By K.B. Sherman, Community Reporter
Grafton – At the beginning of their regularly scheduled meeting June 2 the Grafton Board of Selectmen, elected Craig Dauphinais as chair for the next year, Jennifer Thomas as vice-chair and Bruce Spinney as clerk.
The board next opened a follow-up meeting on a dog complaint from last year. The dog issue is officially one between the Wood family, 21 Institute Rd. and the Black family, 23 Institute Rd. Many phone calls from both families have been received by the town administrator and the selectmen chose to have them attend the June 2 meeting to discuss further.
Tracy Wood chose to speak first. She said she did not bring in any other neighbors because there are, she claimed, so many people who are joint complainants that she “didn’t want to make this a three-hour hearing.”
Wood claimed that the 2014 stipulation that the Blacks’ mixed-breed dogs were required to be on a runner at all times when outside had not been obeyed, even with allowance for the past winter’s record amount of snow. In fact, she claimed, she had sent to the town administrator a video showing that the runner had been taken down and the dogs running loose. Selectmen last year required the owners of the dogs to install a five-foot-high fence fully enclosing the yard, install a run to keep the dogs secure within the yard, and only take the dogs outside when on a leash.
Wood claimed that on April 16 the “very large dogs” dogs tried to jump the fence into her yard, where she had eight small children who attend the daycare she runs. The Blacks have, she claimed, installed a low chicken wire fence around their yard that is inadequate in keeping the dogs in their yard. Since her complaint to the town at that time, the runner had been replaced but little used, she claimed. In an effort to ensure safety, she is having a seven-foot high fence installed around her yard at the price of $7,000. However, she added, this situation needs to be resolved by the town.
“All we are asking is to make everyone safe,” said Wood. “And yet we are back here again.”
Rosalind Black spoke next, saying that her neighbor scared her by keeping her family and yard under video surveillance and by speaking against her, an issue fueled, she said, by other unresolved problems with Black’s neighbors. She claimed that prior to this issue being raised, she had had her dogs visiting the daycare and meeting the children, all with no problems.
“I don’t trust her or the neighbors,” she said. “They’re out there videotaping my kids! Who would trust them? My husband is a veteran of two wars and he’s afraid to go out into his yard now!”
She further explained that as an Army veteran herself, she takes freedom very seriously.
Michael Black then added that neither “Bentley” nor “Bella” bark very often, and not in the yard. Further, he claimed, the dogs had never left the property unattended and that falling branches during the winter had brought-down the run, so it was moved to the other side of the house.
“We are sick of the dog officer coming over constantly to check that we are restraining the dogs properly,” he added. He sees the videotaping of his family as harassment.
Selectman Dennis Flynn than asked what each family wanted as a conclusion to this situation. The Blacks asked that the dogs be allowed to roam strictly within their yard. The Woods replied that this was acceptable only if the dogs were also accompanied at all times while in their yard; otherwise, the dogs must be on their run.
Dog Officer Gene Ploss next spoke briefly, reiterating the past year’s events regarding this situation and agreeing that he has never seen the dogs running free and that the Blacks have always been cooperative. He suggested that the dogs have to wear their electronic collars while in the yard.
Selectman Dennis Flynn then moved that, as an amendment to the 2014 agreement, the dogs be allowed to roam the yard as long as they are being directly supervised and that they do not leave the yard unaccompanied. The board approved the motion 4-1, with Selectwoman Thomas dissenting.
