BY PAT FARNELLI
Correspondent
Megan Holleran looks on as a chainsaw crew cleared a path through the property for the Constitution Pipeline. PHOTO BY PAT FARNELLI
Armed federal marshals stood watch over a chainsaw crew felling maple trees Tuesday (March 1) in New Milford Township, enforcing a court order to allow the cutting of a maple stand tapped for sap.
The maple stand, belongs to the Holleran and Zeffer families. Megan Holleran, who runs the family’s North Harford Maple Syrup business said that
the chain saw crew showed up early Tuesday morning, accompanied by US Marshals and about a dozen state troopers.
Pipeline officials determine the scheduling based upon the progress of the project, said Monte Morgan, Northeast Regional Security Manager for Williams Co.
Crews began clearing a path for the Constitution Pipeline through the Holleran property in New Milford Twp. last week. PHOTO BY PAT FARNELLI
Property owner Cathy Holleran rested inside her home, recuperating from a surgery. “I can’t look out the window, I can’t bear to watch the trees falling. This is killing me. I can barely say, ‘We can get through this.’”
The treeline at the edge of a hayfield had been marked with pink flags designating the pipeline right of way. Trees along the border of the maple stand had been painted with stars and stripes like the American flag. Alex Lotorto of Energy Justice commented that activists had painted the trees because the Constitution Pipeline is using eminent domain to take the land and cut down the trees of private citizens that the American Constitution was written to protect.
Megan Holleran lost her composure as a wide, spreading tree cracked with the impact of wedges and then landed with a thundering crash. “I’m not handling it now,” she sobbed. “It’s breaking my heart. I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve never wanted to leave. This is my home.”
She said that the pipeline corridor is 140 feet wide. “They could have come across fields and bore under our house: they will bore the road anyhow. They bore under golf courses and shopping malls. Our house would have been one of the smallest things they bore under. They don’t even come up with good reasons, they just lie and dismiss and say that it’s impossible, you are crazy.”
“No matter what you think of pipelines or the gas industry, the power of these companies should terrify the public.”
Tom Frost, of Lenoxville, said, “I’ve always been against eminent domain. Abolish eminent domain. The map of Interstate 81 shows the highway making a large loop so as to avoid my place, I wish it was
because of me, but it’s a hill.”
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