Selectmen Opt Not To Renew Lease Of Longtime Plymouth Resident
PLYMOUTH (CBS) - Around Plymouth, everyone calls him Scag the tree guy.
Sixty-one-year-old John Scagliarini is a skilled arborist. At the end of each day, he retreats to his ramshackle, isolated home on Long Beach.
"I like the wilderness aspect of it, I like the solitude. I'm a little bit reclusive, given, but I like the solitude out there," said Scagliarini.
At home, he hears birds and waves. But in recent years, he's heard the sound of footsteps from the town's lawyers as a result of payment disputes.
Scagliarini owns the home, but leases the land from the town, whose selectmen have grown tired of his lack of timely payments.
"I offered to pay my lease, which is the taxes, in advance annually and they said no." said Scagliarini.
The town has opted to end the cycle.
"At the end of the day the selectmen just really didn't want to renew his lease, yet again, and get into the same issue that we've been in the past where we chase him for the payments" says Town Manager Melissa Arrighi.
Scagliarini has had the lease since 1992, but that will end in the near future following the decision.
"The crime doesn't warrant the punishment," said Scagliarini. "You don't take a man's house. treat me like everybody else in this town."