NORWICH — Sweetland Farm’s owners are seeking town approval to grade and fill an approximately 400-foot stretch of slope on the east side of Route 132 by the intersection of Union Village Road in hopes that a more gradual hill from the road into their hay field will make the shoulder easier and safer to mow and maintain.

But Norwich Department of Public Works Director Chris Kaufman denied the project a few weeks ago. Though the farm’s owners — Norah Lake and Chris Polashensk — have now turned to the Selectboard, the board is uncertain whether it has authority to grant the necessary permit. As a result, the project is in limbo.

The couple believes that they are being treated unfairly by Kaufman, stating multiple times in a letter provided to the Selectboard ahead of its Wednesday meeting that the town has approved similar projects and that they did not face these issues with previous DPW directors Andy Hodgdon and Larry Wiggins. The couple also reached out to DPW directors from two neighboring towns who told them the project would be permitted in their towns and would not require engineering input.

“We are increasingly concerned that Mr. Kaufman has some type of vendetta against us and is using and will continue to use the discretion of his position to obstruct anything of benefit to us,” wrote Lake and Polashensk.

Kaufman, who has helmed the town’s department since January 2022, did not respond to requests for comment.

In the letter to the Selectboard, Lake and Polashensk said Kaufman denied the project because non-DPW construction work can cause liability and safety concerns, the project could inhibit the town’s ability to maintain the road, and that the work would require engineering input that the town does not have the time and money to take on at this time.

Lake and Polashensk plan to fund the project themselves and did not ask the town to pay for the work.

They said in their letter that in a meeting with Kaufman and Town Manager Brennan Duffy they countered the denial by stating that the work will make the shoulder safer for drivers and that their Thetford-based contractor Keith Wolstenholme is insured.

However, the couple stated they did “not feel (Kaufman) was engaged in a manner seeking to find a positive outcome,” and the two parties were unable to come to an agreement.

Duffy did not respond to requests for comment.

This is not the first time the Sweetland Farm owners have clashed with Kaufman. According to the couple, when the town installed water bars — devices often made out of planks of wood used divert runoff into vegetated areas — that damaged their orchard, their request to move the bars 10 feet was “curtly declined.”

Next, they said the farm’s hay mower was totaled after it hit a stone which had been knocked into their field by town grader operators. The DPW refused to help with the $18,000 cost of replacing the mower.

Most recently the couple’s mailbox, marked tree and livestock gate were all destroyed by roadside mowing in a single day, they said. When they reported this to the town, they said Kaufman told them to “be aware that any fence, tree, gate, etc. that is placed in the Town ROW may be subject to being impacted by current or future work.”

“Though we do not know what we’ve done to create an unproductive relationship, the pattern of damages and adversarial responses makes us feel that we are receiving treatment that is, at a minimum, not in keeping with what we expect from someone in public service, and possibly represents intentional and/or capricious harm,” wrote the couple.

The Selectboard hesitated to make a decision on the permit at Wednesday’s meeting.

“I don’t think this is in our scope of work,” Selectboard member Marcia Calloway said in a video recording of the meeting.

The board ultimately decided it will seek legal counsel to find out who within town government has jurisdiction to grant the permit and to put the request on the agenda for the next meeting, which will be Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room at Tracy Hall or via Zoom.

Vice Chairwoman Mary Layton expressed concerns in overriding Kaufman’s decision.

“I think we’re seeing one side of it,” she said. “I think the correspondence reflects that there was conversation with our public works head and there may be considerations that we don’t know about.”

The couple did not mention the purported feud until the very end of Wednesday’s discussion.

“We feel this is a vendetta with the DPW director,” said Polashensk. “He is treating us unfairly and we’re asking you as our elected officials to deal with that.”

As they await the board’s decision, Lake said, “We’re working hard to make this a viable and local farm, and we’re just going to keep doing our best to do that.”

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@ vnews.com or 603-727-3242.

 CORRECTION: Sweetland Farm owners are seeking Norwi    ch officials’ permission to grade and fill an approximately 400-foot section of their road frontage on Route 132. A previous version of this story included an incorrect length for the section of road frontage at issue.