Basically, the people calling themselves the city of Keene are trying to get the property owners to do the city’s dirty work and evict the homeless men from the lean-to behind the Hannaford shopping center. They are fining the owners hundreds of dollars each day the homeless are allowed to inhabit the land, so it will be up to the owners to remove them. Despite the homeless men working to improve their shack, one of the head aggressors makes it clear what the real issue is:
“The bottom line is there’s been no permit for the structure itself,”
Medard K. Kopczynski, assistant city manager
It doesn’t matter that these men worked to improve the safety of the structure they built and have happily occupied for months, you see, they didn’t BEG the city people for permission to build it in the first place. It’s not about safety – it’s about OBEDIENCE.
Now the city is threatening the property owners. If they don’t pay the fines (which they will), the city people will steal their property, just like they will do to you if you don’t pay their arbitrary extractions. Does anyone really believe that government is protecting you or serving you?
The Keene Sentinel’s David Greisman reports on the city gang’s continued aggression against peaceful homeless people. Story below. See OTN’s interview with the homeless men here.
The owners of a property where homeless men have taken shelter are facing an ultimatum from Keene city officials: have the men move out of the makeshift shack they built, or potentially pay up every day until that happens.
The land, behind the West Street Shopping Center in Keene, belongs to Timothy N. Robertson, a Democratic state representative from Keene, and his sister, Dorothy Arwe, also of Keene.
“My sister’s given in,” Robertson said this morning. “She’s the majority person behind the property. It’s a 60-40 deal. She says we’re going to do whatever they say, through her attorney, I guess. I say, ‘Fine, just don’t involve me.’ ”
Arwe, who Robertson said is spending the winter in Hilton Head Island, S.C., could not be reached for comment.
Robertson said documents from the city first came to his lawyer and Arwe’s lawyer. He said he received the documents Monday and spoke to his sister about them Tuesday night.
“I assume it didn’t impress her that we were (being fined) $275 a day since Dec. 10,” Robertson said.
Dec. 10 is the day city inspectors first visited the shack, which has no city permit.
The Sentinel has not yet obtained a copy of what Robertson received. Robertson was en route to Concord this morning and was not able to provide a copy.
Keene City Attorney Thomas P. Mullins had no comment Wednesday evening and was not available for comment Thursday morning.
Cheshire County Superior Court officials said they have no record of the documents.
That is because the city has not filed anything in court yet, according to Keene City Manager John A. MacLean.
The documents sent to Robertson and Arwe are part of what MacLean called a dialogue between attorneys. MacLean said he did not have a copy of the documents.
“The dialogue has been entered into, and a filing could take place, but hasn’t,” MacLean said. “It’s an attempt to try to start talking about this and how to resolve it.”
City officials have said that the shack lacks a permit and does not meet building code, and that the ultimate responsibility would fall on the landowners.
Robertson has said he neither gave nor denied the men permission to be on the land.
“They’ve got to live somewhere,” Robertson said last year. “I don’t have any great solution to the problem, but I don’t really want to treat them as criminals or untouchables. I don’t want to be a villain just because these people are troubled people. Where do they go if they don’t go there? I think it’s probably better than a lot of places.”
Robertson has said that if unlawful activity occurs on the land and he is not the one taking part in it, then he should not be held responsible for it.
“Sure, I knew what was going on,” Robertson said this morning. “It just never occurred to me that it’d be my fault. I’ve never met the people. I’ve never seen the encampment.”
For decades, homeless people have taken refuge in a place known to some as “Tent City,” behind the West Street Shopping Center.
Its residents change from year to year. In 2009, a group of people who are homeless for various reasons started what they call “InTentCity,” pronounced “Intensity.” At one point, there were eight people living in a village with tents, shelves and amenities.
This winter there have been fewer people, now living inside a shelter that has insulated walls, electricity from a generator, beds, wood stoves and a DVD player. Those remaining had said they would not live in shelters or stay on friends’ couches.
City officials took notice of the shack after a December article about the site in The Sentinel.
Upon visiting, inspectors saw several issues. In response, the shack’s residents made safety-related changes to their wood stoves, added smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and gave the building a second exit.
There were still concerns about how the shack was constructed.
“The bottom line is there’s been no permit for the structure itself,” Medard K. Kopczynski, assistant city manager and health director for Keene, said in December.
“It’s built out of logs with scrap materials. It has no foundation. Gravity is holding it together. It doesn’t meet any sort of code. It doesn’t meet any sort of standard. There are natural concerns that come out of that,” Kopczynski said.
But rather than make another code inspection, the city opted to work through the property owners.
Robertson said he planned to talk to his attorney.
“I think it’s negotiable, probably,” Robertson said. “They’ll say, ‘If you do what we said, we’ll waive the fees.’ ”
Robertson said his sister “says she’ll do whatever the city tells her. I assume they’ll negotiate with her. She and I will work it out. I assume I’ll pay my share.”
