Apr 22, 2008 1:33 pm US/Eastern
Couple Fights Town, Builder Over House On Landfill
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, Mass. (WBZ) ―
A local couple is waging a battle against the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea.
They claim the town and a home builder knew their house was being built on a former landfill back in 2000, but did nothing to stop construction, or make sure the contaminated soil was cleaned up. Now, they say, they are stuck with a hazardous home and no way to sell it.
David and Julie Gesner bought the two-story colonial on Pine Street in August 2005. They paid $858,420 for the home. When Julie became pregnant, they decided to sell the house and move closer to David's job in Boston. That's when they first heard rumors that their home had been built on a former landfill.
"We found out the history of our house two weeks before our first child was due," said Julie Gesner.
According to Gesner, a prospective homebuyer had soil tests done on the land, which revealed lead levels six times the limit for pregnant women and children. Julie was nearly nine months pregnant with their daughter.
"We were moving and packing and basically hysterical, we were not sure what was happening with her."
They moved into an apartment and started investigating who knew what and when. The builder, Michael Bresnahan, they say, denied the house was built on the former landfill.
But the couple was able to track down a letter to Bresnahan from the Board of Health dated November 17, 2000, stating the site was a former landfill. It requested the Town Building Inspector rescind the building permit until the owner cleaned up the site. That never happened.
Bresnahan's attorney, Orestes Brown, told WBZ Bresnahan stopped construction as ordered. Brown said Bresnahan was later told by the town told he could resume building - although he has no documentation of that.
Then, the town issued him a certificate of occupancy so he could move into the home.
"He fairly assumed the town looked into it and said there wasn't a concern there," Brown said.
Bresnahan lived in the house for about five years, until he sold the property to the Gesners.
The Gesners are working with the Department of Environmental Protection to determine what happens next and who will pay to clean up the land.
They say the most important thing is that their daughter was born healthy four months ago.
"You can't imagine how much a panic you're in thinking what's going to happen to my child," said Julie Gesner. "But she's just perfect."
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