City says inspection proves Roller Coaster Road property a junkyard

LACONIA — The city of Laconia is due back in court this week in an effort to get a judge to order a Roller Coaster Road resident to clean up a large assortment of derelict motor vehicles, boats, trailers, and pieces of farm machinery which the city argues is a junkyard.

The hearing, scheduled for Friday in Belknap Superior Court, comes 11 days after city officials inspected the property of Robert Kjellander, at the corner of Roller Coaster and Parade roads.

“It is clear from the inspection that in fact there are two or more unregistered vehicles on the property, which constitutes a junkyard in violation of both state law and the city’s ordinances,” Laura Spector-Morgan, the city’s attorney wrote in her motion for another preliminary hearing on the matter.

In court filings, Kjellander has stated that all the antique cars on his property, at 501 Roller Coaster Road, are registered.

But the on-site inspection on Aug. 12, conducted by Laconia City Planning Director Dean Trefethen and Assistant Planning Director Rob Mora, found that 17 of the 21 cars and trucks on the property were unregistered.

The two-page, single-spaced inspection report lists 64 items on the property, many of them overgrown by bushes and trees, so thick in some places that Trefethen and Mora were unable to get a close look at them.

In addition to the unregistered cars and trucks, the report also lists seven unregistered motorcycles, and 12 unregistered trailers. The report also shows 12 boats are stored on the property.

Most of the vehicles have flat tires and are thought to be non-roadworthy, according to the report.

Under state law, any vehicle that is no longer intended for operation on a highway is considered junk, and so can be stored outside only in a licensed junkyard. In the case of accumulated machinery, if it is stored in an area exposed to public view greater than 500 square feet, then that too requires a junkyard license, according to a posting on the New Hampshire Municipal Association website.

The city and Kjellander were last in court on Aug. 9, when Kjellander agreed to let city officials come onto his property to conduct an inspection.

At Friday’s court hearing the city will ask the court to order Kjellander to remove the vehicles and other material from his property. In addition, the city is seeking to have the judge impose a $275-a-day fine, retroactive to July 18, 2018, which, if imposed, would amount to $112,200 as of this Friday.