Thursday, 4:30 PM
Troopers have been golfing inside Pike building for years
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe staff
It turns out that state troopers have been whacking golf balls inside a Massachusetts Turnpike Authority building for several years.
Responding to news reports that members of a State Police motorcycle unit set up a driving range inside a Big Dig ventilation building, the chief engineer of the authority Friday informed its chairman, John Cogliano, that authority employees first spotted a giant net and golf equipment about three years ago.
Turnpike officials told troopers to remove it. But since then, Turnpike Authority turnpike employees noticed netting set up on two other occasions, once as recently as last fall, Helmut Ernst wrote Cogliano.
Also, State Police officials told Cogliano they had removed the net a couple of weeks ago and are conducting an internal investigation, authority spokesman Jon Carlisle told the Globe on Thursday.
Ernst, who investigated the matter at Cogliano’s request this week, said in the memo that troopers have a provision in their contract allowing them to use exercise equipment at work. The motorcycle unit, which is part of Troop E and is stationed at the ventilation building in East Boston, has stationary bicycles, weights, and other equipment.
But Carlisle said, ‘‘From our perspective, there’s a fairly stark difference between mandated exercise equipment and a driving range.’’
Lieutenant William Powers, a State Police spokesman, said the union contract has for years given troopers an hour a day to exercise because of the physical rigors of the job, but he declined to say whether that included golf.
Powers said the State Police hoped to wrap up the internal investigation by next week.
