Williamstown Board of Health Seeks Amicable End to Dispute
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Monday discussed how to communicate with a resident about an order to deal with a nuisance on their Simonds Road property.
Jean Rand stormed out of the Town Hall meeting room after a brief and contentious appearance before the board regarding her home at 1033 Simonds Road.
The property had been subject to a condemnation order from the Health Department in September 2022. And while most of the issues at the home have been resolved, one item remains: a pile of wood that the town believes is a nuisance and health hazard.
Health Inspector Ruth Russell gave the board a timeline of town's involvement with the property, including her December 2023 decision to rescind the order of condemnation, which Russell says was replaced with an order to abate a nuisance, "allowing them to go back in the home but with some orders for outside the home."
One was an order to deal with non-sanitary conditions on the grounds of the property, specifically a wood pile that was a "potential source of rodent harborage," Russell said. She showed the board a letter from June 2023 from the town asking that the wood be stacked properly.
Rand contended that the Board of Health had completely cleared the property in its September 2023 meeting and indicated that the town was harassing her.
"We had agreed that as long as everything else on the property was done, I was going to be done with this, and here I am today," Rand told the board. "I've bent over backward. … Yet I'm still being harassed."
Rand told the Board of Health that the town had shut off her water service in February 2023, and it took a threat from her lawyer to get the water turned on again.
When Board of Health Chair Dr. Erwin Stuebner explained that the town's Water Department is not controlled by the board and that it was not a Health Department decision, Rand fired back.
"Yes it was," she said. "It was [then Health Inspector Jeffrey] Kennedy who had it shut off in the middle of winter, yet my bill was paid in full."
Rand told the board that if the water had stayed off, the home's steam heat would have failed and the pipes would have frozen.
Kennedy, who was in the audience for Monday morning's meeting, explained his involvement in the decision.
"The Water Department asked if the water could be turned off," Kennedy said. "I said, 'There's no one living there. However, if the owner disputes that the water should be left on … ."
"We were not given any notice," Rand said. "My water bill was paid in full. My water shouldn't have been touched. I have been nothing but harassed by the town nonstop. I did everything I was asked for.
"I moved the wood pile back from the road. I'm disabled. My husband is disabled. What makes you think rodents aren't going to harbor in a pile of stacked wood compared to a pile of wood? There is no difference."
Stuebner replied that the town has ordered the wood to be stacked properly and suggested that Rand could get help from a friend to make sure it's done.
"In the September meeting, we were in agreement that I didn't need to touch that wood pile," Rand said.
"It's in the [December 2023] order that it needs to be stacked," Stuebner answered.
"Show me where it says in the September meeting that it needs to be stacked," Rand said. "The minutes say, 'It was discussed.' I know what I stated in that meeting. I know what was discussed."
Russell told the board that the town does not have a recording of the September 2023 meeting. At its March meeting, Russell did tell the board that the owner of the 1033 Simonds Road property still was obligated to clean up the wood pile.
What Russell in March characterized as a May deadline has since been extended.
On Monday, Board of Health member Devan Bartels asked Rand what a reasonable timeline would be to deal with the pile.
"I'll go home and light it on fire," Rand shot back.
"I think by our next meeting is reasonable … " Bartels began.
"Call the Police and Fire Department, I'll go home and light it on fire," Rand said as she left the podium and walked out of the meeting room in the middle of the 9 a.m. discussion.
As of noon on Monday, there was no sign of a fire in the yard of the home.
After Rand left, Kennedy explained to the board the difference between a wood pile and a wood stack from a public health standpoint.
"The difference is the spacing underneath the pile and the airflow in the pile," Kennedy said. "A pile of wood as it is [at the Simonds Road property] allows burrowing activity. A stacked pile of wood has smaller spacing and is subject to air flow for drying."
In answer to a question from Stuebner, Kennedy explained that a property owner who contested a decision from the Health Department could appeal to the Board of Health or, ultimately, Land Court in Pittsfield, which, he said, would not require the expense of an attorney on the part of the appellant.
In the meantime, the board discussed sending a letter to Rand, thanking her for efforts to make the changes needed to lift the condemnation order and explaining that the enforcement order on the wood pile remains in effect.
"I think the way forward is to write a clarifying letter in clear language with a cooperative tone," Bartels said.
Stuebner suggested the letter could be "less threatening" and "more personal."
"I'd stress to her that this is the last remaining part of the order," Stuebner said. "If this is taken care of in a timely fashion, before the next meeting, we're done. Everything will be taken off the board."
Russell agreed to make drafting the letter a priority and told the board members she would distribute it to them for her comments before sending it to Rand.
In other business on Monday, Russell gave the board an update on the '6 House Pub, whose owners are waiting on approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for a plan to deliver potable water to the restaurant from the same source that supplies the nearby motel.
In June, the board reviewed the restaurant's efforts to serve its clientele using bottled water and approved the procedures in place.
"After our last meeting, Ruth [Russell] and I went out to the '6 House and met with the general manager and chef and were impressed that they were doing what they're supposed to do," Stuebner told the board.
"I have not heard any concerns [related to E. coli]. We did make new signs and put up signs that are more prominent [at the restaurant]. It sounds like things are moving."
And, finally, on Monday, Kenned, who retired as the town's health agent last summer, told the board that he is back on a short-term basis as the assistant health inspector to assist Russell.
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