FARMINGTON — After two failed attempts to serve eviction notices to five residents at 103 Bridge St., selectmen unanimously decided Tuesday to take building owner Joel Batzell to court to comply with fire and building codes.

  Batzell has maintained that his home, which he calls Thought Bridge, is used for a ministry to house people no one else will take in. He said he is not a landlord and residents are not tenants.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal issued citations to
Batzell to correct issues related to fire safety and structural
integrity. Representatives from that office and Farmington Fire
Chief Terry Bell came to the board’s December meeting with their concerns
for the occupants’ safety. Police found one person heating her room with a kitchen stove.
The woman complained to Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser last month that Batzell threatened to
shut off her power and heat, he said.

   On Dec. 22, selectmen ordered that no one but the owner could stay at the house until it met fire and building codes.

 Soon after, an officer from Franklin County Sheriff’s Department served eviction orders to three of the residents, returned to his car for papers and went back to the house to find he was locked out, Kaiser told the board Tuesday. A second officer went to the house Jan. 6 to serve the other two residents and was not allowed inside, he said.

Kaiser said as far as he knows, no recent improvements have been made.

“We’ve done the best we can and are doing our level best. We keep trying,” he said. Although the town can’t be sure what the court will order, it will be “money well spent,” Kaiser advised.

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