Thursday, April 11, 2013
City councilors again panned an offer from Total Outdoor Corp. to settle the matter and say it will have to play out in court if the entertainment company refuses to move the structure to its proper location.
Total Outdoor Corp. has made a second proposal to resolve the legal dispute over its billboard structure at 532 Lowell St. and again the Peabody City Council has rejected the offer. Councilors met with City Solicitor Michael Smerczynski behind closed doors in Mayor Ted Bettencourt's office Wednesday night and spent about 30 minutes discussing the matter in executive session before a decision was reached. Bettencourt, who initiated enforcement action against Total Outdoor months ago, removed himself from the executive session and told councilors, according to Dave Gamache, that he would support whatever decision they made. In regular public session Wednesday Council President Tom Gould said two motions came out of the earlier meeting, the …
42.546021
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532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/council-rejects-second-proposal-to-resolve-billboard-dispute
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
It appears Total Outdoor Corp. is again faced with resolving cease and desist orders from the city by moving that 92-foot pole off Lowell Street.
The case could still linger in court, but a judge yesterday denied two motions by Total Outdoor Corp. that sought to rescind cease and desist orders and allow a billboard structure to remain where it is on Lowell Street. Judge Howard Whitehead's ruling leaves the entertainment company to either move the 92-foot pole and resolve the stop work orders by the city or file some other type of appeal. The Salem News reports Whitehead clearly disagreed with the notion there was a simple clerical error as Total Outdoor's explanation for the two versions of the site plan. He told the company there is no legal precedent for leaving his original judgment intact (to allow the pole) but replacing pieces of evidence by now swapping site plans. Mayor Ted …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/judge-rejects-notion-clerical-error-led-to-legal-wrangling-now-over-billboard
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
The case of the Lowell Street billboard, or rather the 92-foot pole, may start all over again with a retrial in court. Judge Howard Whitehead is expected to make a decision later this week.
Judge Howard Whitehead agreed with city officials -- the 92-foot pole is definitely not where they thought it was going to be installed when he ruled against the city last year. City Solicitor Michael Smerczynski says the issue now for Whitehead to decide is whether that truly was because of a clerical error when the plans were submitted in court or a broken promise first made to appease local officials who didn't want the billboard there at all off Lowell Street. Both sides argued the case in Salem Superior Court Monday. Whitehead told Total Outdoor Corp., Peabody officials and more than 20 residents from two nearby condo complexes he would take a couple days to make a decision, but indicated he would probably vacate his earlier judgment …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/judge-may-call-for-retrial-in-billboard-dispute
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Prior to Monday's court hearing, a proposal was offered to partially shield the towering pole from view by motorists and neighbors.
The Peabody City Council has rejected a proposal from Total Outdoor Corp. for its controversial billboard structure on Lowell Street and is headed to court Monday to try and resolve the dispute. The Salem News reports that one of the items councilors discussed in executive session last week was a proposed settlement from Total Outdoor to install akin to an addition on the adjacent building to cover the bottom portion of the 92-foot pole, making it less obtrusive to neighbors. The paper reports the council unanimously rejected the offer and insists on the pole being relocated to the rear of the property, where city officials argue it was supposed to be installed. City Council President Tom Gould told the Salem News the city wouldn't settle …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/city-council-rejects-deal-for-lowell-street-billboard
/locations/9039969
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
City councilors will meet with city attorneys Thursday to discuss the matter of the Lowell Street billboard.
City councilors will be meeting behind closed doors with city attorneys and possibly representatives of Total Outdoor Corp., to discuss pending litigation over the company's billboard structure on Lowell Street. The current location of the 92-foot pole is the problem -- attached to the side of a building at 532 Lowell St. -- on top of initial strong opposition from councilors and the neighborhood at having the billboard there at all. The city says, essentially, that the pole was installed in the wrong spot and should have been placed instead behind the building, theoretically out of sight from Lowell Street. Total Outdoor Corp. disagrees. A hearing is scheduled for March 18 (2 p.m.) in Salem Superior Court, but prior to that, councilors …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/council-schedules-executive-session-to-discuss-latest-on-billboard
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
A hearing in superior court is scheduled for Tuesday. Total Outdoor Corp. claims it's all a clerical error with the wrong plans being filed, while the city argues the 92-foot billboard pole was installed in the wrong spot and needs to be moved.
The fight between the city and an entertainment company over a Lowell Street billboard resumes in court Tuesday afternoon. City officials contend that the 92-foot pole and billboard installed by Total Outdoor Corp. at 532 Lowell St. were placed in the wrong spot (attached to the side of the building) and should be relocated to the rear of the property. Total Outdoor Corp. argues there was a mix-up in the plans submitted in court last summer and the intention was always to place the billboard where it is now. Plus, it would cost $200,000-$250,000 to move it. City officials argue the pole was not even installed at the right spot according to the original set of plans that placed it adjacent to the building, and regardless, that first draft …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/battle-royale-over-billboard-to-play-out-in-court
/locations/8944610
42.549063
-70.973137
Ledgewood Condominiums
1 Ledgewood Way, Peabody, MA
/articles/battle-royale-over-billboard-to-play-out-in-court
775266
/locations/8944611
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The entertainment company that erected the billboard says it would cost $200,000-$250,000 to relocate the pole behind the building where the city wants it.
Rather than just take the 92-foot pole down and move it, Total Outdoor Corp. is taking the city back to court on that new billboard towering over Lowell Street. City Solicitor Michael Smerczynski said the company's response to the cease and desist order from the city last month was there was a mix-up in the version of plans filed in court and the company is unwilling to spend the $200,000-$250,000 necessary to relocate the pole behind the building at 532 Lowell St. Smerczynski said a second stop work order has actually been issued because the pole is still 6 feet off from the other plans that do show it attached to the side of the building. Those plans were part of the special permit application the City Council originally denied last May…
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/battle-over-lowell-street-billboard-heads-back-to-court
/locations/8831203
Monday, February 4, 2013
Mayor says an entertainment company that has erected a 92-foot tall billboard off Lowell Street has installed the pole in the wrong place and he wants it moved.
[Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect a correction. The correct height of the monopole is 92 feet.] Mayor Ted Bettencourt says an entertainment company that has erected a 92-foot tall billboard off Lowell Street has installed the pole in the wrong place, and as a result, it's in full view by the neighborhood. Bettencourt says that according to plans filed with the city and in court -- a judge overturned the City Council's original denial of the special permit for the billboard -- the pole should have been installed behind the building at 532 Lowell St. not on the side of it. He wants Total Outdoor Corp. now to move the pole to the right spot. Bettencourt directed building inspectors to issue a cease and desist order …
42.546021
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/city-issues-stop-work-order-after-billboard-installed-in-wrong-spot
/locations/8739902
m .miller
10:09 pm on Saturday, April 20, 2013
You are so right Rick. They are opportunists who think they will ultimately win. There is no benefit to Peabody to cave in to these sharks. more ›