By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BURRILLVILLE — Town Councilman Kevin M. Blais and his girlfriend Linda Green were found in contempt of court Friday and ordered to pay $2,900 in sanctions and another $2,000 in attorney’s fees incurred by the town to take Blais to court.

Judge Joel Silverstein, in a bench ruling Friday, also issued a stern warning that if Blais and Green continue to ignore a March 7 Superior Court order to remove machinery and other heavy equipment from their property on Tarkiln Road, he will consider a court order for incarceration.
“At this point they’ve got two strikes against them. One more strike and they are out — or in, as the case may be,” said Burrillville Assistant Town Solicitor Patrick J. Dougherty.
Dougherty filed the motion to hold Blais and Green in contempt of court on Aug. 29. The case was heard Tuesday by Silverstein, who issued his verbal ruling Friday morning.
Dougherty had argued that Blais and Green had “offending vehicles, equipment and machinery” stored on the property since at least Aug. 1, despite the court order to remove the equipment back in March.
At that time, Silverstein upheld the town’s argument that Blais’ storage of machinery and other heavy equipment at his home is a violation of town zoning ordinances. The ruling followed a nearly two-year zoning dispute between the town and Blais.
The town filed the court complaint against Blais and Green in the summer of 2006, saying Blais’ use of the property was a violation of the town’s zoning ordinance and that he was essentially operating his business on the premises.
Green is the owner of the property, which is the couple’s primary residence. Specifically, the town objected to Blais’ storage of bulldozers, snow plows and other machinery on the property and issued him a notice of violation in August of that year. Blais and Green challenged the violation, saying their use of the property was in compliance with town zoning ordinances.
The town filed a motion in Superior Court for a preliminary injunction to prohibit Blais and Green from storing the equipment on the property. That motion was approved by Silverstein in a bench decision handed down on March 7.
However, town officials said Blais failed to comply with that order, which forced the town to file the first motion for contempt on March 28.
At a hearing on April 18, the case was continued and Blais was given until April 21 to remove the equipment. When the hearing resumed on May 13, Blais was also ordered to pay $959 in costs and fees incurred by the town when it filed the contempt motion.
Four months later, Dougherty says, many of the vehicles and equipment remain on the property and that Blais continues to show a “flagrant disregard” of the authority of the court.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Dougherty asked the court to impose a sanction of $500 per day that Blais and Green have been proven to be in contempt of the court order and for each day the defendants fail to completely remove the equipment.
Instead, Silverstein imposed a fine of $100 a day for the 29 days it was determined the equipment was on the property in contempt of the order.
“It’s a sad and awkward situation,” said Dougherty. “Here I am an attorney for the town involved in a court case involving a town councilman.
“This should have been a simple case concerning a zoning violation, but it turned into this silly thing. Mr. Blais is playing some kind of sick game. I don’t know what it is and I don’t get it. His antics at council meetings and with this zoning case really have me perplexed.”
According to Dougherty, the cost to the town to litigate the case is in excess of $10,000.
“Hopefully, we can put this situation behind us because it’s wearing down the town,” he said.
Neither Blais nor Green are commenting on the case.
The dispute first began after a neighbor complained to the town that Blais, a landscaper, was storing machinery and other equipment and was conducting business operations on the property, which is in a so-called F-5 farming/residential zoning district.
The equipment allegedly stored on the property included a bulldozer, skidder, excavator, sander, snowplow, hydro-seeder, asphalt powerbox, conveyor screener, asphalt roller, power rake and backhoe.
Blais is the owner of Performance Engineering, which is an unincorporated business engaged in “landscape construction.”
Both the Yellow Pages and the Internet listings for Performance Engineering identify the Tarkiln Road sites as its business address. In conjunction with the landscaping construction Blais does for Performance Engineering, the company also maintains snow removal contracts with the City of Providence School Department and has performed excavation services in connection with swimming pool installations.
Shortly after the complaint was filed, Building Official Joseph Raymond went to the property on Aug. 10, 2006, and issued a notice of violation to Blais, who at the time was a candidate for Town Council (he was elected to the council in the fall of that year).
Blais and Green, who were given 14 days to remove the equipment from the property, challenged the cease-and-desist order, arguing their use of the property was in conformance with the ordinance and was purely agricultural in nature.
But the court determined otherwise.
During arguments before Judge Silverstein in March, Dougherty argued that Blais and Green’s use of their property as storage for industrial equipment was well beyond the bounds of the purposes for which an F-5 property may be used.
According to town zoning ordinances, an F-5 property is intended to “preserve the town’s rural heritage and landscape by providing large, broad lots on which the raising of animals and crops may be done with minimal impact on neighboring properties.” The ordinance specifically prohibits the open lot storage of new building material and machinery.
Dougherty says police detectives noticed that the vehicles and equipment were still on the property last month when detectives went to Blais’ home on Aug. 1. Blais called police to his home that day after he found a bag of crack cocaine in a 2004 Crown Victoria police cruiser he bought at an online auction from the Hartford, Conn., Public Works Department.
Raymond and other town officials also noticed the equipment while visiting other properties in the area, he said.