Above the Law?

If you read last week's Bay Times you know that Dr. Henry Sears is one of the single biggest donors to the campaign of Neal Jackson, the county commissioner candidate who has argued that reporters should be allowed to legally trade kiddie porn on the internet if they say it's for a story they're writing. For a guy who claims to have high ethical standards...why wouldn't he refuse to put his name on that? Is this the moral compass we want leading our county?

I guess we shouldn't be surprised then that Jackson, a liberal D.C. lawyer, has other supporters that also think they're above the law. As the self proclaimed "environmental candidate" we suppose that he means he favors enforcement of environmental laws only as they impact people who are not his friends and supporters??? We would sure like to hear his outrage about what follows...

It's a widely repeated rumor that a local DNR officer was ready to bring the hammer down on Dr Sears' LLC for cutting down a large amount of timber without a permit a few years back - something that everyone must do to assure environmental protections.

As the story was related to us, the word was passed down from on high that Sears wasn't to be touched. The reason? Sears owns large amounts of land in the county and was in the process of negotiating a Rural Legacy easement AFTER he had developed 32 lots on his property and subsequently collected a cool 9.9 million of taxpayer dollars for "preserving" the land he had just developed and logged.

But if that gets you angry, just wait till you hear about his latest escapade.

Sears happens to have a prescriptive right of way or some nebulous legal right across a portion of land belonging to his neighbor. In any event there is land that Dr. Sears does not own, but uses as access to property he does own across the narrow existing road that crossed a large wetland and stream. Recently, the owner of the wetland noticed a huge amount of concrete, old building parts, and farm equipment debris dumped off the edge of the road and well into the wetland and covered with dirt - all left un-stabilized. And just before the huge rain storm we had last month that washed tons of this un-stabilized dirt and trash downstream.

Now we don't have MDE's records yet, but dumping trash into a wetland, covering it with dirt left un-stabilized, and greatly widening an old road as shown in these pictures - all without the actual owner (who likely would have had to sign any permit) knowing about it sure seems
like this was done without permits.

For those who don't know, you need a permit to fill-in a non-tidal wetland, something Sears obviously didn't have since the owner of the wetland, would have had to sign off on any such permit and was completely unaware of the pollution of the wetland until he came across it in person.

Filling in a non-tidal wetland without a permit is a serious crime. Large fines and jailtime for willful and intentional violation are not uncommon. But nothing has happened yet.

That the neighbor confronted Dr. Sears and tried to stop the dumping on his land, and was told to move his tractor blocking access or Dr. Sears would bulldoze it, and that the neighbor contacted ESLC who holds the conservation easement on the land for help and other than a site visit, nothing has happened ...only goes to prove the point that some people apparently don't have to follow the rules everyone else does.

Where is Neal Jackson's outrage over this environmental disaster? With Mr Jackson's background and history, isn't it a legitimate concern that as County Commissioner, he will continue to help his friends and supporters remain above the law...do whatever they want
with reckless abandon?

No one should be able to buy immunity from the law. Here at the Torch we certainly think it looks like Neal Jackson and his supporters disagree. We hope they will clear the air on this issue because on something like this silence can only be interpreted as acceptance.