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
-70.981544
532 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/council-rejects-second-proposal-to-resolve-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
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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
/locations/8994949
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
Thursday, August 23, 2012
All that and more on the City Council's agenda Thursday night.
As the City Council reconvenes Thursday night from its summer recess, a number of weighty issues await councilors. --- Mayor Ted Bettencourt is asking the council to schedule a committee meeting in order to discuss a local sex offender ordinance he is proposing for Peabody, but before he actually submits the proposed law into the public record, he wants a set date. "Once a date has been scheduled for a hearing, I will submit a draft ordinance for review and ask for adoption of same," Bettencourt said in a memo to the council. Bettencourt initially said in June that he would be looking into a local ordinance, and did not reveal many details of his intentions other than to say the law would both restrict where Level 3 sex offenders can live …
42.526272
-70.92818
Peabody City Hall
24 Lowell St, Peabody, MA
/articles/sex-offenders-blue-lights-billboards-and-flood-maps
775596
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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 ›