The Board of Selectmen, by a 3 to 2 vote Tuesday night, gave the go-ahead signal to the Savogran Company of Boston to establish a manufacturing plant on the site of the old railroad car shops, despite vigorous opposition by residents of the Lenox Street area voiced at a second public hearing called on the application of the Savogran firm to install three tanks for the storage of alcohol, toluene, and acetone.
James Flavin, representing the residents of that section of town, told the Board that the people living in the area of the proposed plant were unalterably opposed to the granting of the permits necessary for the Savogran Company to operate on that site in the manufacture of paint and varnish remover. He urged the Board to recommend to otlicials of that company that a site farther removed from the residential area be considered.
“This industry is of no advantage to Norwood,” he asserted. “It is a low-class Industry. One hundred thousand dollars invested in a plant looks good, to be sure, but the damage to the locality must be considered. There is bound to be an odor from a firm manufacturing paint remover. There are at present many people who object to local firms using the same product which the Savogran Company must use. The prevailing winds are bound to carry these odors to nearby residences and lessen their value ns residential property.”
SEES NEW HAZARD
Flavin maintained that residents of the area where the Savogran Company would build have bothered by nuisances for years. Smoke, gas, and coal dust are not the least of these, he asserted, “and now we would be faced with a further hazard and nuisance if this permit is granted,”
The devaluation of adjacent property would not be offset by the tax return, he stated. “One man, he said, with a $50,000 investment there would immediately be forced to write off a large amount in the valuation of the property. This also should be considered,” Flavin maintained.
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)