A yacht has been docked at a Johnston service station for years.
“Gas stations don’t have yachts,” said Tara Street homeowner Donna A. Ricci. “And gas stations don’t have Winnebagos.”
A Johnston gas station owner’s public hearing has been continued to a third month following neighborhood efforts to convince him to clean up his Hartford Avenue property.
Neighbors want the yacht removed from the business property at the corner of Tara Street and Hartford Avenue. The owner says he needs at least one more week.
Tara Street residents also wanted a beaten-up recreational vehicle (RV) moved from the property. Johnston Gas owner Joseph Nham complied with that request last week. Next month, for the third time, Town Council will continue a show-cause hearing in which Nham’s business license is at stake.
“He has removed some of the debris that was in the back of the yard, so in my estimation, this is an ongoing situation,” Johnston Building Official Ed Civito said during the first hearing on June 12. “I’m not going to remove all the violations at this juncture. We’re just going to monitor it. Stay on him. And periodically make sure he’s cleaning up. It’s housekeeping more than anything … If he structured all his cars and put them in line.”
The fire department needs clear access to the property, should an emergency erupt.
“Fire needs to be able to maneuver around that parking lot, in case there’s any kind of a fire or something like that,” Civito explained. “So I think some of the cars that can be removed should be removed.”
Nham says all the cars parked on his property are necessary for business. He injured his back and said big projects, like the yacht motor, have been put off indefinitely.
Town Council has made the removal of the RV and the yacht a sticking point during the last two months’ public hearings. They heard from a half-dozen town residents, all of whom asked the board to force the owner to clean up the 1209 Hartford Ave. business.
“I have done an inspection there recently, and he has started to clean up the property; the rear portion of the property,” Civito said in June. “Let there be no misunderstanding: this is a garage repair shop, gas station. It’s not Seasons Market that sells gas. It’s not Cumberland Farms that sells gas. It’s a garage repair shop. So at any given time, there will be many cars there. Some have plates on them. Some don’t. The ones that don’t have plates on it, they should be removed if they’re considered non-drivable and the owner has made indication that he’s going to start moving certain things.”
Civito also weighed in on the yacht storage on the property.
“As far as the boat and the RV, it is a business zone,” he explained. “In a lot of residential zones, there are storage of boats and RV’s ... In my estimation, if the RV isn’t used, it should be removed. If the boat isn’t being used, it should be removed. However, let’s not comingle aesthetics and a violation. Yes, are the aesthetics there a problem? Absolutely. I think everybody would agree about that … But … it’s a garage repair shop. So there could be 5 cars there, 10 cars there, 15 cars there at one time.”
“But if they’ve been there for a number of years, it’s a junkyard,” added Town Council President Robert V. Russo.
“Exactly, and that’s why we cited the change in use,” Civito replied. “Right at this point, the cars that cannot be driven, or considered … I can’t use the words ‘junk’ because I’m not an expert on … antique cars. Should the property be more maintained? Yes. And we’re monitoring that.”
Town Solicitor William J. Conley Jr. said notices have been sent to the business owners on record, Five Star Management Services LLC, Johnston Gas Inc., doing business as (dba) Johnston Gas, as far back as April 2021. Violation notices have informed the owners of issues spanning “several matters,” Conley explained, including change in existing use, sanitation, zoning regulations and maintenance at the property.
“Who has a gas station, in the state of Rhode Island … that has a yacht in it?” asked Ricci, who attended the last two monthly Town Council meetings and plans to return in August.
“It is an eyesore,” Ricci said, begging for help from town officials. “And I think all of you here see it. Just like we do. We live with it. I understand, on a state highway, it’s commercial, it’s business. Ok. But that’s not business. That’s been there … ”
“For 10 years plus,” interrupted her husband John, who was seated in the audience.
“Rest assured you will see us again,” Donna Ricci continues. “It has to be fixed. Somehow, it has to be. I don’t know what else to say.”
Nham made brief appearances at the June and July Town Council meetings. He’s angry with his neighbors’ complaints but he has vowed to clean up the site.
“I do auto repair,” he told Town Council. “If I have 50 cars come in I have to take them.”
Nham said he has been running his business along Hartford Avenue for 31 years.
“My main complaint is that the Johnston Gas Station, over the years, has been turning into a visual junkyard,” Ricci stood to say to start the June 12 hearing. “You enter our lovely manicured residential neighborhood and are presented with a pile of junk upon entering. You have a yacht, a Winnebago, trashy cars without plates and junk hanging around constantly. It decreases the value of our homes here and angers the neighbors when more items appear piled up over the time. And also a visual pollutant to observe daily when we all take pride in where we live, with the homes we own. I’ve been here for almost 55 years of my life.”
The Ricci’s own two houses on Tara Street. A real estate agent told them the gas station may adversely affect their property values if they decide to sell.
“It’s a mess,” Donna Ricci told Town Council. “It’s a mess all the time. It really does hurt us in a way that it’s mismanaged in this way. Joe has at times kind of cleaned up a little bit, but it’s still the same old … I just wish that something could be done about it for us; if we do decide to sell our home, I’d like to get the best that we can for it. We worked so hard for it.”
Ricci presented a petition full of signatures from people who live on Tara Street.
Town Council continued July’s show-cause hearing until next month, setting a new deadline for yacht removal. Nham said he should be able to remove the large vessel by next week.
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