I just read a news report that the billboards on the [Hayden Rowe Street property now or formerly owned by the Connelly family] are slated for removal tomorrow [March 30]. For the reasons cited below, I request that the removal work be stopped immediately.

I ask that that work be stopped because the property owner may be required to submit a Request for Determination of Applicability or Notice of Intent to the  Conservation Commission for this work if the work will be within a Wetland Resource Area. Permitting for work in a Wetland Resource Area is under the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission.

Additionally, the Planning Board has no authority to decide the fate of these billboards. That decision must be made by the Open Space Preservation Commission (OSPC) as the property is or will be under the care, custody and control of the OSPC.

The existence of the billboards have never been a question or issue. It would not be an issue now if the property continued to be privately owned.

The revenue from the land lease for these signs would be immensely beneficial to the OSPC in managing this and other properties.

For the above reasons, the removal work must be stopped before the execution day of March 30.

I realize this is an action that must be taken today, but the OSPC is the only town organization with the authority to decide the fate of the billboards.

The OSPC has already voted to keep the billboards and benefit from the lease revenue.

— Jim Ciriello, Hopkinton (member of Conservation Commission)

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