Above: Firefighters respond to a gas spill at Custom Automotive and Marine last December (photo courtesy of the Southborough Fire Department)
The owner of Custom Automotive and Marine on Route 85 at Woodland Road has been given one final chance to make things right.
Fire Chief John Mauro Jr. told the Board of Selectmen at a public hearing last night that the station has a 10-year history of non-compliance, including a significant gasoline spill last December. Representatives of station owner Louis Aswad said they recently hired a new operator and intend to get in compliance with town regulations.
In the end, the selectmen voted unanimously to give the station owner one more chance to set things straight.
“We’re trying to work with you, but you’ve got a 10-year history that does not look good,” Selectman Bill Boland told the owners of Custom Automotive and Marine last night. “If at any time in the next year we meet again to talk about non-compliance then it’s my intention that we revoke your underground storage tank permit.”
You can read the full story in the Metrowest Daily News.
This article in the MWDN really got my attention today.
Ok, so maybe I am missing something but, I don’t get how this is even
an issue and merits a “yes, you can continue to do business” from the BOS. We are talking about a service station ……”that has two sets of gas pumps and two 6,000 gallon tanks buried”. Now, put that together with documents brought by the Fire Chief himself, which includes 10 years of ignored comliance forms, and to me…that adds up to a giant “NO, you are denied”. The service station has been identified by the
Fire Chief as having a lengthy history of breaking fire safety codes (per MWDN).
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
What’s to debate here? How will the BOS look residents in the eye when they have to explain away a mishap, (God forbid), should it happen. The stations lawyer had several excuses………..what do the excuses matter? You have VIOLATED FIRE SAFETY CODES, my friend, and apparently for over a period of 10 YEARS!
OK, soooo…….BOS won’t authorize the cutting down of a tree (at no cost to the town) to permit a residents child to wait for their school bus without worrying about safety yet, they are going to give this station yet another chance after 10 years of non-compliance?
Where is the good sense here? I just don’t get it…..really.
Thanks Pat. Glad that I’m not the only one who sees the problems here.