ROYALSTON — Building Inspector Geoff Newton and Board of Health Chair Phil Leger appeared before the Selectboard at its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 4, to seek advice — and funding — for enforcing some of Royalston’s bylaws,
“By way of background,” said board Chair Deb D’Amico, “it has come to the attention of the board that there are several properties in Royalston that are in violation of our bylaw which specifies the maximum number of unregistered vehicles you can have on your property. This bylaw comes under police regulations, but the enforcement agent is our building inspector.”
“We do have several automobiles out there on quite a few individual properties,” Newton began. “I find it very difficult to do enforcement on these people because it’s hard to make them get rid of their junk. I’ll be plain in saying it that way. To me, it’s a just a thorn in the side, as it is, but the fact is if — if — I go and start doing the enforcement, it takes cash to do that and we have never had it.”
Newton told the board that he has, in the previous three years, been budgeted $2,500 for enforcement purposes but, in neither of those years, has the money been used to support bylaw enforcement. The first year it went unspent and was returned to the town budget; the following year, it was used — along with cash from the Board of Health budget — to fund the closing of an abandoned property on King Street, and in the third year it was used to purchase red “X” signs for the Fire Department to post on unsafe structures.
“Now, I’ve got that $2,500, but that’s going to go in a whistle,” said Newton, referencing a pair of cases he and Leger are trying to address. “I can’t take anybody to court myself anymore. The judge will not allow that. We’ve got to have an attorney.
“Those two individuals have to go to court, and they both said, ‘Go ahead.’ So, we have no choice. We just want permission to seek counsel’s advice. I want to talk to K-P Law (the law firm representing the town).”
“Bylaws are great,” said Leger. “However, I’m not budgeted for any of this. At this point, our next step with these two properties would be to file in court, so we need access to an attorney.”
Newton then zeroed in specifically on the issue of unregistered vehicles.
“I know you’ve got the issue of the unregistered motor vehicles,” he said. “They’re all over the town. I don’t know where you could even start. I kind of wish I had been for the Town Meeting where they put my position in there for enforcing police regulations. I’m not a police officer. I thought that was kind of an odd thing and I kind of sat back on it; my fault.”
He then presented the board with an idea currently employed by the town of Winchendon.
“Their thoughts were,” he explained, “that if the people thought their vehicles were really important to them that they should pay a fee to the town — a registration fee — for each vehicle they want and then they get an application.”
The owners would then receive a notice to be placed behind the windshield of each vehicle notifying police the vehicle has permission to be on the property.
Newton did caution that the Selectboard should seek legal counsel before seriously considering a similar policy. Board member Roland Hamel, however, expressed skepticism about the proposal, saying it couldn’t be enforced.
Board member Chris Long suggested that Newton be allowed to issue citations, but he countered citations — if those receiving one decide to appeal — would still end up in court because the town doesn’t have a hearing officer. This, he said, would then require the use of an attorney.
He also said that he couldn’t, as required by several bylaws, write a citation for each day of a given violation.
“They have to have their hearing,” said Newton. “That takes some time. I can’t go out the next day and write another citation because, in the law, it says each day — as long as the violation continues — is a separate offense. But I can’t write another citation after the first one because I have to wait for 20 days so they can get their hearing. So, I don’t know how that each-day offense works.”
D’Amico said the board could make arrangements for an attorney to represent the town on the cases on which Newton and Leger are currently working.
“It sounds like we’ve got some bylaws that have no teeth,” she continued, “because there’s no mechanism in place to push these violations forward.”
Long then suggested a study committee be formed to include one member of the Selectboard, Newton, Leger, and Police Chief Curtis Deveneau. The committee, she said, could look into how other communities are handling the problem. “I definitely agree this is ridiculous,” said Long, “to have all these bylaws in place and yet not be able to do anything about it. Rather than each of them giving us an individual report, it seems to me if they could sit down for one or two sessions, they could come up with a master list of recommendations.”
The board decided to follow Long’s recommendation.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com