ORANGE — Board of Health members hope a Housing Court date set for this month in Springfield will initiate the end of a nearly two-year dispute with a resident regarding his property at 475 East Main St.
Board members say they have tried to no avail to get John Avila to clear debris from his property and they predict a judge on March 21 will order him to do so or give the town permission to handle the work and put a lien on the property to recoup the expenses. A fence surrounds most of Avila’s property, but various items, including automobiles, are visible. Vintage advertising signs, an upholstered armchair, and televisions with screens painted in support of State Rep. Susannah Whipps (R-2nd Franklin District) are outside the fence.
“We don’t want to (put a lien on the property). We don’t want to make the guy homeless,” Board of Health Chairwoman Jane Peirce said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We don’t want to cause him the anxiety and the stress of doing that for him, because he likes all of his stuff, but it just can’t stay that way.”
Board member Patricia Pierson said Avila “no longer has a right to like his stuff that much” once it negatively affects his neighbors and the community as a whole.
Peirce said Serendipities, a former ice cream shop, closed two years ago and the business is not able to be sold due to the condition of Avila’s property next door. Avila is a longtime school bus driver and a bus was visible from the street until recently. Avila said he was laid off by his employer on Monday and the company took the bus.
Avila said he is certain the town is targeting him for personal reasons and he does not understand what the problem is. He said he is disliked because he speaks his mind and is “the new boy on the block,” having moved to Orange five years ago. Health Director Andrea Crete said she has no personal gripe with Avila and she is simply doing her job. She said her predecessor, Roger Mallet, began investigating the property and it became the first responsibility Crete was tasked with when she became health director in April 2015.
Avila said issues like this are the reason he mounted a write-in campaign for a Selectman seat in Monday’s election. At a candidate forum March 2, his first name had been written on a name card as “Jon.” Challenger James Cornwell defeated incumbent Kathy Reinig, 572 to 356.
Avila said this issue has cost him $10,000 in legal bills. He said his attorney is Elliott M. Loew of Newton.
You can reach Domenic Poli
at: dpoli@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 258.