ROXBURY — Selectmen learned Tuesday night that an agreement has been reached in their case against one of three property owners with unlicensed junkyard issues.
Planning Board member Matthew Patneaude said he attended Monday morning’s session at Rumford District Court to represent the town in its civil violation case against Stephen Heath, 54, of 419 Roxbury Notch Road, also known as Route 120.
At issue, Patneaude said, are two junk cars that are too close to the roadside.
“The case was continued (to Nov. 8) on the contingency that he follows up with removal of the two vehicles within the side of the roadway,” Patneaude said. “We’re concerned with safety when he brings his big truck home that it be parked out of the right of way of the road.”
The court judge who heard the case had wanted to fine Heath $1,000 and about $200 in court costs, but Patneaude said it’s the job of town planners to help in any way possible and that’s what he did in working out the agreement.
Should Heath not remove the offending vehicles by Nov. 8, he will be summoned once again, Patneaude said.
“The judge made note that we had come to an agreement, but the other two junkyard owners can still be summoned once we get a code enforcement officer,” he said.
He was referring to the town’s 2009 cases against Frederick E. Hodgkins, 51, of 679 Roxbury Notch Road and his brother, Dale A. Hodgkins, 47, of 654 Roxbury Notch Road for operating unlicensed junkyards. Both cases were dismissed earlier this year because no authority from the town showed up in court to present evidence.
In other business, Board of Selectmen Chairman John Sutton said the town had received two bid applications for a code enforcement officer and plumbing inspector. One was from Bethel Code Enforcement Officer Robert Folsom and the other from Christopher L. Bourgeois of Rumford.
Folsom doesn’t want to be the code enforcement officer, but he is willing to have Bourgeois work under his license for a year to enable Bourgeois to complete training, Sutton said. Folsom would do plumbing inspection work until Bourgeois completed his license training in that position, as well.
Selectmen didn’t vote on either application, deciding instead to meet with the pair and get more information. If selectmen are happy with what they learn, they’ll vote on the applications at the next board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Later in the meeting, however, Sutton suggested that Town Clerk Nina Hodgkins contact Folsom to see if he could serve as a temporary plumbing inspector for two septic grants the town is seeking, if they pay him mileage and fees. Selectmen voted 3-0 to hire Folsom for the work if he is willing to do so.
The board also decided that town snowplowing contractor Pat Gorham must repair an estimated $488 in damage to a resident’s property this past winter.
“According to his contract, Mr. Gorham is responsible to fix it,” Sutton said. “He dug up the land where he turned his plow around.”
If Gorham is unwilling to repair the damage, selectmen decided they would hire someone else to do it and forgo issuing a snowplowing contract to Gorham this winter.
Selectmen also voted 3-0 to have town planners update the town’s Municipal Shoreland Zoning Ordinances rather than let the state do it, because the town has some more restrictive regulations. That work would be presented to townspeople at a public hearing prior to being voted at a special town meeting.
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