98-year-old Northampton woman charged in pipeline protest
A 98-year-old woman, who is a well-known Northampton activist, is one of eight people due to be arraigned Thursday on trespassing charges for protesting the extension of a natural gas pipeline.
Frances Crowe was arrested Saturday after she parked her wheelchair in a restricted area of the Otis State Forest in Sandisfield, where the Kinder Morgan plans to extend a natural gas pipeline. The controversial project has drawn repeated protests by environmental activists.
Crowe and seven others arrested were identified Tuesday in a press release from the Sugar Shack Alliance, which has organized the protests in Western Massachusetts.
Other activists identified were Eric Burcroff, 57, of Plainfield, Dennis Carr, 59, of Cummington, Ellen Graves, 76, of West Springfield, Priscilla Lynch, 65, of Conway, Constance Harvard, 69, of Northampton, Elizabeth Ramirez, 47, of Holyoke, Laura Simon, 63, of Wilder, Vt..
All are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in the Southern Berkshire District Court in Great Barrington.
Saturday’s protest marked the start of the “Summer of Resistance’’ Sugar Shack plans to oppose the pipeline’s extension.
“The police chose to arrest me . . . . because I was standing in the way of the construction of an illegal pipeline,’’ Lynch said in the release. “There has been no evacuation plan provided for the people, the thinnest pipes possible are being used, and it was my civic duty to do everything in my power to stop this dangerous and unnecessary pipeline.’’
