At the most recent Heritage Commission meeting, a discussion took place regarding the status of the historic house at 2 Litchfield Road, a property that has been a point of debate for years.
The property is subject to a historic easement, which means that the Heritage Commission has some oversight over the upkeep of the buildings located there.
Commission member David Ellis began the discussion by asking, “I’d like to know what the status is on 2 Litchfield Road, whether the letter was sent out yet.”
Commission Vice Chair Art Rugg said he was also going to bring it up.
“That was one of my things, too, so you beat me to it,” he said.
During the previous meeting, it was explained that they had an inspection done by Chief Code Enforcement Officer Nick Codner, where they inspected the outside of the house.
It was noted that the main thing from the inspection report was that there needed to be some painting done. It was decided to have Codner’s inspection statement with the recommendations to the owner sent by letter from the Town.
It was unclear during the meeting whether any letter had been sent to the owner at this point, which caused concerns among members of the Commission.
“There has been no routine maintenance going on for two years,” Ellis said.
He explained that the letter would only be talking about basic maintenance and no type of major renovations or anything to that effect.
“If the letter’s not going out, I’d like to push for the Council to get involved with it,” Ellis said.
Ellis explained that his concern was that once they got to winter, they wouldn’t be able to paint the house then, and went on to say they couldn’t delay the outdoor upkeep of the property.
Rugg ultimately stated that the Commission needs to be better informed about what is going on.
“The whole commission needs the information on what’s happening with Litchfield Road,” Rugg said.
Commission member John Mahon said he thinks the whole Commission should be given a copy of the letter that was sent out to the property owner. “I would just as soon not to wait til July for our next meeting to see that letter,” Mahon said. He also brought up concerns regarding the historic barn on the property, which the property owner had been permitted to tear down.
Since there is a historical easement on the property, the Town Council, with the recommendation of the Heritage Commission, had the final say in whether or not it could be knocked down.
Mahon continued to say he went by the property that day and said, “He thought that barn was an emergency and a danger to the public, so it had to be knocked down there,” and it remained standing.
“The emergency couldn’t have been too dire, because the barn is still there,” Mahon said.
He added, he wasn’t looking to reopen the issue, but said, “It causes me to doubt frankly everything to do with this piece of property right now.”
He explained that they heard many concerns about it, and multiple Town entities were involved with it.
“We basically said take it down. You wanted it, we approved it, take it down, and it’s still there,” Mahon said.
It was decided to have Assistant Town Manager Kellie Caron communicate with the Town Attorney to get the letter to the Heritage Commission about “what’s the status of that building.”
It was decided they could discuss it again at their July meeting.