I'm still tracking down the provenance of this catchy little ad (the Knight family of Smiling Hill Farm is apparently involved, but I'm unsure of whether the spot is a production of Westbrook Works or if there are plans to televise it).
(Update: The video is strictly a viral one and was produced independently using iMovie.)
- John C.L. Morgan
Full disclosure: My wife works for Idexx.
Related: To be Continued... (April 14, 2009)
29 comments:
Awesome, simple and right on target! Kudos to whoever created this viral video.
I live on Spring St, and I have to admit that I don't have strong feelings one way or the other regarding the proposed plans of Pike Quarry.
As someone who cares about the city of Westbrook, however, I feel it's important to ask two questions:
1. How much of an economic impact does Pike bring to the city, including employment and tax revenue?
2. If Pike Quarry is shut down as some have suggested, which city services will suffer as a result?
Perhaps they don't add much to the economy, in which case they're acting as a business deterrent. But if they bring in a substantial amount of revenue to the city, then Westbrook is positioning itself to cut off its nose to spite its face.
As I said, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but to proceed without knowing the economic impact may turn out to be naive decision at best and a dangerous one at worst.
To Christian: The short answer is that a quarry is a losing proposition for the City. Both in terms of tax revenue and in terms of employment potential.
Take other uses in the Business Park for comparison. Look at the amount of tax revenue generated per acre of use and also look at the amount of employment generated per acre. In each instance the quarry falls short compared to other current uses. Particularly when you look at uses like Idexx. The quarry will occupy a 60 acre lot and provide (according to Pike) 80 seasonal jobs. Idexx sits on a similar size lot (including parking) and provides 1200+ full time jobs. No comparison.
If quarries are such a desirable economic engine then every town would be vying to have them locate in their municipality. Towns/Cities don't want quarries because they represent unsustainable development. Eventually the quarry is exhausted, the business leaves town, and the town is left with a huge hole that has ZERO tax & employment potential for perpetuity.
I really don't a strong view one way or the other except if Pike has a "grandfathered" right they should keep it. But the argument posted anonymously above is the best argument I've heard to date.
Has anyone read what the city has posted on their website by one of their attorney's? That land has been a tangled web of lawsuits for years. It seems to me if that information is correct that the city really dropped the ball on this years ago and Idexx, Westbrook Works and all may lose their battle due to it. Basically the City knew Blue Rock was unlawfully working that land for years and even taunted the city to stop them but the city never stepped in. That may be the best defense Pike will have in court. Would something like a squatter’s rights defense work in this case?
Squatters rights are actually based on doctrine of laches, I read the letter from Pike's attorney to the Mayor (again this is on the City’s website) and their defense will be laches, this is failure to bring action in a timely manner. So because the city failed to stop Blue Rock for over 40 years of unlawful (as far as they are concerned) quarrying activities and has collected taxes on those quarrying activities this makes the city guilty of laches.
So even if the city is right and the activities were unlawful, I have to say that Pike may win this battle.
They're right. A quarry doesn't belong in a business park. That's why Pike's Quarry is located in an INDUSTRIAL ZONE. It's businesses like IDEXX that shouldn't have located in an industrial zone with an existing quarry.
It looks to me like Pike has removed more rock from Spring Street in the past 3 years since acquiring it than Blue Rock removed in the prior 37 years. And this is much less than what they propose if allowed to move their Main St operations over to the site. We heard estimates from Pike at the neighborhood meetings that there will be up to 300 trucks per day entering the Spring Street quarry (and 300 leaving).
This means if they're operating on a 12 hour day this is an average of one truck every 2.4 minutes or one truck entering or leaving the quarry every 1.2 minutes.
However, since Westbrook can't control their hours of operation if they're in the middle of a large paving job they can operate 24 hours per day which spreads these trucks out to on truck per 4.8 minutes / 2.4 minutes per entry/exit.
This is a MASSIVE expansion of current use of this site and I can't believe that grandfathering under the terms framed above due to city inaction would allow expansion of activity on this site to this level without additional city approvals.
God help the Westbrook taxpayer if this is allowed and businesses in the BUSINESS PARK decide they don't want to live with this level of activity in their back yard.
God help the Westbrook Tax Payer if this deal doesn't go through. Pike pumps $600 Million back into the economy in Maine, NH and VT just with their CUSTOMERS coming to them for rock, hot top and materials. NOT to mention the real estate taxes that they pay for PROPERTY, AND EXCISE TAX on all of their equipment that is used across the State. Funny how SOME folks in the Industrial Park are on a TIF and hmmmm Pike IS NOT... Why hasn't anybody discussed that before? The State of Maine should be scared and the Legislature should be scared that if Pike has to leave Westbrook the Department of Transportation will be in for a real shocker when they have less and less options to go to for large jobs such as the I-295 project! What an amazing site to see the Pike Trucks lined up on I-295...you go Pike!
...and all the stimulus money we spend goes to Pike's owner a European Company. That's right, all the profits go directly off-shore to a European Company, CRH Plc. CRH owns Oldcastle Materials which in turn owns Pike Industries. This series of shell companies is designed to confuse people about where the money is REALLY going.
If the choice is sending our road building dollars to Europe or spending them with Maine companies. I vote to support the Maine businesses.
Let's face the reality. We don't have to fear quarry jobs going out of State or out of State companies bringing rocks into Maine. It is too expensive to transport low cost goods (rocks) long distances. If Pike isn't allowed to quarry in a business park then other Maine companies will easily fill the vacuum.
Local companies like White Bros., Shaw Bros., R.J. Grondin & Sons, Gorham Sand & Gravel, Dayton Sand & Gravel, Maietta Const., F.R. Carroll and many other local owned & operated companies would benefit. The money and profits would stay in Maine and not go overseas.
Perhaps you should take the bus tour and see for yourself... If other Maine companies fill your so-called "Vacuum", they too will be shut down. Don't you realize that quarries aren't just laying around to be bought and sold? Oh wait...I think I'll go just find a quarry out there... duh. And, more importantly, do you realize what the definition of "Industrial Business Park" is? Hmmm...?? I believe you are sorely informed on what the businesses in the Five Star Industrial Business Park actually do...and by what standards they are held. If you need clarification on codes and standards, let me know. I'm happy to refer you to them. Be sure of what you speak of before you throw stones, because those who live in glass houses should NOT throw stones... Pike certainly hasn't seemed to thrown any stones...
Continuing on with what "Anonymous" above was saying in response to "Anonymous, April 27, 7:41 am," your post is evidence that you know very little about Pike Industries. Pike subcontracts out a large portion of their business to other Maine businesses, and purchases their equipment from as many local companies as possible. Pike is a great supporter of many Maine businesses! Check it out - a little research might do you some good.
I don't mean to get off topic regarding a spirited debate, but before anyone else uses the name Anonymous, please consider calling yourself:
Pike Should Go Away, Mine To The Equator, Not In My Business Park, or Mainers for Maine (I threw the last one in there as a neutral option).
All these different Anonymous' are making my head spin!! :)
As I have been following the Pike shenanigans. One thing comes to mind. The rock quarried out of pikes site. Everyone in southern Maine drives on it every day! The turn pike, 295 , all DOT bridges, There is a good chance the Five Star Industrial Park is paved with Pikes product. I am in the aggregate business. I see it every day. When you go into your office building tommoro please realize that under the rug there is aggregate mixed into the concrete floor that you are standing on. That too could be a pike product (IDEX INCLUDED). Aggregates from quarries are the building products for our infrastructure. If pike shut down tommoro. Our tax base would increase due to taking a big supplier out of the market. Do you want to pay more tax dollars for roads, bridges, foundations etc. Pike is always going to be allowed to quarry at the Spring street site. No matter what 300 trucks a day will be entering and leaving the site. It makes more sense to produce products on site rather than truck the aggregates across town.
Allen Moore
Pike will ONLY be allowed to quarry on Spring Street if folks like you, Mr. Moore call your local Councilors to let them know that other businesses cannot BULLY them out of TOWN. Call your Councilor and tell them THIS IS NOT OK and if anybody goes, perhaps it should be IDEXX or ARTEL!! You still seem confused on the meaning of INDUSTRIAL PARK versus BUSINESS PARK. This is NOT a business park and it is quite evident by the smoke stacks that sit atop of IDEXX's building, not to mention Calpine's not very eye-appealing views... What is your REAL issue here folks? You can't even SEE Pike's Quarry from the INDUSTRIAL PARK... Get a clue. There is a definition difference between the two... Industrial Park verus Business Park. Apples to Oranges... The businesses in the park are classified correctly... they would have to MOVE too should the zoning be redefined...
The bedrock on Spring Street (& on Main Street) is known as the Berwick Formation (named for Berwick, Maine). The formation starts roughly 10 miles inland from the coast and is roughly 10-15 miles wide. The formation runs from Durham, NH to Lisbon, ME and then reemerges farther north.
There are over 30 quarries operating legally on this formation (Pike's Wells, ME location is atop this formation). Pike is being greedy. They don't want to buy aggregate or even buy a quarry from an existing legally operated location. It is cheaper to try to permit your own quarry.
The business park is high value commercial property. If a quarry is permitted, then when the quarry is exhausted an leaves, the land cannot be re-developed. The City cannot afford to lose this property from the tax roles forever.
It is true that Idexx, Artel and others can move. In fact they can do as well (or better) in Massachusetts or Tennessee. That's the point. The high-paying technology businesses CAN leave. The aggregate business cannot leave. Pike cannot pave Maine roads from Tennessee. If Pike is unsuccessful in getting a permit, the aggregate will continue to be supplied by a local permitted quarry, using local labor in a more suitable location.
BlueCollar04092, it's clear you commented on this issue without knowing anything about it. Pike is not trying to permit a quarry. They already have the quarry -- they've been blasting there since the 1960s without complaint! They are trying to shut down their asphalt plant on Main St. and build a more high-tech one next to their existing quarry, which means trucks don't need to be going back and forth across town. Plus, it frees the Main St. location for a mixed use development which would help Westbrook. Get your facts straight next time.
Hmmm. If Pike already has a permit for Spring Street, then why did the Code Enforcement Officer rule that they didn't? And why is this issue in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals?
I read in the submissions on the City website that Blue Rock never had a permit to quarry and had been operating a small illegal quarry there since 1968. Blue Rock sold this illegal quarry to Pike in December 2005.
According to Pike's own attorneys who went through Blue Rock's files, they were unable to locate a permit. But Pike sued the City to try to get a permit after the fact. Pike should have researched Blue Rock before they bought it. Buyer beware.
Blue Rock is laughing all the way to the bank.
BlueCollar04092, Ok, maybe I don't have all the facts if it's true Pike doesn't actually have a permit for the Spring Street site. Though it has been operating as one since the 60s. I thought the issue was in front of the Zoning Board because of the mayor's proposal to rezone the property as light manufacturing rather than industrial, which would kill Pike's plans.
BlueCollar04092, Just found this legal analysis of the Pike controversy. The conclusion says Pike does have a vested right to operate a quarry and asphalt plant on Spring Street.
http://www.westbrookmaine.com/vertical/Sites/{F1389B70-C0B0-4C93-B586-8D1A7C04281B}/uploads/{A20BA478-C22B-4962-B9F1-362DA140DCD6}.PDF
Actually, the link to the document in the previous post includes one argument by Westbrook Works demonstrating Pike doesn't have a legal right to operate the quarry and one from Pike claiming they do.
This is precisely the issue the ZBA is examining and will decide on next week. The rezoning is a separate issue in front of the Planning Board that is designed to examine rezoning the 5 Star Industrial Park in relation to the city's strategic development plan for attacting business and jobs to Westbrook.
If Pike is allowed to transfer their operations from Main Street to Spring Street I think the strategic business development plan will have to be scrapped and a new vision for this area created.
As I said before really don't a strong view one way or the other except if Pike has a "grandfathered" right they should keep it. (I'm leaving that to the court to decide). The poster above said that the City may need to scrap their business development plan and create a new vision. I think they may need to modify it and not just for this businesses but for more businesses, I heard a few people over the years on this blog mention more mixed use spaces (The Pike issue space is not one of the spaces we are talking about) I don't know if they do this or not but I think the City should re-visit their plan every few years, with the revitalization of urban growth and green living I think a lot of Westbrook zoning laws are already outdated. If you look at all the new development in forward thinking states like California and Oregon you see mixed use space where people can work, go to school, entertainment, shop and live without having to drive miles and miles to get there every day.
The City may not need to scrap their plan but revisiting wouldn’t hurt. Business plans are always changing because the world we live in changes fast!
Hello people... ummm they were just granted a blasting permit on Spring Street... DUH!!
Yes, Pike WAS just granted a blasting permit by the city that as conditioned, is cancelled in the event that the ZBA finds they do not have a legal right to blast without additional city approvals. Have you bothered to read the blasting permit yet? I know the local residents and businesses sure have.
I found it interesting that they predicted 12 blasts when Pike made a presentation to the Westbrook Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks ago but applied for 25 in this permit just issued.
I've seen it. Have you? Your so-called conditions? Do you recall what the conditions are and possibly why they were added to the permit? Think it over and let me know... As far as the prediction of Pike's blast. Were you at the Chamber meeting or are you going on hearsay? Not to mention that when Pike blasts, according to them, they are WAY below State mandates in terms of blasts (i.e. if a blast can only be a 10 on a scale, they only blast at a 5 to ensure they are WELL WITHIN the right standards). I think you know that in the grand scheme of things, you are WRONG and what you are DOING IS WRONG... Pick on somebody your own size... remember, those who throw stones should NOT live in glass houses.
And by the way, "Not in My Business Park"? Are you saying that the folks located in the 5 Star INDUSTRIAL park are businesses? Not according to many State Statutes they're not. Check out OSHA and NFPA standards as well as Maine State Statutes that regulate what actually determines what "industrial" is and by what standards those businesses are held. I think you will certainly find that the businesses in the 5 Star park certainly fall well within those standards. How on earth can you say they should be "light industry" or "businesses". It's not a corporate headquarters for all major businesses in the US some are blue collar businesses too! Get a grip and pick on somebody your own size for the love of god!!
I am a homeowner in Westbrook. I have no connection with anyone who works at Pike, nor am I connected to any of the other Eisenhower drive businesses. I live far enough away from the site not to be horribly inconvenienced by the blasting, but near enough to be concerned. I'm a blue collar employee whose collar is starting to fade. I represent the middle of the road here, and have two words to say - Goodbye Pike.
No offense to any of the people that work there, but c'mon, really - you work in an extractive industry, that is your business model. That means huge returns at the beginning lessening over time. At some point the cost/ benefit analysis shows that it is no longer profitable to keep operating in a location. That does not entitle you to slap down another slightly more profitable industry on a site without resistance.
This city has made great strides over the last several years, recovering from the ill affects of another industry that "provided jobs", but made the city less livable in the process. Allowing Pike to turn a quarry into an asphalt plant to preserve 20 year round and 80 seasonal jobs is a Faustian bargain at best.
This is not a battle of blue collar vs. white collar, it is an argument between short-sighted corporate greed and municipal common sense. Sorry Pike, you had your day.
"It's Not Fair",
I'll respond to a couple of your points in your last two posts but am not going to argue with blind anger and baseless allegations.
Pick on someone my own size? There's no one involved in this dispute larger than Pike as evidenced by their pack of attorneys at the ZBA hearings and their willingness to sue the city immediately for even contemplating trying to impartially enforce the COE's decision and examine whether the Spring St Quarry was ever legally permitted along with whether they have the broad range of grandfathered rights to massively expand operations on this site without additional city approvals.
The Chamber meeting was reported on by MPBN and here's the quote from the transcript about the number of blasts from
http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/1858/ItemId/10022/Default.aspx
"...Pike has fought back on a number of fronts, including suing the City of Westbrook in an effort to sort out the permit issue and persuade the Zoning board to allow it to expand. On the subject of blasting, Pike says it's making strenuous efforts to mitigate the noise and vibration caused by the 12 blasts a year it intends to carry out at Spring Street...."
So no, this isn't heresay and was reported in the media immediately after the event.
You lost me completely on your comment about this year's blasting permit conditions. I'll take a crack at it though since I have read the permit several times - the city issued Pike the limited right to blast as they requested but denied them the right to crush stone at the site which is consistent with the COE's determination on their grandfathered right that is being examined by the ZBA with a decision expected next week. I think the permit was conditioned as it was to show an unbiased decision by the COE based on his decision of grandfathered rights and will be cancelled should the ZBA find that Pike does not have grandfathered rights to quarry here. Pretty simple - I'd be interested in your interpretation if you read the permit differently.
Bottom line is that everyone involved in this dispute from both sides are simply trying to protect their personal and business interests here. If this is "wrong" and you think Pike's abutters and other concerned Westbrook citizens should just concede Pike the right to do whatever they want here without city oversight then I don't want to be "right".
Not in My Business Park:
I apologize if you find my posts to be argumentative. I find this type of corporate bullying to be symptomatic of a much larger crisis that our Nation is facing today with corporate America and big CEO's shaking their fists, special interests and lobbyists who work their magic and then suddenly, it is the middle class who will suffer...
With that said, you've yet to address my concerns about the zoning issues and what Maine State Statute holds as "Industrial"...
Which allegations are you claiming to be baseless?
Is it not true that some businesses in the park view Pike as a risk to the future growth of their company, for fear that being located next to a "rock quarry" would hurt their image in attracting worldwide employees? If that's not true, and I have been misinformed, then this is WONDERFUL news!!
Let us not forget that if Pike does goes away, you're looking at sending one of the largest tax payers in Westbrook away. Be prepared for increases in your taxes for sure. Pike isn't on a TIF like other members of the so called "business" park...
I would encourage you to educate yourself about the process in which a business like Pike operates, you may find that you are misinformed, or at least being hyper-sensitive to the issue at hand. What is the bigger picture here, and what is the greater good? If you truly asked yourself that deep in your heart, you may concede...
Pike is willing to compromise and work with their INDUSTRIAL park neighbors and all they get in return is "them or us." Why can't we all get along? As a tax paying citizen of Westbrook I would rather have as many tax-paying businesses in my city as possible. In these unstable economic times I don't feel like we should be closing the door on any business.
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