Constable pushes for overnight curfew on watershed lands

By Jonathan L'Ecuyer
Staff writer

May 09, 2008 12:38 am

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At first glance, the boulder nestled about 100 yards into the woods between the Babson Reservoir and Dory Road looks just like a big rock, but the large blue tarp kept taut by tent poles and strings tied to tree branches indicates the rock is part of something more — a home.

Gloucester's watershed constable, Joe Orange, said these kinds of squatters' camps are all too common and that only stricter regulations — such as a curfew — will prevent such shelters and other inappropriate uses of the woods from threatening the city's water supply.

Orange, for decades an advocate for keeping Gloucester's woods and water supply safe, will submit a proposal to City Council's Ordinances and Administration subcommittee May 19 calling for all of the woods surrounding Gloucester's watersheds to be off-limits from one hour after sunset until one hour before sunrise.

If approved by the committee, the measure would next move on to a full City Council vote.

In his time as constable — a title he has had since 1994 and that gives him full law-enforcement power in Gloucester's woods — Orange said he has been shot at and threatened with a knife and ax during his nightly patrols of Dogtown.

Most people living there are harmless, hopeless and helpless, Orange said, and he has evicted the criminals and drug addicts.

Still, problems remain in the woods and watersheds — problems Orange hopes his curfew will curtail.

"No one should be in (these) woods after sunset," said Orange yesterday, as he led a city Public Works crew to the recently discovered squatters' campsite. "A curfew gives us another tool to combat (this) sort of thing."

Orange last tried to establish a curfew in 2005. However, that effort failed after outdoors groups and residents alike objected to the measure as written because it covered "all woodland areas." The city does have an ordinance that bars the public from its parks after 9 p.m.

City Council Chairman Bruce Tobey — a member of the Ordinances and Administration subcommittee — granted Orange constable powers when he was the city's mayor. He said he would be "favorably disposed" to hearing any proposal put forth by Orange, a man he described as a city "treasure."

"The bottom line is that given the nature of the watershed lands, there is no good reason for folks to be in there after dark," Tobey said. "It leads to reasonable concern that the only reason left is mischief, and we just can't afford mischief in Gloucester's watershed. Gloucester's two greatest resources are water and water — the salt water and the drinking water produced by our watersheds. I think the curfew is an idea whose time has come."

Despite recent comments by Mayor Carolyn Kirk that cuts in the Police Department are inevitable and the fact that Orange is the only person patrolling the woods each day, Tobey believes a curfew would be enforceable.

"Joe Orange's presence and effectiveness in that watershed is incredible," Tobey said. "With all the squatters' camps he's cleared out of there, believe me, if (the curfew) is on the books, Joe as constable will be an incredible enforcer."

Tobey credited Orange for making the woods safer and cleaner than ever before. In the 1980s, at least two violent murders occurred in the same woods where residents today feel safe to walk or ride their bikes.

"Some will say they don't want the curfew," Orange said. "They want to come and go whenever they want, but what do they want to come in and look at, at 12 midnight?

"The watershed is a huge area; you'd need about 50 people to control it," he said. "But we can control the shore of the water itself, and that is where we have to focus."

Orange said he's spent about 25,000 hours in the woods over the last decade. He estimated yesterday that he's evicted roughly 1,000 people who were living in 60 squatters' camps while on daily patrols of an eight-mile stretch of dense woodland surrounding the reservoir.

"We've done this many times with Joe," said Public Works employee Charlie Nicastro yesterday as he worked to disassemble the squatter's tent. "It's not the first time, and it won't be the last."

Orange said about 90 percent of the squatters he encounters are homeless individuals who have just "been crushed by life," while the other 10 percent are dangerous.

Orange said another major problem is the teenagers who use the woods for keg parties and similar gatherings.

"I've asked Gloucester High School to remind its students that they will be prosecuted and face fines for coming into the woods for keg parties," Orange said.

Orange said one day he had to single-handedly remove 1,500 pounds of rocks blocking the train tracks that had been placed there by a group of kids. The MBTA commuter rail runs through the Babson Reservoir watershed.

Orange said he believed the curfew would have wider support this time around.

Gloucester School Committee Chairman Greg Verga said he was not familiar with Orange's curfew plan, but said the curfew sounded like a reasonable move.

"I'd say in spirit at least, the schools are supportive," Verga said yesterday. "It sounds reasonable. I wonder what business people have in the woods after dark anyway. I personally wouldn't bike in the woods or go on a nice, long walk in the woods in the dark."

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.

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