Town Issues Cease And Desist Order To Evarts For Dairy Hill Road Earth Removal Operation

The town has issued a cease and desist order to Kenneth L. Evarts for his earth removal operations at the end of Dairy Hill Road.

The order, issued at the beginning of April says "This Notice of Noncompliance is issued to you because of the non permitted earth deposit and/or removal and/or processing operation in a Rural (RU-2) District at [390 Horse Pond Road & Dairy Hill Road].

The order, dated April 1, 2011, and signed by Marilyn M. Ozuls, the town's planning and zoning administrator, says Evarts has 30 days to appeal the order and that failure to comply could result in fines of $150 a day and or injunctive relief.

Several neighbors, when asked Monday afternoon about the operation, said it appeared to them that some of the activity might be on the decline, but they said it was hard for them to tell, since most of the activity goes on during the day, when they are at work or school. Some indicated that part of the concern relates to property values. Two houses directly adjacent to the Evarts earth-removal operation are for sale.

Neighbors said those houses went up for sale when the owners decided to move out of state to take new job opportunities.

Several neighbors who live on Dairy Hill appeared at a Planning and Zoning meeting in March to express their concern about the earth removal operation. They said they were concerned about the safety of their children. Since the earth removal operation started up 14 years ago, they said, many more families with young children have moved in to the neighborhood, according to a draft of minutes from the March meeting.

At the March meeting, the neighbors from Dairy Hill and an adjacent street, Creamery Lane, urged the town to not allow the earth removal operation to continue, according to the minutes. At the March meeting, several members of the Planning and Zoning Commission concurred with the neighbors' concerns about the increasingly commercial aspect of the earth removal operation.