No decision yet for Frontier driveway issue

[ Originally published on: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 ]

The pending sale of the former Deerfield's Yellow Gabled Bed and Breakfast is still pending.

The property, located at 111 North Main St. in South Deerfield shares a common driveway with Frontier Regional High School that connects to the main road.

Lawyer William Metzger spoke in front of the Frontier Regional School Committee during its meeting Tuesday night in Conway to ask that the committee provide a written acknowledgment that would expressly spell out the unwritten agreement that had been in place for decades regarding use of the driveway.

According to Metzger, there is currently no such document.

The sale of the house cannot proceed until that written acknowledgment is secured, Metzger said.

''We are asking for nothing that is not already in place,'' Metzger said.

Metzger said that if the committee could not provide such an acknowledgment then he and the family of the previous owner, Edna Stahelek, would be forced into one of two unpleasant options.

One would be to construct a driveway that exited directly onto North Main Street, which would require disturbing an environmentally sensitive area where construction is discouraged.

The other option would be to sue the school district to acknowledge the access.

Metzger stressed that that was something that he and the rest of the family doesn't want to do and would very much hate to be involved in.

 

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