— by Eric Francis
HARTFORD 12/2/22 - A ramshackle recreational vehicle that had been the focus of much ire around the town of Hartford in recent months was towed Thursday afternoon from the Wilder Park & Ride lot following a brief confrontation with its occupants.
The mottled, tan-ish colored RV became a familiar sight as it moved around town to locations ranging from the Hartford Town Hall parking lot in September to a pull-out at the top of Hurricane Hill, a dead-end next to the Aquatic Center, the parking lots of the Wilder Dam, the Co-op, the VFW, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church by the Haven and finally, for the past two or three weeks, alongside the northern most edge of the Wilder Park & Ride—next to a steeply wooded drainage swale that angry neighbors said was turned into something of a dog run/latrine for the occupants of the vehicle.
Police, firefighters, and other Hartford town officials were present Thursday afternoon when the controversial RV was finally towed out of town after more than three months of a cat-and-mouse game with authorities. Eric Francis photo.
“This has been going on for quite some time, moving from parking lot to parking lot within the town,” acting Hartford Police Chief Connie Kelley explained Thursday.
Referring to the 50-year-old former Windsor resident who owns the big 1989 Fleetwood Southwind motorhome, Kelley said, “He was given notice that this was going to be towed. He was given an opportunity to remove his property and he failed to do so. He even got an extra day and he still failed to do so, and so here we are, towing it.”
When police and town highway workers showed up along with a private tow truck company that had been contracted by the town of Hartford to remove the large vehicle, one of the occupants allegedly made comments to the effect that they were prepared to douse the inside of the camper with gasoline and set it alight rather than have it towed.
That threat prompted even more Hartford police officers to arrive, along with a firetruck and an ambulance that stood by as police, at least one of whom had a “less-than-lethal” 40mm foam projectile launcher slung across his chest, kept a close watch on a pair of men as they retrieved small items from the camper and put them into a nearby car before eventually driving off.
Hartford town works crews picked up trash and debris that was scattered on all sides of the big RV in the Wilder Park & Ride beside Hartford Avenue. Eric Francis photo.
Asked about the reported threat to soak the camper in gas, acting chief Kelley said, “It does not appear that took place,” before adding, “We didn’t facilitate this tow. We are just here to maintain the peace.”
Acting Assistant Town Manager Paula Nulty, who was also in the small crowd of town employees at the Park & Ride Thursday, said the town made the decision to tow the RV after the owner, who was at times in the past three months the source of near-daily complaints to the police department, had been given “multiple chances, multiple requests, and attempts at outreach by all kinds of agencies and the town.”
“The Hartford Police have been doing a really nice job with this situation and this was a great de-escalation by the police today, (but) this is just sort of an abuse of the property,” Nulty said. “This was upsetting to the neighbors. They were objecting to the animals (at least two dogs were also staying in the RV), the behavior of the occupants, the refuse and debris, the toileting, and the hazardous gas tanks being kept outside.”
“The schools are close, kids and people are walking by, it’s curtailing the use of the Park & Ride and, although I didn’t see it myself, there were reports of other people around (hanging out). We can’t have this,” Nulty said.
Tow truck operators said they had also dealt with the same Southwind motorhome back in the summer in Windsor and at the Park & Ride facilities at Exit 8 and Exit 9 before it moved up to Hartford.
Nulty said that the tan RV, which was towed Thursday to an impound facility in Ascutney, had been closely linked to another, smaller, white RV earlier this fall as both vehicles travelled around from point to point in Hartford and briefly set up camp in West Lebanon for about a week.
“I’m not as aware of that other one but it may be moving around, it may be on private property,” Nulty said, noting, “It hasn’t caused so much distress, at this point, as this one.”
The pair of RVs were parked for nearly a week in the parking lot of the Hartford Town Hall in late September when the engine of the smaller white vehicle briefly caught fire as it tried to drive out the Maple Street entrance. Afterwards Hartford firefighters and police officers helped push the RV out of the street and back up into the lot for the night.
Correction note: The original version of this story has been changed to reflect that Acting Chief Connie Kelley goes by her married name, not by Connie Gagnon, and that Paula Nulty is acting assistant town manager.