TOWN COUNCIL MAJORITY OFFICE
ORDINANCE COMMITTEE
SEPTEMBER 30, 2013
PRESENT Chair Rich Kehoe; Councillors Bill Horan and Eric Thompson
ALSO Tim Bockus, Public Works Director
PRESENT James Melo, 7 Spencer Court
Albert Ivaldi, 52 Handel Court
Deby Ivaldi, 52 Handel Court
Phyllis Consalvo, 58 Handel Court
Richard Espinosa, 27-29 Clark Street
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Kehoe called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
August 5, 2013 Meeting
MOTION By Eric Thompson
seconded by Rich Kehoe
to approve the August 5, 2013 meeting minutes.
Motion carried 2/0. Abstain: Horan
The Chair indicated that the format of the meeting would be a bit less formal in order to encourage broader discussion on the issue of private roads that appear to be public roads. In attendance were residents of Handel Court – a private road off of Handel Road – and Spencer Court – a private road connecting Main Street to Clark Street; Clark Street being a town road.
Handel Court
The Committee and Public Works Director Tim Bockus had a very in depth conversation with the residents of Handel Court. Handel Court is a street that has been in existence for decades, perhaps as far back as the early 1900’s. It existed prior to many of the other roads in that neighborhood – such as Canterbury, Suffolk and Nassau – and is a dead-end road on which there are eight residential properties.
According to the residents, over the years the town has paved Handel Court, had leaf collection, trash pickup, and, on some basis, snowplows the road. Therefore, the residents were under the impression when they purchased their properties that the town would continue with these services – maintaining the road and plowing the access area.
The difficulty for the town is that by doing so it would be compounding some legal mistakes that they have made over the years, where the town operated on private property without the property owners approval. For example, when plowing a private road, if the town caused some damage to the road, the town could be held responsible for the repair of the road if there was no authority for the town to have a plow on that road. The Committee agreed that if the Handel Court property owners could obtain permission from all the individuals who own the property that consists of Handel Court and those property owners agreed that they would deed the portion of their properties that consist of Handel Court to the town, the Committee would work with the Administration to determine how best to have the town accept the road. Acceptance
would provide the town with clear legal authority to maintain the road and provide other services.
The Handel Court residents agreed that they would go back to their neighbors and see if they could obtain the requisite approval from all property owners. As was stressed at this meeting, the town needs the consensus of every single property owner.
Spencer Court
Spencer Court – unlike Handel Court – is not predominantly a residential street. Rather there are only three houses on Spencer Court, all close to the intersection of Clark Street. The vast majority of the properties on Spencer Court are commercial. There isn’t the same history with regard to town services on Spencer Court as there has been on Handel Court. The residents who were at this meeting were more concerned about through traffic that comes off of Main Street down Spencer Court to Clark Street and also trash that is left on some of the residential properties on Spencer Court. The Committee agreed to work with the property owners to try to address their concerns. Regarding access issues, if in fact the property owners own the entire portion of Spencer Court, they would have the
authority to erect a barrier to stop traffic from proceeding across their property. There are a number of legal issues that would need to be resolved and the residents at this meeting were advised to seek legal counsel and obtain a survey of their property so that the extent of their property is clearly designated.
The property owners agreed to do so and return back to the Town Council if in fact they would wish to proceed in erecting a barrier. The Committee members expressed concern that the property owners work with the town to ensure that any such barrier is appropriate and does not pose any danger to public safety. If that barrier is erected, the town would then erect a “No Outlet” sign on the corner of Clark/Burnside and also on Spencer Court/Main Street to so indicate that. The Committee still would like the property owners on Spencer Court to improve the conditions of Spencer Court, but no such property owners were available for this meeting.
The Committee agreed to meet again when either the residents of Handel Court or Spencer Court came forward with the need for additional town action.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION By Bill Horan
seconded by Eric Thompson
to adjourn (7:54 p.m.)
Motion carried 3/0.
cc: Mayor Leclerc
Town Council
Tim Bockus, Public Works Director
James Melo, 7 Spencer Court
Albert Ivaldi, 52 Handel Court
Deby Ivaldi, 52 Handel Court
Phyllis Consalvo, 58 Handel Court
Richard Espinosa, 27-29 Clark Street
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