ORANGE — The Board of Selectmen and Conservation Commission met jointly Thursday night to address complaints against the commission in its handling of tire retailer Pete’s Tire Barn.
Marjorie Street resident Daniel Sheehan has recently raised concerns related to outdoor tire storage at the abutting 114 New Athol Road Pete’s Tire Barn facility with the Board of Health, Fire Department, Conservation Commission and the Board of Selectmen. Other neighbors of the facility have raised objections in the past as well.
Sheehan’s complaints to the selectmen in 2015 and this month have centered on the Conservation Commission’s handling of development at the property.
In a letter to the selectmen this month, Sheehan called for the resignation or removal of the Conservation Commission chairman. Sheehan alleges selective non-enforcement of regulations by the commission since 2007 with respect to the Pete’s property. Specifically, Sheehan claims that the company has done work on the land in 2015 and 2016 without re-filing a notice of intent submitted in 2007 and expired in 2014.
The document is required whenever work is proposed within 100 feet of a wetland or 200 feet of a perennial stream.
Selectmen said at this week’s meeting that they had since received a complaint from a second resident.
Thursday night, Conservation Commission Chairman Alec MacLeod told selectmen that in the wetlands buffer zone, where the recent work under discussion evidently took place, the commission has authority to review work but no enforcement authority. MacLeod said the town has no special bylaws and relies on the Department of Environmental Protection, which will not apply penalties in a buffer zone unless the work impacts a wetland.
MacLeod said that when he heard questions were being raised at Town Hall, he visited the land with owner Peter Gerry and saw loam stripped from a significant portion of the field, well into the buffer zone. MacLeod said he told Gerry to stop work, install a sediment erosion barrier to protect the wetland temporarily, and to file a new notice of intent application. MacLeod said the first two were done and the commission is waiting on the application. There was no damage to the wetlands and therefore no room for DEP penalties, he said.
Selectmen asked questions and adjourned after 15 minutes to make way for scheduled public hearings.
Sheehan and fellow Marjorie Street resident Sharon Godin expressed displeasure that they were not given time to comment during the meeting. MacLeod said he would not respond to the letter point by point, and public comment would be allowed at the hearing for the new notice of intent.
MacLeod later said he was being accused of taking kickbacks, and that this was a lie.
After the meeting, Godin said her home is below Gerry’s land, and after he altered the surface of the field, her yard flooded. Godin said it took four days for any response to Sheehan’s complaint and she is frustrated with the Town Hall response to this and past complaints.
Bad blood over the tire facility is not new. Godin said neighbors pooled money to hire a lawyer when the facility was being built in 2007 and forced some changes.
You can reach Chris Curtis at: ccurtis@recorder.com