Temple Select Board members agreed to postpone signing a settlement regarding pending litigation until next week, following requests from abutters to probe for further avenues of legal action.

The litigation concerns a piece of property in Temple owned by John Jackson-Marsh and Alan Marsh, who also own a collection of historical construction equipment and house it on the property. In 2018, following complaints from abutters who called the collection a “junkyard” that violated town ordinances, the town served notices of violation and eventually filed a lawsuit in July of 2019. The Marshes also tried to file for special exceptions with the town Zoning Board of Adjustment, which were denied.

After months of mediation, the Select Board announced in February that a settlement had been drawn up, and that they would be signing it.

“All of a sudden they whip this thing out and move it forward,” said John Kieley prior to Tuesday’s meeting. He is one of the abutters to the Marsh property.

Following the announcement of the settlement in February, Kieley and other abutters convinced the Select Board to rescind their vote to accept the settlement and explore other options, at which point Select Board Chair Bill Ezell said the litigation process became more complex.

“It’s gotten fairly heated,” Ezell said at Tuesday’s Select Board meeting.

At the meeting, board members and abutters discussed options for moving forward. Ezell said the board had no choice but to sign the settlement in order to keep the case moving, and that the town had obtained that information on the advice of multiple lawyers.

“We’re not going to go against three different lawyers,” he said.

Despite not having room for legal recourse at this point, Ezell added the judge on the case has the option to view the settlement and decide to send it back to mediation.

Ezell and other board members also said that with how the case has played out, it would be advantageous for the judge to see the town cooperating, as the Marshes lawyer has filed a motion to compel the town to sign and the town only has 10 days to comply.

“It would look a lot better if we had signed this agreement before it gets to the compel being reviewed by the judge,” Ezell said.

Despite these reservations, the board agreed to have Kieley direct the counsel retained by the abutters to confer with the town’s legal team.

“If he can convince them in any way that maybe we should consider this, then we will,” Ezell said. “If you can get that done, then we can get something done.”

Specifically, Kieley said he wants to try to redraft the settlement to fill gaps he said he has found — that the town will not be allowed to perform inspections for leaks in the equipment, that there are no restrictions on the amount of machinery allowed and that it allows for expansion of the collection to four acres.

“The agreement is so ill-conceived,” Kieley said prior to the meeting.

Ezell said the board was not pleased with the settlement, either.

“We are not happy with this agreement,” he said. “None of us really do like it.”

The concern over leaks is shared by the town’s Conservation Commission, according to Chair Scott Hecker.

“The reason the Conservation Commission is interested in this area of old machinery and whatnot is because it is at the top of a hill,” Hecker said prior to Tuesday’s meeting. The hill, he added, is surrounded on three sides by an aquifer, and if the machinery still has fluids or is leaking fluids, which is an unknown factor due to lack of inspections, then oil, hydraulic fluid or diesel could get into these water sources.

“One way or another, it may get in there,” said Hecker. “This type of machinery has chemicals and things that we do not want in our drinking water.”

And the problem would not be limited to Temple, he added, as streams in the area feed into the Temple Brook, which eventually feeds into the Souhegan River. All told, leaks could affect several surrounding towns, including Wilton and New Ipswich, he said.

“Is this what we want in Temple?” Kieley said at the meeting.

The board will hold a special meeting Wednesday, April 20, to give updates and conclude the necessary business in the case at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.