Reprieve set for landmark boathouse

The weathered boathouse in Newbury, with its message — ‘‘NO EVACUATION POSSIBLE. got KI?’’ — has been spared demolition. (MARK WILSON/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2002)

A weathered boathouse and its quirky antinuclear banner - "NO EVACUATION POSSIBLE. got KI?" - that has greeted visitors to Plum Island for two decades has escaped the wrecking ball.

But it was close. And now Jack Van Loan, a self-employed carpenter who owns the building, has a lot of repair work and quite a tale to tell.

"I had to hire two lawyers, an environmental consultant, and a contractor to help," said Van Loan, 62, an ardent environmentalist who received an unexpected assist from a state official.

Newbury officials had condemned the boathouse, saying the posts that support it are so severely deteriorated that the structure posed an immediate public risk along the Plum Island Turnpike, which is the only access to and from Plum Island.

Van Loan's "NO EVACUATION" sign is a reference to environmentalists' criticism that evacuation plans for Plum Island residents are unrealistic if there was an accident at the nuclear power plant up the road in Seabook, N.H.

KI stands for potassium iodide, which acts to block poisoning from radioactive iodine released in a nuclear disaster.

Newbury crews were poised to tear down the boathouse on Tuesday when a state wetlands agent said not so fast. Where, the agent asked, are the town's permits to do any sort of demolition in such a sensitive area as wetlands?

"They needed to have an emergency certification . . . that would make sure the salt marsh is not damaged by demolition, and that would include dismantling the building, not knocking it down, and they have to get all the debris out of the marsh," said Joe Ferson, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

It turns out that at the same time the wetlands agent was explaining state laws to Newbury officials, the agency received an appeal from Van Loan, asking it to review the town's lack of action on his four-month-old request to stabilize his building.

In November, Newbury's building inspector, Sam Joslin, sent Van Loan a letter saying he must take action to shore up the posts that support his building, which sits in tidal marshland.

Town records show that within two weeks of receiving that letter, Van Loan filed an application with Newbury's Conservation Commission, asking for permission to fix the supports and to place a temporary fence around the building, as directed by Joslin.

The records also show that the commission did not act on Van Loan's request until March 24, when it approved temporary fencing but took no action on his request to stabilize and rebuild his 52-year-old boathouse.

The next day, Newbury selectmen ordered the building demolished. The town sent Van Loan a letter the day afterward, informing him of the decision.

"Selectmen agreed to give you the opportunity to remove it prior to April 1, 2008," it stated.

"If this opportunity is not taken by the 1st, the Town will remove the structure and lien the property for the cost of the work performed."

That's when Van Loan hired a lawyer.

"So the building inspector was saying, 'You need to do something,' and Jack was trying to get permission from the Conservation Commission. He was trying to do the right thing," said Van Loan's attorney, Matthew Watsky. "He was in an enormous Catch-22."

Town records show that Joslin did send Van Loan a letter in December stating that Van Loan's proposed repairs were "inadequate to stabilize the structure." But the records do not show action from the Conservation Commission on building repairs. The commission's approval is needed before any work is done in a wetlands area, including installation of a fence, as the building inspector had ordered.

In an interview earlier last week, Doug Packer, Newbury's conservation agent and assistant building inspector, said the town had given Van Loan "every opportunity to come forward" before it moved in on Tueday to demolish the building.

"This is not something we want to do, but we are doing for public safety," Packer said. "It's in deplorable condition."

As Newbury moved forward on Wednesday with demolition plans, getting the proper permit as advised by state officials, Van Loan's attorney was filing an emergency certification with Newbury's Conservation Commission.

That certification, under state environmental law, requires the commission to rule within 24 hours on Van Loan's original request to stabilize his building, or jurisdiction goes to state environmental officials.

That's when Newbury officials said they would reconsider.

Now Van Loan, who acknowledges he'd been a bit lax on building repairs over the years, will be busy. "Being a self-employed carpenter, I either had money and no time, or time and no money," he said. "But I needed this building for [storing my tools]. I am a carpenter, not a millionaire."

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com.