After years of work cleaning up a piece of property in Francestown that has been in the Philbrick family for generations, there is still a lot of work to be completed.
Heidi Philbrick, who calls herself the manager of the property, told select board members during a recent meeting that there are still heaping piles of steel and metal, two buses — one yellow, and one green — dozens of tires, engines, rims, bikes, and wagons, to name just a smattering of items strewn across the 125 Pleasant Pond Road parcel.
“I don’t have much to say other than clean up is moving forward, but it’s going to take awhile,” Clayton O. Philbrick IV, owner of the property, said during the meeting.
Philbrick’s grandfather started collecting material during the Great Depression and the stuff piled up until his father passed away a couple of years ago, and all of the material was passed down.
Francestown select board members renewed the junkyard permit for another year during its meeting. Town Administrator Jamie Pike said it’s the only junkyard permit in town. He said no other applications were submitted this year, and said he isn’t aware of any others being denied during his nearly year-and-a-half tenure at the town.
Junkyard licenses expire on March 31 of each year in Francestown, and cost the applicant $25 to complete.
Gail Cromwell, a Temple select board member, said it too, recently approved a junkyard permit for a Douglas Guy, who runs DRG Autobody and Painting located at 14 Leighton Lane in Temple.
“It’s been a junkyard for years,” Cromwell said of the property.
She said the state has strict guidelines that town officials need to follow while issuing permits for existing facilities, new facilities, and car dealerships. In addition to being an eye sore, she said, junkyards can also pose environmental/ health/ safety issues if chemicals or liquids leach into the land or air.
She said town officials did tour the property before issuing the permit, although she wasn’t there.
Cromwell said the town charges $250 for junkyard license applications, which is the maximum allowed by the state.
Heidi told Francestown officials that she has been working hard for several years to clean up the property.
“I’ve been working my tail off for the past three years now, but it’s crazy, it’s insane,” she said of how much work still needs to be done.
In a barn, located on the property, there are about 30 bales of clothing that are four feet in size and weigh 75 to 100 pounds each, she said. The clothes date back to the 1950s and 60s. There’s even a baler in the barn that was used to block all the items together.
“People need to understand that this is not Clayton’s doing, this is 44 years of abuse, torment, and disrespect to this beautiful piece of property and it is appalling to see what I’ve come across to see what has happened to this land,” Heidi said. “It will take a great deal of love and care, but with patience and the town’s cooperation, we will do it.”
Ellen Adams, who lives across the street from the Philbricks, said the stuff strewn across her neighbors property doesn’t bother her.
“We’ve kept a pretty good buffer of trees between ourselves and the road,” Adams said, who has lived on Pleasant Pond Road since 1987. “… We don’t see it.”
Adams said the new owners have made a concerted effort to decrease the amount of junk in the yard, and she has walked down the street over time and has watched the piles shrink. She said she hears trucks coming-and-going, and doesn’t ever see any new stuff coming in.
She said the junkyard has been that way since she moved in, but has never been worried about the junkyard’s effect on her own property values. Adams said property values are low throughout town anyway because Francestown is so far removed. As an example, she says she drives 45 minutes to buy groceries in Bedford.
“That’s the least of my worries,” she said about the junkyard. “Maybe if I lived in Peterborough, had access to amenities, and was looking to sell, I’d be more concerned.”
A big hurdle, Heidi said, is coming up with ways to dispose of the stuff on their property.
She said the piles of metal could be worth something, but that it would require some capital to haul it away, extra money they don’t have. She said second-hand stores like the Salvation Army aren’t interested in the bales of clothing because it’s so outdated. There are some valuable antiques on the property, but the issue is linking them to interested parties. She said a lot of the stuff can’t be disposed of at the transfer station because it would be too much for it to process.
“If you have any ideas of what to do with some of this stuff, we’re open to suggestions,” Heidi said during the meeting.
Pike said there was a company in the state that repurposes old clothing to make insulation. A few other ideas were tossed out during the meeting, but town officials said they would have to do some research into other possibilities and would notify them if they found anything worth note.
Heidi asked select board members how much stuff they would have to remove before they could stop filing for a junkyard permit. Select board member Abigail Arnold said the board didn’t have an answer to the question, although she said they could set up a time to tour the property and further discuss the matter.
“I want a yard, I want grass. I want a swing set. I don’t want to live at a town dump. If that were the case I’d move down the street to Todd Road,” Heidi said.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.