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Posted by: USMCMP5811

BELLINGHAM -- Careful driving aroundthe church parking lots here the next time itsnows -- it could be treacherous.


The town has already taken a spill on it, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Following a complaint to the agency, the town has ended a longstanding practice of plowing church parking areas, an unsmiling Town Administrator Denis C. Fraine informed the Board of Selectmen on Monday.

"Unfortunately, we will be curtailing that practice as a result of a complaint we received," Fraine said.

The ACLU has a long history of intervening in practices it deems to be an unconstitutional commingling of religion and government, and the town’s wintertime tradition of clearing the snow from the parking lots of local churches appears to be another one of them, Fraine said.

Though he did not provide much elaboration, the town administrator made it clear that the town was reluctant to end the service to the churches, saying he had tried to contact the pastors of at least two of them to inform them of the situation. Fraine mentioned only two -- St. Brendan and St. Blaise parishes.

Members of the Board of Selectmen accepted the briefing from Fraine with stony silence.

After the meeting, Fraine said the town had ceased the plowing on the advice of Legal Counsel Lee Ambler, after the ACLU had

complained to Ambler.

Last month, said Fraine, the town had received a written complaint about the practice from Lake Street resident Ernest Godbout. "Apparently," said Fraine, Godbout "was also in contact with the ACLU."

Fraine briefly showed reporters the two-page letter written by Godbout about the matter, dated Nov. 5, addressed to town officials. The letter indicates that Godbout sent copies of the same letter to four local churches, but the ACLU is not mentioned. Efforts to reach Godbout for comment last night were not successful.

According to Fraine, the town has been plowing the parking lots of the town’s houses of worship for many years. Fraine said he does not know how much the practice costs the town, or how long, exactly, it has been going on.

"I think as long as there have been churches in town, the town has been plowing them," Fraine said.

The administrator said he doesn’t think Bellingham is the only community in the Bay State where churches have benefited from such municipal largesse. For example, he said the practice was also an issue recently in Framingham.

The ACLU’s intervention comes at a time of heightened awareness of the increasing secularization of society, particularly in matters of seasonal etiquette. One of the issues heating up the airwaves of radio talk shows since Thanksgiving, for example, is the debate over the use of the term "holiday tree," a practice religious groups have lambasted as another illustration of how the meaning of Christmas is being purged from public life.

Ironically, there is a seasonal fir on display in the spacious lobby of the new Municipal Center, and the ACLU hasn’t complained about that yet, said Fraine. Asked what kind of a tree it was, Fraine said, "It’s a Christmas tree as far as I’m concerned."

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Posted by: USMCMP5811

Resident: ‘I had to speak out’ about plowing lots
RUSS OLIVO, Staff Writer
12/14/2005




BELLINGHAM -- The man behind the complaint that led the town to abandon a longstanding practice of plowing church parking lots for free says he is just a hardworking postal clerk tired of seeing his tax dollars misspent.


"I’m not a church hater," said Ernest F. Godbout. "I just saw an expense there that really wasn’t warranted and I had to speak out on it."

Citing Godbout’s complaint to the American Civil Liberties Union, town officials announced the "unfortunate" demise of church plowing on Monday, ending a tradition that dates back many years. Officials reluctantly acknowledged that the practice may violate the constitutional ban on the mingling of religious and government institutions.

Born in Woonsocket, Godbout, 65, has lived in Bellingham most of his life and says he has long known about the town’s plowing practices. But with taxes on the rise and education budgets strapped, Godbout -- a grandfather with three children in Bellingham schools -- says it’s time to end taxpayer subsidies for plowing church lots.

The "frosting on the cake," said Godbout, was seeing a "for sale" sign recently on the shuttered Assumption Church, one of the parishes the town used to plow until it was closed by the Diocese of Boston several years ago. That’s when he realized that the town’s generosity had been misplaced.

"There’s no reason the taxpayer has to foot these bills," said Godbout. "The money only ends up on the doorstep of Archbishop Sean O’Malley."

Godbout, who has worked as a postal clerk in Providence for 29 years, says the complaint may seem like the work of a person hostile to religious values. But Godbout is actually a former altar boy, a graduate of Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, and he has done a substantial amount of free upkeep on the bells at the First Baptist Church in Bellingham and two Woonsocket parishes, All Saints and Holy Family.

But town officials aren’t exactly ready to proclaim him a saint. Thanks to Godbout, said Selectman Ronald Picard, the town was forced to abandon a practice it was proud to provide.

Beyond offering an avenue for spiritual expression, the town’s churches are an integral part of the community, providing a variety of supports, from clothing and food for the needy to meeting halls for recovering substance abusers, said Picard.

"Looking at the big picture, it wasn’t a bad

thing," Picard said of the plowing assistance. "All the people that attend those houses of worship are also taxpayers. I understand they’re not public buildings, but they do provide a service."

But Sarah Wunch, a staff lawyer for the Boston Chapter of the ACLU, said one of the legal problems with the town’s approach was that it didn’t offer free snow plowing to all the town’s churches. St. Brendan and St. Blaise parishes -- the two biggest Roman Catholic parishes in town -- were included, but not two Baptist churches.

To make the policy consistent, the town could have plowed for all churches, nonprofits and charities, said Wunch.

"Of course, they don’t want to do it because it’s too much money," she said.

The Rev. Richard Mosher, pastor of the Bellingham Bible Baptist Church, said the town hasn’t always passed over his Hartford Avenue congregation for plowing privileges. Some time ago, when the wife of a town laborer used to attend services at the church, the town plowed his lot several times, he says.

But Mosher doesn’t have any hard feelings about being skipped over. Pastor for 19 years, Mosher says he and his wife, Shelley, are "a one-man team" and don’t mind using the snowblower to do it themselves. The church lot is very small, he said -- probably too small for the town’s snowplows to maneuver.

"The only time it really bothered me is when we had a really heavy, rainy, slushy storm," said Mosher. "It’s just something we’ve always done."

Bellingham isn’t the first town to slip on the slick slopes of separation of church and state.

In 1996, the ACLU sued the town of Barrington, R.I., in federal court over the issue of offering free snowplowing to local churches. Also, Ashland, Mass., reached an out-of-court settlement in a similar case with the ACLU after the agency brought a complaint against the town several years ago, Wunch said.

But Wunch said the ACLU isn’t a grinch lying in wait to snuff out the charitable spirits of the holiday season. She said the agency acted only after Godbout, tired of being ignored by town officials, asked the ACLU to back him up.

Indeed, said Godbout, making headlines wasn’t part of the plan. He made a series of behind-the-scenes complaints to the town before going to the ACLU, asking for a quiet resolution. First, he said, he went to the selectmen’s office in person and was steered to Town Administrator Denis C. Fraine. Godbout said he asked Fraine to find "a nice way" of terminating church plowing.

Seeing no progress, Godbout followed up with a letter to the Board of Selectmen on Nov. 14, saying, "I wish someone else had done it. ..I do not make this complaint with an evil heart against the churches."

Godbout finally called the ACLU, which, in turn contacted Town Counsel Lee Ambler. Acting on Ambler’s advice, town officials announced that they had ceased the practice, effective immediately.

"It was never my intent to make this a front-page issue," said Godbout. "But they were fighting me by ignoring me. I’m disappointed they had to take that road." Ya, ok

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Posted by: MSP75

I am sick of getting my mail late because of postal carriers are in some park sleeping or shopping. What are you going to do about that Mr Ernest Godbout?

ACLU, with all the real civil rights issues going on, why are you picking on parish churches that the tax paying community goes to and actually does some good for the community?

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Posted by: militia_man

I saw the grumpy old man that started this whole mess on TV last night. Now he is trying to claim the town is the real grinch because they have stopped plowing right before the holidays.

I can't believe this guy! He whines about the town plowing for the churches and now he whines about them not plowing right before the holidays. Seems like he is catching a lot of heat for this in the community and he is trying to deflect anger away from himself.

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Posted by: NorwichAlum

I'd like to see a town to stand up to the ACLU one of these days. What a load of crap.

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Posted by: Gil

Screw that! Let the church pay someone to plow their lot. The town or city trucks should be plowing city/town roads. I am sure there is a few parisiners in the pews that have a plow hooked up to their truck and instead a trowing money in the plate could offer the service as a donation.

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Posted by: 94c

Hey, Mr. Ernest Godbout.

Why don't you go postal yourself?

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Posted by: frank

Someone should get a dumptruck full of coal in his front yard on Christmas morning.

I didn't read the whole article, but does he really think he's going to save a whole bunch of tax money by not having the town plow a church parking lot?

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Posted by: NorwichAlum

Our town plows the church lots, but does them last (after the roads, schools, sidewalks, etc). On a big storm it may take a day or two to get to them, but they offer it as a service.

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Posted by: cmagryan

I'm with Gil.

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Posted by: SOT

What Would Jesus Plow?

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Posted by: sempergumby

Ya it's crap. one church has no parking lot, the people park out on the street..so does that mean that the town does not have to plow that part of route 126 and route 140.???????
Some people have way to much time to themselves. Hey ERNIE didn't one of your reletives send an anthrax hoax letter to the Town hall a couple o years ago. Talk about a waste of tax money, you ass.

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Posted by: Wolfman

I got ordained on some website awhile ago, does this mean I can get the town to plow my driveway?

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