HARTFORD — Code Enforcement Officer Bill Kennedy gave selectmen an update last week about an unpermitted junkyard, which included sending a letter which contained operating standards.

The property is off Town Farm Road and has roughly 40 vehicles, including school buses. The letter is addressed to Rodney Harlow.

“It looks like to me you are being more than helpful,” Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Lee Holman told Kennedy as she read his and Harlow’s letters at the Feb. 4 meeting. “It says he’s not applying for a junkyard permit.”

Kennedy told selectmen that Town Clerk Lianne Bedard read Harlow’s letter to him over the phone.

“It sounded to me like he wanted to pass himself off as a hobbyist,” Kennedy said. “If I were you, I would require him to be a little more specific. The cars have been there for years and the price of junk is going down from a historic peak. If he was going to get rid of the cars, he should have gotten rid of them when the price was high. I question some of the things he said in the letter.”

“I don’t see anything that would suggest hobbyist to me,” Holman said. “You’ve got to either get in compliance as a junkyard or get rid of the cars. Isn’t that how it has to go?”

“I would think so,” Selectman Peg Poskus said.

Kennedy said his letter to Harlow that was to be sent this week contained junkyard operating standards, which require a concrete platform where fluids can be drained from the vehicles and not leak into the ground.

“Other people have had to jump through the same hoops,” Holman said. “I was in the same situation. I built a garage so I could work on cars and do stuff like that. It seems … it’s only fair that he should have to do something along that line.”

She said Harlow doesn’t necessarily have to have a roof over his head to work on cars, but at the very least should have the concrete platform, which will also give him a safe place to jack up the vehicles.

In other news, selectmen heard a report from Regional School Unit 10 Director Richard Dyer regarding the upcoming budget. He said Superintendent Craig King advised directors that the district could receive $139,000 less in state aid for 2016-17.

Selectmen were also advised by Dave Bowen to budget “$5,000 or so” to extend the Town Hall roof over the wheelchair ramp. It was originally brought up by Dyer, who is also the maintenance worker for the Town Hall, because historically, snow and ice slide off the roof onto the ramp. The next step is to obtain a design for the project before going out to bid, Holman said.

Also for the Town Hall, Holman directed Dyer to confirm former Hartford resident and electrician Dan Westcott’s estimate of $100 to purchase and install a motion sensor light for the outside of the building. Dyer accidentally smashed the light and replaced it with a flood light, not a motion sensor, he said.

The Pinpoint of Light Spiritualist Camp donated 39 padded chairs to the town. Selectmen said they would direct Bedard to send the camp a thank-you note.

Holman also wanted to investigate obtaining an inline water filter for the Town Hall. It was budgeted last year.

“We had the water tested. The water is … all in safe parameters,” Holman said.

She wanted the filter “so when you go to use the water at the Town Hall … it will take some of the mineral flavor out.”

Dyer said he would research the filter.

[email protected]