Cleanup Set To Start At McGrath Property

CHATHAM – In what neighbors and town officials hope is the beginning of the end to a long-standing conflict, a cleanup company will begin work shortly removing debris from the McGrath property at 32 Mill Hill Rd.

 The town has finalized a contract with Sutton, Mass.-based Eagle Eye Contracting to methodically remove tons of debris from the private property, which has fueled years of rancor between the town, property owner John McGrath and neighbors. Under the order authorized by a superior court judge in February, the town has hired the firm to conduct the work and will recoup the costs via a lien when the property is eventually sold. Town meeting previously appropriated up to $150,000 for the job, but the contract authorizes no more than $60,250, based on the amount of debris removed. The cleanup must be completed by Dec. 31, but the contractor reports that they expect the job to take two weeks to finish. Natural Resources Director Greg Berman reported that the contractor is tentatively aiming to begin work by the middle of October, but that a start date should be finalized shortly. 

 “We would begin by constructing a space off the road to safely place a dumpster and be able to load it without interrupting any road traffic,” reads a memo by Eagle Eye Contracting. “Next we would use the mini-excavator to construct paths throughout the property to safely be able to walk/travel around the job site.” Then, laborers would load a small trailer towed by an ATV, which would be periodically emptied in the dumpster, working systematically around the property. 

 “We would be able to keep our dumpsters and equipment off the street at the end of every work day as well,” the memo reads. 

 The contractor would periodically send scrap metal to a recycler, with the proceeds from the metal being credited back to the town. There will be an effort to minimize the clearing of natural vegetation on the site, and any items deemed hazardous, like mattresses, tires, televisions or items containing freon, would be neatly stacked on site and a separate bid would be provided for their removal.

 Eagle Eye was one of six contractors that attended a site visit before submitting bids, which were scrutinized by a review committee before Town Manager Jill Goldsmith signed a contract.

 Speaking to the board of health on Sept. 8, Berman said that McGrath had made some headway in cleaning the property up several months ago, “but it’s very difficult to quantify the progress.” Berman said his best estimate is that less than 20 percent of the waste had been removed. “There’s just a lot of material out there,” he said. In fact, because some of the waste is likely buried, the actual amount won’t likely be known until the cleanup is well underway. 

 Since around 2016, town officials have been trying to compel McGrath to clean up what they have classified as an illegal junkyard on the property. Three years ago, town officials hired a contractor to clean debris that lined the edge of Mill Hill Road within the town-owned road layout and installed a guardrail to try and contain the refuse. 

On Feb. 4, Barnstable Superior Court Justice Thomas Perrino issued a final judgment in the case, ordering McGrath to rectify all violations of the state building code, the town's zoning bylaw, the state fire code, the state sanitary code and the town and state wetlands regulations. Because town officials have determined that McGrath hasn’t finished the job, they have court authority to clean the property up and keep it in a clean condition.

 McGrath has been consistently defiant with town officials, arguing that he is partially physically disabled and relies on the income of salvaging items on his property. He has said he is the target of persecution by the town and by neighbors.

 Town officials strongly encouraged contractors bidding on the clean-up job to hire a police officer to be on scene “for traffic control (regarding any dumpsters), and to prevent any breaches of the peace.” The cost of the police detail would be covered by the lien.