HAMPDEN –  The Select Board attempted to mediate between the Casa Bella restaurant and their neighbors Mitch and Mary Drozdowski.

Selectman Donald Davenport informed the couple that the Select Board Chair John Flynn, and Building Inspector Wendell Hulbert, and he had met with the property owner, Ed Kennedy, at the restaurant on the morning of July 16. Don Collins also attended the meeting on the Drozdowski’s behalf.

While walking the property, Davenport said that Kennedy agreed to adjust the lights that, the couple say, point at their bedroom. Kennedy said his tenant, the restaurant owner, recently completed maintenance to quiet the restaurant’s fan and refrigerator, which Mary described as “running 24 hours, screaming.”

The couple has repeatedly complained about the smell from the dumpsters that are next to their property. Davenport said that he had visited the site on July 21 and July 22, during the heat wave, and “the odor was very strong.”

The restaurant owner said that unless the town can prove they are running afoul of a town bylaw or ordinance, they will leave them on the side of the property nearest the Drozdowskis’ home. Two letters have been sent to the restaurant in 2016 and 2018 informing the restaurant that they were violating the site plan. Davenport said that the Board would look into the violations further to assess whether on not a fine can be levied.

Mary said the couple would not come to another meeting.

The Cumberland Farms Property Committee reported on the work they had done previously to encourage the gas station and convenience store chain to either sell their property at 500 Main St. or clean it up. The property has been known to be polluted by oil and gas since the early 1990s. Rick Green, who led the committee, said the gas is from a neighboring automotive garage while the oil was from a since-removed heating oil tank.

There are 13 monitoring wells from the Department of Environmental Protection on the property to keep track of the pollution levels. According to the DEP’s readings, the oil is now at negligible readings. The gas readings are also significantly lower.

“The ground is in essence healing itself,” the Committee said in a handout regarding the current status of the site. However, the gas is still high enough that the property cannot be declared a Tier 1, or “clean site.”

Hampden had wanted to incorporate the site into a plan for a walking path and a footbridge over the river. Cumberland Farms would not agree to donate or sell the land to the town for that purpose and the committee recommended not acquiring the land. Had the town gone through with the acquisition, it would have cost an estimated $15,000 every three years for testing and reporting to the DEP.

After the committee spoke it was decided to reach out to Congressman Richard Neil’s office, as the committee had previously done, to coax them into cleaning up the site if selling isn’t an option. Otherwise, as a resident suggested and Flynn agreed, the building inspector could be brought in to assess structural issues, including a large crack in the West side and a hole in the back of the building, possibly forcing Cumberland Farms hand on the issue. Flynn called it a carrot-and-stick method.

The Conservation Commission came before the Board looking for new members. The Commission of seven individuals currently has three members, Ted Zebert, Bonnie Geromini, and Judy Brewers. As it is, Brewers is stepping down from a full-time member to an associate member.

Flynn complimented the three on the work they had done to help get dead trees pulled from the Scantic River.

Davenport asked the commissioner what criteria new members would have to have, “besides being a warm body,” he joked.

Zebert said that none of them had any special training when they began. He said the state offers courses for conservation commissioners to take at no charge to the individual. In general, he said, the person would have to like the outdoors, have a predisposition to protect the waterways, and ideally be able to identify a wetland area. Davenport said they’d also have to have a willingness to help to the town.

Geromini said the Commission still needed an administrative assistant, after not having one for a couple of months, though they have had interviews with ultimately unsuccessful candidates.

She broached the subject of the revisiting the termination of the previous administrative assistant, Cindi Connors, and said she had been knowledgeable and was good at her job.

Town Treasurer Richard Patullo stood and added his voice to Geromini’s call. He said it was his understanding that all charges leveled against her had been disproven, to the nods of the commissioners.

Flynn quickly ended the conversation, saying that the topic was something that would have to be discussed in executive session for legal reasons.

Mark Langone signed a new three-year contract as the Highway Department Superintendent. Chair John Flynn said that they tried to keep Langone’s pay increase and benefits in line with that of other departments in the town. The contract will be retroactive to July 4.

Langone also updated the Select Board upcoming roadwork. Crews will begin major construction on Wilbraham Road on July 25 with construction on North Road to follow beginning July 29. Wilbraham Road will be closed to traffic on July 25, 26, and 29.

“They’re not going to be long-term projects,” Langone said. He expects the Wilbraham Road project to wrap up within two weeks.

Other small projects, Langone told the Board, include drainage work on Greeley Avenue and work “on one of the cemetery roads.”