back taxes, fees/costs, interest, and penalties and shall not require any further payment from the trust for the transfer of the property from the town to the Trust and then from the trust to the Bedford Land Trust.”
•     “The town agreed to pay $30,000, and the corporate surety holding the Trustees’ fidicuiary bond to pay $20,000, to facilitate the transfer to the Land Trust,” according to the town.

"This agreement meets the criteria the Town Council had laid out to basically get it resolved," said Town Manager Russ Marcoux. "The town's biggest concern was that the 252 acres remain in conservation and in pristine form, as was originally gifted in the trust."

"Protection of this amount of land, particularly in this location, for the total acquisition cost, inclusive of legal costs, is an extraordinarily good outcome for the town, and respects the intentions of Florence Tarr  when she passed away," said Town Council Vice Chairman Chris Bandazian. "Surplus funds in the trust, inclusive of Bedford's contribution, as indicated in the settlement agreement, will be turned over to the Bedford Land Trust for management of the property and the use and enjoyment of the property by citizens of the Bedford. Yes, the Town Council is pleased with this outcome. Similar settlement terms were offered earlier, but some litigants chose to run up costs before coming to agreement, but not withstanding, the outcome is outstanding."

One of the Tarr Trustees, Ryk Bullock - who also serves as Town and School Moderator - sees things a bit differently.

"We won," he said. "Every single thing we said proved to be the case and every thing we were looking for is in this agreement and to me, it proves the town was wrong from the onset because nobody pays if they are right.

"Our objective was never to put something unreasonable on the backs of the citizens," he added. "And I believe this was a home run for us."

The cost:

Marcoux said in addition to agreeing to pay $30,000 of the $50,000 necessary to facilitate the resolution, the town has spent $25,687 in legal fees that have been pulled from a budgeted fund and will not impact the tax rate. He said the town spent $1,766 on litigation involving the trust in 2009, $12,299 in 2010 and $11,622 through July of this year. He added there are likely to be additional legal costs forthcoming.

"Beyond that, the normal costs of wrapping up the acquisition of conservation and final court approvals I expect will be fairly modest," said Bandazian.

Former Town Council Chairman Mike Izbicki, however, said the town could have saved the cost of litigation and used it on more practical purposes.

"We cut a police car out of the budget this year ... with the money that was spent we may have been able to buy two new police cars with the budget we had if we didn't have this issue hanging over our heads," he said. "The only people that made money on this were the lawyers and its very unsettling it had to come to this when I predicted two years ago this would be the outcome."

In addition to work priorities, Izbicki said the trust tussle was one of the primary reasons he stepped down from the Council.

"I wanted to settle this back in 2009 and twice was asked by the Council to negotiate something and twice I came back with something and they said "no," said Izbicki. "I told them we had to settle this and that it was going to cost the town a lot of money if it continued. I knew it was going to be a white elephant with the town."

Izbicki said the trustees were willing to pay back taxes and penalties, but the town took the conservation land out of current use, which raised the tax rate and penalties being levied, which is when the executive board of the trust filed suit.

The past:

The issue began when the town of Bedford took the deed on the land in 2009. Marcoux said the trust was $5,733 behind on taxes at the time.

Scott Pollock, who was treasurer of the trust at the time, did not show up to the mediation meeting and therefore was not named in the settlement, though Bullock said he personally informed Pollock on several occasions of the settlement meeting.

Attempts to reach Pollock have been unsuccessful. His attorney, Cathy Green, said Pollock is representing himself in the matter.

The future:

Bullock says the land is being deeded back to the trust and probate court will help determine whether the property is conveyed to the Bedford Land Trust - a private non-profit organization that protects more than 300 acres of land in Bedford through conservation easements - or another similar conservation group.

"As of the date of the mediation, the Attorney General's office and the Bedford Land Trust had been in talks with each other, and both seemed quite content with the Bedford Land Trust managing the property," said Bandazian. "My impression is that it is unlikely that a different, but similar, conservation organization would become involved this far down the road, but it is a possibility, but wouldn't affect the public use of the land."

"The bottom line for the Bedford Land Trust is that we are not parties to the settlement, and have no knowledge of how the Probate Court will decide this matter," said Bedford Land Trust President Robert Jones. "We were contacted prior to the settlement to ascertain that we would serve as guardians of a conservation easement on the property if requested by the courts. We agreed that that was our mission, and have prepared for that possibility should it be part of the final settlement."