SAUGUS — The Board of Selectman allowed residents to speak during a meeting last week about two alleged contractor’s yards operating out of 132 Main St. and 12 Pevwell Drive, both of which are residential homes.
Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano said he has received numerous calls from residents complaining about the two properties, including the number of construction vehicles going in and out and causing traffic, and large parties being thrown at 132 Main St.
A neighbor of the Main Street property spoke during the meeting and said he has seen three or four different construction vehicles on this site and it looks like the owner of 132 Main St. is using his yard as a contractor’s yard, which the neighbor said is against zoning laws.
“He’s also had multiple young parties, and I say young because I think he has a daughter that’s in high school, and there have been 200 to 300 kids there at one time,” the neighbor said.
During the parties, the neighbor said he saw cars parked up and down Main Street and the surrounding streets, as well as kids urinating on neighbor’s lawns and littering trash and beer cans and bottles.
“He’s not the neighbor that anybody wants,” the resident said.
According to this resident, the man at 132 Main St. has been living there for about a year and police have made multiple visits as he has also threatened neighbors.
Cogliano said the city’s building inspector has been to this property multiple times and wrote numerous fines, but the property’s owner is not cooperating.
Another neighbor spoke about this concern during the meeting, saying that he has also observed many commercial vehicles going onto the property, including flatbeds and multiple dump trucks.
“It causes a lot of traffic when he’s trying to back the flatbed up,” the neighbor said. “It’s degrading the neighborhood because it’s being used as a contractor’s yard, which shouldn’t be done and is against the zoning laws.”
The neighbor said there is no doubt in his mind that the owner of 132 Main St. is launching his company from that property, but added that they should follow the laws that everyone else in the community has to follow.
The board said they would do whatever they can to help solve these issues at 132 Main St. and 12 Pevwell Drive, including passing the concerns on to the town manager and town counsel.
“No one should have to put up with this,” Cogliano said.
