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Wells officials identify deed and tax‑map conflict blocking access to sanitary district pump station
Summary
At a select‑board workshop, town staff and the Wells Sanitary District presented survey and deed evidence that a parcel shown on the assessor map falls inside the town right‑of‑way; board agreed to notify the purported owners, remove private parking signs, and pursue physical measures to secure access to a generator serving the pump station.
The Wells Select Board on Nov. 18 heard that conflicting surveys and a quitclaim deed have left a sliver of land at the Webb Hannah Drive pump station listed on the tax map as privately owned — even though deed descriptions and historic surveys place the parcel in the town right‑of‑way. Town counsel and sanitary‑district representatives warned that restricted access has created recurring operational and public‑safety risks for the pump station and its emergency generator.
Town staff said the issue first surfaced when the Wells Sanitary District submitted a 2023 site plan to install an emergency generator adjacent to the pump station. The generator and its boundary plan were approved and built, but staff found a mismatch between the boundary survey that accompanied the site plan and the assessor’s map. A second survey, prepared by Donald Colon and reviewed by staff, agreed with the site‑plan survey and with the deed’s metes‑and‑bounds language, which — according to staff — appears to place the parcel in the town right‑of‑way.
Leah, the town attorney, told the board that the quitclaim deed involved in the earlier transaction conveys only what the grantor actually owned; if the sanitary district did not hold property rights to that strip, the deed did not expand rights beyond what existed. The town’s assessor appears to have assigned the parcel to a separate map‑and‑lot and placed it outside the right‑of‑way, and successive property owners have used the area for exclusive parking and posted signs claiming private parking rights.
Sanitary‑district representatives described past incidents — including a basketball hoop and routine overnight parking — that have interfered with operations and said that high tides and storm flooding have periodically inundated the parking area. They warned that if staff cannot reach the generator during an outage, system backups would jeopardize service for large portions of the sewer network that depend on the pump station.
Board members and staff discussed short‑term remedies (removing private‑parking signs, placing boulders or barriers, or extending the district’s chain‑link fence and gate while leaving an offset for plow and emergency access) and longer‑term options such as drainage improvements around the pump station. Staff and the sanitary district agreed to draft a joint letter to notify the property owners of the town’s interpretation of the deeds and surveys, and to report back with recommended physical measures and costs.
The board directed staff to start outreach to the purported owners, remove obsolete private‑parking postings in the public right‑of‑way, and coordinate with public works to design access‑protecting measures that keep the generator reachable by vehicles and equipment.
