September 23, 2006
Massachusetts
Massachusetts
PAXTON– Eleven months ago, Brother Dennis-Anthony Wyrzykowski of Worcester believed he was standing at the edge of a miracle. The small Catholic Teresian Carmelite community he leads was about to buy 99 acres of wooded wetland hill for a monastery.
The three-member Teresian Carmelite community planned to move from its monastery on Chrome Street in Worcester to the hill at 107 Asnebumskit Road and fulfill a mission of prayer and contemplation while providing a place of solace for the public.
Brother Wyrzykowski also believed his religious order would help the poor by allowing wind turbines to be built on the site as a clean source of electricity for low-income families.
Now, plans to buy the land and build the retreat are suspended. And in a development unrelated to the contractual conditions of the sale, plans by the town of Paxton to build wind turbines there to create electricity have been dropped because Federal Aviation Administration height restrictions make it unfeasible.
The Carmelites allege that American Towers Inc. of Boston has breached its contract to sell the land to them for $230,000. But American Towers claims its contractual obligations to Industrial Communications, which leases part of the land, make the sale impossible at this time
Brother Wyrzykowski hasn’t given up on the idea of buying the land, or eventually building wind towers on it. But whether the Carmelites will finally own the land is awaiting the decision in Worcester Superior Court. Proceedings are slated for the beginning of next year.
Until the case is heard, a Worcester Superior Court order obtained by the Carmelites blocks American Towers from selling the land to anyone else.
For more details on this story, see Saturday’s Telegram & Gazette.
By Jean Laquidara Hill, Telegram & Gazette Staff
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/09/23/land-dispute-puts-monastery-on-hold/