Auto Salvage Business Reinstated
After Months Of Rancorous Debate

By Michael Bradley

BOURNE, MA – During a March selectmen’s meeting at the town hall on Perry Avenue, Knowlton’s Garage, the only auto salvage business in this Cape Cod gateway community, finally attained the new ‘junkyard’ license created by the town last year and went back into business. In December the selectmen refused to issue the new license to the Anderson family, owner’s of Knowlton’s, and since January the Sagamore company could not conduct business.

On a unanimous vote, the five selectmen offered Knowlton’s Garage a license with conditions. The vote concluded one of the most rancorous licensing episodes in the history of the Town of Bourne, involving a dramatic attack on the salvage yard by Selectman James T. Grady, who was board chairman during all the hearings.

Sel. Grady authored the local legislation relating to junkyards, which was tailored toward Knowlton’s Garage in a manner that later seemed designed to prevent that local business from being approved for the new license. Mr. Grady assailed the salvage yard, and its owners – the Anderson family of South Sagamore – in a number of ways, but one of the most insidious was his assertion that the junkyard did not exist prior to 1959.

In effect, Mr. Grady put the Anderson family in the position of being ‘guilty until proven innocent’ by bringing forth a legalistic argument asserting that there was no proof that the business was involved in auto salvage prior to the inception of town zoning in that area in 1959. In short, the current generation of Andersons were told they had to prove a business existence that they had lived through since they were children in the ‘40’s and 50’s, when their parents ran the business. If Sel.Grady had prevailed in that assertion, it would have been impossible for Knowlton’s Garage to be licensed under provisions of the new town bylaw that he drafted and guided through passage at a regular town meeting in 2002.

When evidence was presented, verbally at first and later by sworn documentation, proving what virtually all longtime residents of Bourne knew – that the auto salvage business existed on that site from at least the late 1940’s and probably before and during WWII – the information was still treated with great skepticism by Chairman Grady, who made it clear the board would have to carefully consider whether the statements were true, and weigh the evidence against his claims and assertions of law.

The credibility of the Anderson family was also put into question when a comprehensive offer of environmental testing was provided to the selectmen.

But Bourne townspeople were following the issue.

The Cape Cod Times, the only daily newspaper in the area, had taken a position against area salvage yards long before the hearings, and its news coverage often seemed to reflect its predetermined viewpoint; the CC Times consistently followed Mr. Grady’s lead in its news coverage and downplayed opposing points of view. But there were other, more balanced stories emanating from The Upper Cape Codder, The Bourne Enterprise, and in blunt, journalistic terms, by this web site report, plus the local Adelphia cable channel provided full, uncensored video of the selectmen’s hearings.

The CATV coverage enabled anyone who had the interest to test the credibility of the media sources reporting on this unusual licensing procedure without having to attend the meetings.

Bourne voters came to their own conclusions, and at a Special Town Meeting in early March, 2003, overwhelmingly supported a bylaw amendment that removed any question of zoning from the license requirement. By something more than a 2 to 1 vote, townspeople backed an amendment stipulating that any salvage yard that was doing business in the town when Mr. Grady’s bylaw was passed in 2002 was eligible to apply for the new license. Knowlton’s Garage, of course, was and is the only salvage yard in Bourne. In effect, the town meeting put what had been a false issue to permanent rest.

After that vote, there was an interesting change in attitude by Mr. Grady, which he conveyed to the other board members. How much of an effect that change had on the board is hard to determine, since it was clear at least two, and very possibly three, of the board members – Linda Zuern, Leo Locke and Mark Tirrell – already had severe reservations over the way the hearings had been conducted by Ch’m Grady.

In the end, the Anderson family, through Attorney Jonathan Fitch of Sandwich, presented the board with an environmental engineering plan by which the salvage yard will be tested, with reports filed with the town, and agreed to keep the front of the business property clear of cars and parts. Also, rows of greenery, including trees, will be planted, and cars stacked for removal by subcontract with ‘car crushers’ will be stored in a way that will keep them hidden from view.

But just as Mr. Grady had been ready to preside over the closing of Knowlton’s Garage, he showed an equal facility for perceiving and understanding the flow of opinion and circumstances. He provided the board members with a draft of a license proposal, from which the final license agreement was derived.

The board and Atty. Fitch negotiated a number of minor points relating to how close to the Knowlton’s property line salvage vehicles may be stored, the type of screening, how flattened and stacked vehicles are stored prior to being "crushed" and removed, and so forth. One major point was also negotiated, with the selectmen and the Andersons agreeing on an average total of 400 vehicles on the site.

Sel. Grady also included an unusual final paragraph to the agreement, which stipulated that John Anderson would personally sign a statement indicating he and his family members understood the terms of the license. The Anderson’s agreed to this final, onerous requirement in an apparent show of faith and good will, even though it seemed clearly drafted to be used against them should they somehow fail to meet all the criteria set forth in the complicated license.

In the end the license was granted 5-0, with Sel. Grady and Wayne Covell, the two selectmen who had been the most opposed to the salvage yard, joining Selectmen Linda Zuern, Leo Locke and Mark Tirrell in supporting Knowlton’s Garage. (Sel. Locke and Sel. Covell did not run for reelection in the recent – April 2^rd – local election).

Sel. Tirrell concluded the hearing with a point of personal privilege, addressing Mr. Anderson and his family and supporters. "If we were starting from ground zero," he said, "this site would not be licensable…I would urge you to look at the long-term picture - even though you can (now) be licensed indefinitely - to see if there is a different way to use your property…"