"For the last three summers, 13-year-old Joey Cadieux has headed outside with his flashlight on rainy nights to collect nightcrawlers from his yard.
Purchased by passing fishermen for $2.50 a dozen, the wriggling worms brought him $7 to $10 in a good month, just enough for bike trips to his favorite neighborhood pizza joint.
But when a town official recently objected to his stenciled black-and-white "nite crawlers" yard sign, Joey's business got the hook.
"It's so weird," he said. "I only make a few bucks a month if I'm lucky. I don't know why it's a big deal."
The brouhaha started in July when Al Diaz, a town Planning and Zoning Commission member, mentioned during a meeting that the sign did not conform with Cromwell's rules and should come down. A town zoning officer sent a letter last month ordering Joey's stepfather, August Reil, to take down the sign and stop selling nightcrawlers.
"I actually laughed when I opened it. I couldn't believe they were serious," Reil said.
But they are. If Joey's sign, now hidden from passing motorists, goes back up, the family could face penalties for violating town zoning rules.
"In a residential zone, if you want to put up a business and work out of your home you really need a special permit," Diaz told The Hartford Courant in a story published Friday. "You come before the commission and state your case ... and then a decision is made. Chiropractors do that, lawyers do that, doctors do that, and then you're allowed to put up a sign."
Reil could plead his case to the Zoning Board of Appeals, but would have to pay a $130 filing fee — something he refuses to do, both on cost and principle.
"I pay thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes, so why should we have to pay to appeal something we didn't even know we were doing wrong?" he asked Friday.
Cromwell First Selectman Paul Beaulieu, who has fielded dozens of complaints from residents about the issue, is among those who support Joey's right to sell worms.
"I would hope that reason would prevail, and that both lemonade stands and nightcrawler signs are seen as part of summertime traditions here in central Connecticut," Beaulieu said. "I don't consider nightcrawler sales to be a major operation. We're not talking General Motors here."
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5 comments:
This is just another case of people who loves power. If they are to enforce this which they have, then they need to shut down all neighborhood lemonade stands run by kids.
That's outrageous.
I would so start a fund and get the neighborhood up in arms about that!
That is pretty rotten.
That's disgusting. Unfortunately my local government is worse. The only businesses the cops allow to operate without permits are drug dealers which get a free ride.
I should know there's a crackhouse next door and my friend up the street got fined for putting up yard sale signs.
Power corrupts, and like Mercy said, some people just need to exersise the power so they feel important, so they pick on a little kid.
Red, I think the strpfather did the right thing here, and got the city up in arms, like you said.
Raben, sounds like a messed up place. Thankfully, my town isn't like that.
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