Westford resident gives town the middle finger—and there's nothing anyone can do about it

Ted Pelkey's protest of his treatment by the town of Westford is lit at night.(Photo: Courtesy Ted Pelkey)

 

If you find yourself doing a double-take while driving down Route 128 between Westford and Fairfax — yes, that is a seven-foot-tall sculpture of a raised middle finger, carved from a 700-pound block of pine and perched atop a 16-foot pole on the property of Ted Pelkey.

Oh, and it's lit up at night.

Pelkey erected the provocative sculpture on Friday in protest of a long-running dispute with the town of Westford. The town's Development Review Board denied Pelkey a permit for an 8,000-square-foot garage he wants to build on his 11-acre property.

He spent $4,000 on the middle finger sculpture, carved in Vermont by an artisan he declined to name.

"We've been trying to put a business there for the past 10 years," Pelkey said. "It's just never-ending. They're railroading us really good."

Pelkey's business is currently located in Swanton, where he says he's running out of space. His main business is cleaning spools for a monofilament line company. Pelkey and his son also do some truck repair on the side.

"It's a low impact thing," Pelkey said of his business. "We have such little traffic you'd wonder if we were open.

Read more: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2018/12/06/westford-vermont-permit-dispute-leads-middle-finger-public-artwork-sculpture/2226186002/