Road Report

I am taking parts of a complaint letter I wrote to my Town Selectmen and Town Police about an incident that occurred at 3:20 pm on Thursday, June 22, 2017 on my driveway. I was in my car driving down my driveway to drive down the road to my mailbox. The end of my driveway was blocked by the Road Agent in a construction truck. I waited on my driveway. The Road Agent started backing his truck back from my driveway and waved me to drive on and so I did. I passed one other town construction truck on the road, but made it to my mailbox will no difficulty.

When I was driving back up the town road there were now 4 town construction trucks on the left-hand side of the road. I pulled over to the right-hand side of the road as much as I could and waited. The first two construction trucks moved past me with no difficulty. I then pulled-forward towards the third vehicle to see if there was enough room to pass. I raised both my hands to indicate to the truck’s driver whether I could go or not and got no response. I looked again and saw there was now more than enough room for both me and the two other trucks to pass by without difficulty. I proceeded to drive past the trucks and made it to the top of my driveway with no issues. When I was parking my Jeep I saw a town truck (I later saw was the Town Road Agent) backing-up past my driveway and then driving forward into my driveway. I got out of my Jeep and the Road Agent got out of his truck. The first thing out of his mouth was “What the f##k are you doing? Are you some kind of Retard?” I asked him what he meant and he said I should have waited – he continued to use explicit, swear words throughout the incident – which I won’t continue repeating in this letter. I even asked him two times to stop swearing at me which he refused.

I asked him why we couldn’t receive any form of advanced notification that the one and only way in/out of our mountain would be closed for maintenance and he replied that it wasn’t his job to do so and that if we wanted that notice then the town would need to hire more people. I accepted that response, but then he went on to talk about how if I didn’t f###king like it they wouldn’t plow or fix the road and I wouldn’t be able to use it (again with much more descriptive and verbally threatening language.) I asked him a second time to stop swearing and if he wouldn’t that he could leave my property. He continued swearing and so I told him to “Get off my f##king driveway.” He continued talking about how he was the best road agent in the state and that anyone would tell you so. He said he even “fixed” the end of my driveway for me  - to which I replied the work they did at the bottom of my driveway only made a small situation worse by creating a deeper and wider ditch that the UPS truck got stuck in and I had to have several neighbors help with getting him out. He continued swearing  (saying he would talk to my neighbor about that) and it was clear he wasn’t going to change his attitude and possibly become more verbally threatening so I told him for a third time to get off my property and that I was going to file an official complaint on him with the town. He said some more swear words as he got into his truck and backed-out of my driveway.

Right after the incident I called the Town Clerk’s Office and got no answer so I called the Town Selectboard’s office. I told the woman there that I wasn’t sure whom I needed to contact about the verbal harassment and threats I had just received from the Town’s Road Agent. She told me to send a report via e-mail  (giving me their e-mail address) and said that no one from the Selectboard would read it until next week. She also stated that if I felt threatened that I should call the Town Police and gave me the number to call. I called that number and the person there said they would have an officer call me.

The officer called me a few minutes later and I told him what had happened. He said that no laws were broken and that it wasn’t considered harassment. I asked him what was considered harassment and he said 2 or more incidents with the same parties. I asked him if there could be an official note made about this so that it would be considered the first official harassment report. He said I could file I report and give it to them. I asked him for the Police’s e-mail address so I could send the report and he said it was better if I came and delivered it in person so they could ask me any addition questions. I told him that since the town doesn’t have a full-time police force (and mentioned that back on January 31, 2017 when I called the Town Police I was told by the dispatcher that no one was working that day and then had to wait over an hour for the State Police to come) that I would prefer to send an e-mail and if they had any questions they could then call me or I could then come see them – when I was sure they were in the office. Even when I spoke with the Selectboard’s office and the woman there said I could call the Town Police today if I wanted to and I asked her if they were there right then she said she looked out her office and saw their door closed meaning they were not. On top of that I wouldn’t try to drive down my road again today and have another threatening encounter with the Town Road Agent. In the end I did manage to get the Town Police’s e-mail from t officer who did repeat that he advised me to come in-person.

The main issue here is the unprofessional manner in which the Town Road Agent treated me. He made a conscious effort to drive half-way up the town road and on to my driveway just to create a threatening scene with numerous swear words and it took me three times telling him to get off my property for him to do so. It is clear that the Road Agent does not have any sort of filter on himself or respect for his position or the people of this town. If he had he would have treated the whole situation in a professional manner rather than the threatening, bullying manner in-which he did conduct himself. No one should have to be treated in such a way  - especially on their own property and definitely not by a Town official. I already sent the complaint e-mail to the Town Selectmen and the Town Police and will mail a regular letter when I am in town tomorrow. I don't think the Town will do anything about this - they never do - but at least there will be physical documentation about this if/when another incident occurs.