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Johnski
04-17-2005 08:26:32
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TAUNTON - Manuel Leal doesn't completely understand what the fuss is about, but he has a hunch. "I guess I stepped on a couple toes," he said. "Now they're treating me like a criminal."
The 77-year-old Leal is one of a dwindling number of small farmers locally. His five acres of land sits behind Liberty Street in East Taunton and is big enough to accommodate his house, two active cranberry bogs, a small man-made fish pond stocked with catfish and minnows and a second one that serves as supply reservoir for all his water irrigation needs.
It also abuts Taunton Municipal Airport, and therein lies his problem. Since 1995, the year Leal switched from farming minnows (bait fish) in 10 small ponds to cranberries in two bogs - and going back at least 40 years to when he took control of the farm his father bought in 1928 (decades before the airport existed) - his family has depended upon a small brook carrying natural spring water from what is known as Second Brook.
All was well between the local farmer and airport honchos until just over two weeks ago, when he was literally locked out from performing his regular weekly maintenance work, repairing dike holes created by perennially burrowing muskrats. If it continues this way unabated, he said, the brook's water will likely end up being diverted.
"If the dike breaks and the water goes around the bogs, and the fish pond dries out - no crop," said Leal. In 2002 a security fence (one of a series at the airport) was erected demarcating his land from airport property - a post-9/11 security measure undertaken at the request of the state's Aeronautics Commission. Leal said it was no mystery to anyone that he had a key for the fence's padlock and would let himself onto the far end of the airport's property in order to mow the grass and tamp down the holes the muskrats had dug.
"They knew I was there," he said of airport personnel and management. "They've seen me and never said a word."
But about a month back Leal apparently stepped on some sensitive toes. He said his current problem can be traced to his having contacted the city's Conservation Commission, informing them that gravel and sand being dug up for additions and improvements to the airport was being done so at the peril of sensitive wetlands.
"They were digging where my water supply is," Leal said. He said if they had continued digging below the legal water table level, and the water in a sand pit they had created behind Caswell Street was to meet up with Turtle Pond, it would ironically mean too much uncontrolled water spilling onto his land.
The Conservation Commission's responded and brought a halt to the digging. It wasn't too long after that, Leal said, before the locks for the security fences were all changed, leaving Leal with an obsolete key.
"They said I couldn't go there because of 9/11 - that's bull," he said. "It's like a feud, and now I'm being treated like a second-class citizen."
Airport manager Dan Raposa, when reached by cell phone Saturday, would not comment.
Last Tuesday the City Council drafted a letter recommending the Airport Commission at least allow Leal access to its property with an authorized escort.
"It's ridiculous," said Councilman Charles Crowley, who has taken up Leal's cause. "Everyone knows Manny's been doing it for years. Either you allow him to do it for nothing or the city will have to, and that will end up costing money."
As for the septuagenarian cranberry farmer being a potential security threat, Crowley points to the night in 1992 when he and his son saved two men whose small plane had run out of gas, struck a corner of the house roof and crashed through ice into a bog.
"They were recognized as heroes," he said.
And both Crowley and Leal said that hunters have been allowed to hunt deer on airport land during this past winter.
"They allowed men with guns to hunt, but they want to deprive Manny access to his water. It seems a little odd," said Crowley.
He said only the Airport Commission has direct oversight and is the only one in a position to make any final decision. The City Council, he said, can only act as a liaison.
"I wish they would put their egos aside and compromise," he said. "It's no expense to the city ... not a big deal."
Crowley added, "It's a minor issue about a remote part of their property, but it's a big issue to Manny."
ŠThe Taunton Gazette 2005
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