There is a sign from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) which has been placed on the door of the ice cream stand at Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle about 20 miles northwest of Boston. It reads:

BUILDING CLOSED NO ICE CREAM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Last weekend, DCR officers shut down the popular ice cream stand and stood guard to ward off anyone crazy enough to think about buying an ice cream cone on a warm day.

The ice cream stand was shut down because its owner Mark Duffy because construction had been done without local and state permits. Duffy, who operates a dairy farm and has operated the ice cream for more than 25 years, says he has been making improvements everyday without permission.

That isn’t good enough for MCR Commissioner Edward Lambert who said, “I like ice cream as much as anybody, so it pains us to even temporarily close what is an iconic property, but we have to make sure people eating ice cream there are safe.”

Safe from what exactly, Lambert didn’t say.

This is a classic case of, “We’re from the government and we’re to help.” Well, their help has forced Duffy to lay off 13 high school and college students who work for him, has affected the ice cream manufacturer in Attleboro which distributes their product to him and if the shutdown lasts much longer it may force Duffy off his farm. This weekend is due to be as warm as the one we had here last weekend and Duffy is being deprived of his livelihood from an unaccountable bureaucracy which applies its authority arbitrarily and capriciously.