Chester board issues health order on Potash Brook Road house

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Wednesday’s Chester Select Board meeting would have been a simple housekeeping session with members signing loan documents, approving a grant application and passing on a liquor license renewal.

But preceding the housekeeping session, the board held a health order hearing regarding the house on Potash Brook Road.

With board chair Arne Jonynas unable to attend, vice chair Lee Gustafson led the quasi-judicial hearing.

A health order is a legal step that the town can take to limit access to a property that is considered a health hazard. The order can be enforced by the town, but it takes a court order to actually board up a house to prevent people from staying there. The town took these steps in the case of the Hennessey house on Cummings Road.

Chester Town Health Officer Michael Randzio told the board that the house, at 624 Potash Brook Road  whose owner is listed as Ashley Griffin, appears not to have a working septic system or a source of potable water. Randzio said that the cover was off the dug well and a dead animal was floating in it. Bags of trash, automotive batteries and other items were strewn around the house and there was a pile of hypodermic needles as well. Griffin has told police the needles did not belong to him. Town Manager Julie Hance said she had been in touch with Griffin and that he understood what was happening but that he would not come to the meeting. Hance said she made it clear that if the order was issued he would be provided a copy either by registered mail or hand delivery.

Randzio’s report includes photos of burn piles for trash and trash in the brook.

Police Chief Tom Williams and Det. Adam Woodell, who had gone to the house to speak to Griffin, each spoke about the property’s condition that they saw. Williams noted “bag after bag of trash around the house and what appeared to be human feces.” Woodell confirmed those observations and added that there were piles of burned trash including burned plastics.

Potash Brook resident Mary Jane Miles spoke of her concern about trash bags rolling into the stream and causing contamination. “This is not a new thing. It’s been going on for years,” said Miles. She also said she was concerned about the septic system, which she referred to as “jerry-rigged.”

When everyone was done speaking, Gustafson closed the hearing and announced that the board would be holding a deliberative session at the end of the meeting.

On Tuesday, Hance told The Telegraph that the board had approved a health order and that the town’s lawyer is currently drafting it. Hance expects that the board will sign the order in the coming days. The effect of the order is to say that Griffin must clean up the property and that no one is to live there until that is done and the water and septic issues are resolved.