BRADFORD, Vt. — The Selectboard voted unanimously at a meeting last month to move forward with a health order against the owner of a property on Goshen Road who the board says is in violation of the town’s outdoor junk and junk vehicle ordinance.
The order requires that property owner Drew Perry clean up the 5-acre property and comply with the rules of the junk ordinance, Selectboard Chairwoman Meroa Benjamin said in an interview.
In addition to passing the health order at the April 23 meeting, the Selectboard also voted unanimously to request assistance from the state’s Environmental Board to help address the situation, which has been ongoing since at least last July.
Perry has ignored multiple requests from the town to clean up the property, Benjamin said.
Efforts to reach Perry by phone were unsuccessful by deadline on Friday.
Perry has been storing a couple dozen junk vehicles on the property, Benjamin said.
Storing the vehicles violates the town’s ordinance regarding the storage of outdoor junk and junk vehicles, which deems it “unlawful to place, discard or abandon as junk four or more junk motor vehicles in a place where any such item is visible from the traveled way of a highway or town road, or visible to an abutting landowner from that portion of the abutter’s land used on a regular basis.”
In addition to the junk vehicles, there are also a number of trailers with people living in them on the property, Benjamin said.
The property does not have any permanent structures, according to property records.
There’s “no running water, so the ground contamination” is a concern, Benjamin said.
Benjamin wasn’t sure how many people are staying at the site, which town property records indicate is valued at $46,000.
“It’s kind of a fluid number,” with people frequently coming and going, she said.
The Bradford Fire Department also has responded to illegal burns of toxic materials at the property, Fire Chief Nate Brooks told the Selectboard at a meeting on April 9.
Jason Fornwalt, whose property abuts Perry’s, reported “unsafe behavior by property owners’ children,” according to meeting minutes. He suggested that Perry had breached his deed.
Last August, the Selectboard voted unanimously to begin fining Perry $500 a day for violating the junk ordinance. Perry has yet to pay any of the fines, which have amounted to more than $100,000.
Following a meeting about the property in early April, state and town police and the Bradford Fire Department presented Perry with a notice informing him that the Selectboard planned to discuss the violations at the April 23 meeting, which he signed.
Perry was not in attendance at the meeting, Benjamin said.
The case will be reviewed in civil court at Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea, Benjamin said.
