Dedham on 'high alert' for billboard plans

By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent

Dedham officials were scrambling this week to register their opposition to a proposal to grant Clear Channel a permit to lease a large billboard on the Route 128 parking garage.

It's one of 10 area locations owned by the MBTA that the media giant plans to use for advertising under a recent contract between the parties, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

Officials in Dedham had no idea a meeting of the Massachusetts Highway Department’s Outdoor Advertising Board was to take place tomorrow, and once they found out, they sent out a barrage of calls and emails registering their opposition.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the state board told the Globe the issue was not on the agenda for Thursday, and never had been.

But then Dedham officials received a call from the agency late in the day informing them that the item had been removed from consideration during this weeks’ regular monthly meeting, Selectman Paul Reynolds confirmed.

"While it may seem like an attractive mechanism for the Commonwealth to raises funds in this recession-challenged time, our towns will be forced to live with this additional eyesore every day well after the economy has recovered,'' Reynolds said, in a letter he shot off to the board's director, Edward Farley.

Reynolds said the town considers itself “on high alert” following an MBTA decision in August to retreat from a plan to raise millions of dollars by leasing 32 large billboards on land it owns in 19 Eastern Massachusetts communities -- including Dedham and Westwood.

When the plan was pulled, officials cited a disappointing response from prospective advertisers and a growing outcry from unwilling host communities.

Pesaturo said the proposed Clear Channel billboard has nothing to do with the prior plan, which, as yet, has not been re-presented. He said the large sign would replace the three large advertising banners that used to hang from the Rt. 128 parking garage.

Reynolds said he is glad the agenda item has been removed from consideration this week, and officials will be on the watch for when it reemerges.

"I'm sure they hoped no one would show up at the meeting this week,'' Reynolds said. "The last time the MBTA tried to ride into town with plans to erect two billboards, town officials made it exceedingly clear that Dedham/Westwood constituents are vehemently opposed to the effort.”

Nothing has changed in the last six months, he said, “to make us think adding to creeping billboard blight is any more appealing."

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net