Saugus business OK’d for deliveries

SAUGUS – The newsstand at the Hamilton Street White Hen Pantry is once again open and this time for good now that the selectmen have granted a variance allowing the store to receive newspaper deliveries before 7 a.m.White Hen General Manager John Rogalski was caught off guard in August when a crackdown on early morning deliveries hampered his newspaper sales.A town bylaw prohibits deliveries after 10 p.m. and before 7 a.m., including newspapers. Rogalski said newspapers are generally delivered between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. and no one had ever complained until neighbor Aldo Cassano, whose complaint prompted a Police Department crackdown.Selectman Michael Kelleher said Cassano actually called to complain about early morning Dumpster pickups.”It’s not about White Hen Pantry, it’s about the whole strip mall,” he said. “It was about trash pickups and blew up into newspapers.”Rogalski said he simply wanted to be able to sell newspapers prior to 7 a.m.”We don’t restrict selling newspapers, we restrict deliveries prior to 7 a.m.,” Chairman Donald Wong said. “You need an exemption to put you on even par with everyone else.”Selectman Stephen Horlick raised a chuckle from the audience when he asked Rogalski if he could define a newspaper for him.”When I brought this up I was asked ‘what’s a newspaper,'” Horlick said. “So I’ll ask you, is it a cereal box?”Horlick was referring to the last selectmen’s meeting when he asked for an article to be placed on the warrant for the next Special Town Meeting. The article was aimed at making all newspaper deliveries exempt from the town’s delivery bylaw. Rossetti challenged him to define a newspaper and when he said it conveyed information Rossetti argued that a cereal box does as well.Cassano, owner of Aldo’s Hair Salon, took the issue more seriously.Cassano said he has not slept through the night for months because early morning deliveries to the strip mall have kept him awake between 2:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. He said his window is right above the White Hen Pantry where truck engines and clanging doors have consistently kept him up.”I pay taxes and I don’t mind that,” he said, adding that he does mind the deliveries. “(Rogalski) does not live in Saugus or have his business under his bedroom window. I need to run a business. I need to be sharp, I cannot be like a zombie.”Wong said he felt for Cassano, but they were only discussing newspapers and there shouldn’t be any other deliveries taking place.Cassano said he could live with newspaper deliveries since cars or small trucks generally delivered them.”As long as they are doing it in a very civilized way I don’t mind,” he said.The board granted the exemption 5-0.