[W]ESTFORD — Six months after Ted Pelkey gave his town the middle finger over a local zoning dispute, the Westford man says he won’t retire the famous statue even if he wins the case in court.
“I would never take it down now,” Pelkey said. “It’s awesome.”
Pelkey’s middle finger, a six-foot sculpture made of pine, went up in December to send a clear message of displeasure at Westford town officials. It was a viral sensation and received attention from national media outlets, including CNN and the Boston Globe.
He’s been trying to move his business, Ted’s Truck and Trailer Repair, from Swanton to his property in Westford. But the town of Westford hasn’t approved the permits needed to do so.
Pelkey said after erecting the sculpture, he assumed he’d be required to take it down. But since it isn’t advertising anything, it doesn’t fall under the state’s anti-billboard laws.
Instead, it’s considered public art.
“I felt that it would be a violation of the town’s zoning regulations, but it doesn’t fall under that. They can’t touch it,” he said.
Pelkey and his wife, Michelle, had asked the town for permits to build an 8,000 square foot garage structure, and 13,500 square foot gravel drive.
He said that moving his business would eliminate his commute to work and, since it would be on his own property, eliminate the need to pay rent.
The Westford Development Review Board ruled Pelkey did not meet the zoning regulations necessary for approval.
The case is currently pending before a judge in the environmental division of Vermont Superior Court, and a decision is expected in the near future. The Pelkeys are represented by Burlington attorney Brian Monaghan.
Minutes and recordings from the development review board meetings in which the Pelkeys’ proposals were discussed show a fraught confrontation between the Pelkeys and their lawyers and the board.
At a September 25, 2017 meeting, the chair of the development review board, Matt Wamsganz, said that Ted Pelkey had sent him threatening text messages. Claudine Safar, an attorney for the Pelkeys, requested Wamsganz recuse himself. He declined.
Wamsganz said at the meeting that he believed he could be impartial in reviewing Pelkey’s proposal.
At the board’s next meeting on October 23, 2017, the Pelkeys’ application fell short of the total points needed for approval.
Kate Lalley, the town’s zoning administrator, said the Pelkeys’ proposal did not include enough information.
At the October meeting, she said that Ted Pelkey had regularly called her for status updates during the process. During those calls, she said she told him that “she needed more information and questioned whether he was being forthcoming about the use and he invited her to deny the permit. She said she would have liked more information about the proposal,” the minutes state.
Pelkey is optimistic about his appeal. “I’m in it to win it,” he said.
He told VTDigger in March that he might consider changing the statue to a peace sign if he prevailed. But now, he says, a victory in court wouldn’t change the meaning of the gesture. “It’s a statement made to our rights as Americans,” Pelkey said. “This is my land.”
To preserve the statue, Pelkey plans to add a coat of polyurethane to the wood and paint the pole every spring. “When it starts to rot, I’ll just get a new one,” he said.
Pelkey said the finger has gotten thousands of visitors, including some from Arizona who visited in January. It’s now listed on the “offbeat tourist attraction” directory Roadside America. (“‘Middle Finger on a Pole’ is worth the stop!” wrote a reviewer in February.)
Pelkey said he hasn’t heard any negative feedback on the sculpture. “I’m supported by everyone who stops and sees it. They think it’s a great thing and it took some balls to put it up there,” he said.
“The thing’s an institution.”
