Bedford Minuteman
Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Town Meeting to decide FedEx ban

By Natalie Goodale / Staff Writer

A citizen's petition regarding the town's use of Federal Express will likely end up on the special Town Meeting warrant, allowing the town to decide whether to continue using the cargo carrier.

Lori Eggert, a Bedford resident and opponent to a possible FedEx presence at Hanscom Field, submitted the petition with more than 160 signatures to Town Hall Monday. She and others collected the signatures on Bedford Day, and she feels confident the article will end up on the warrant for the Oct. 27 meeting; 100 valid signatures are necessary.

The article is "To determine whether the town of Bedford will request the selectmen, School Committee, and Library Trustees to take any action necessary to prohibit town-financed courier service activities with the FedEx Corporation, to the extent permitted by law and existing contracts, until the FedEx Corporation publicly ceases pursuit of plans to operate air cargo service at Laurence G. Hanscom Field, or take any other action pertaining thereto."

According to Selectman Sheldon Moll, the article does not demand or direct the town to take any such action; it is simply a request.

"Whether or not people requested to take such action follow through is up to that group," he said.

Moll said if a business or vendor breaches a contract or an agreement with a municipality, the town can boycott the vendor; however, FedEx has not breached any contract. Moll said the town is currently researching the legality of boycotting a vendor if that vendor hasn't breached a contract.

"Selectmen are getting the opinion from the inspector general of the state," he said.

MassPort's current proposal is to have one FedEx flight arrive at and leave from Hanscom each day. But Eggert said, once MassPort allows FedEx to use Hanscom, she doesn't think FedEx will stop at one flight a day.

"You can't stop them," she said. "And finding a middle ground is difficult."

According to Eggert, the town of Lexington has already boycotted the use of FedEx. Lexington did not do it through Town Meeting; the selectmen made the decision on their own. Eggert said the Bedford selectmen refused that method; the proposal would have to go through Bedford Town Meeting. Eggert said people in the towns of Lincoln and Concord are also trying to pass the boycott.

"If this passes, in no way will the town of Bedford shut down, because I have been told that Bedford doesn't use FedEx much anyway," Eggert said. "It has other carriers, such as UPS."

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