I'm Peter Paulson, the Deputy Mayor and Trustee of
Maldon Manor. Before I start anything, I want to thank them
for allowing us to speak at this meeting and I also want to
thank Lori Herman, who did a tremendous job of getting
everyone out here today. I don't know why, but we received
an extremely short notice, so did the newspapers also were
not notified, but we did get enough people out to talk about
the Malden Power pipeline.
We had a presentation by Malden Power about the gas
pipeline at our board meeting. They did a nice presentation,
they showed how they restored the park areas, they lay the
pipes that you never know that they've been done, and it is
just wonderful.
I find this discussion extremely disappointing
tonight, that anyone would consider running a large gas line
through a residential area, as opposed to an uninhabited
parkland. I have resided in this vicinity my entire life. I
cannot understand how Malden Park opposite the golf course,
an area that has been used for the disposal of stolen cars,
washing machines, refrigerators, tires, rubbish and an
occasional body suddenly needs to be protected from any sort
of disturbance.
Anyone in this room can remember countless times
going by and hearing either a fire engine or seeing a fire
along that area. It's a perfect spot, still to this day they
dump stolen cars, insurance claim cars. It is not a pristine
park. I'd love to know where all of the environmental
concerns were when this park was being used for a dumping
ground.
Malden Power has demonstrated how once the pipeline
is laid they restore the park areas. Most of the times they
restore it better than it originally was. If the concern is
about wildlife, it should be noted only a small portion of
the park will be disturbed. They do not rip up the entire
park area. It is a very small area and it will be completely
restored.
It is funny to see anyone who is going to place the
service of a parkland over the safety of the residents of
Malden Manor. I'm sure everyone is aware that just a few
weeks ago in New Mexico there was a pipeline disaster in a
campground. The report from the news was that in the
pipeline disaster twelve people were incinerated, six at the
park and others died in the hospital.
The reporter revealed these statistics: Since
1986, there have been an average of one pipeline accident per
day, 5700 accidents, resulting in 325 deaths and 1500
injuries. The government agency responsible for the
inspections of the pipeline admits that they are many, many
years behind in doing their inspections.
I ask the Review Board to remove the Village of
Maldon Manor as a route for this pipeline. It seems strange
to put a pipeline under residential streets which are
repeatedly, and we all know that, we pave the streets and a
few days later Malden Electric will come to rip it up to do
some work. The telephone company, water, people who do
renovations in their homes disturb the street. It's a risk
that there is no need for us to take. You have a parkland,
you have a golf course, it will go through an area that there
is very little usage, no residential homes. The danger of
anything happening to the pipeline and hurting someone is
very far remote. It's not a campground where people are
going to be on a regular basis.
It seems completely unreasonable for anyone to give
consideration of using the Malden Manor streets to put a
pipeline that can easily go through, to be nice about it, go
through a parkland. I think the only advantage that we'll
see of them going through the parkland is maybe it will be
cleaned up and maybe some of the golf course will be restored
a little bit better than it is.
I implore and I ask them to please reconsider using
Malden Manor as a route and just remove us from the list.
Thank you
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