By ANDREW MARTIN

Richmond co-Town Solicitor Karen R. Ellsworth said Tuesday night that another consent order with the stump dump owner seems likely.

Getting to that point, though, will take more meetings between Ellsworth and stump down owner Richard Romanoff’s attorneys. In the meantime, Ellsworth said associate justice O. Rogeriee Thompson, who is overseeing the state and town’s case against Romanoff, has issued a temporary consent order.

Ellsworth explained that the temporary order essentially has the same conditions as the one that was issued in July 2008, which was then extended through oral agreements. The main difference, she said, is that Romanoff will not have to grind stumps if there is too much snow on the ground. Also, this order is only for the time-being and not restricted to 90 days like the previous one.

A new consent order seems in the works, though, according to Ellsworth. That decision was based on new information the town received from Terrence Gray, of the state Department of Environmental Management.

Ellsworth said that Gray provided a new approach in how the town monitors progress made at the stump dump, which is located off Skunk Hill Road. Gray and Assistant Attorney General Michael Rubin met with the council behind closed-doors last month.

Ellsworth said she and Romanoff’s attorneys met with Thompson on Jan. 20 and provided the details of the meeting with Gray and Rubin. “We told her we would be working on language for a new consent order and that sounded fine to her,” Ellsworth said.

But it didn’t sound fine to resident Wayne Stoner, whose home abuts the stump dump. He has long voiced complaints of cockroaches infesting his home and of his discontent with the past consent order, which he said got nothing done.

“As much as I hate it, if another [consent order] comes to light, I want a public hearing on it,” he said, “because I don’t think it will stand up to the scrutiny of the public.”

The council previously authorized Ellsworth to request a trial date against Romanoff. But Thompson shot that plan down when she offered a court date of 2010. As Ellsworth said, that was the judge’s way of pushing the trial idea aside.

In other business
Council Vice President Henry R. Oppenheimer said a third workshop with the DEM regarding the water issues in Alton is in the works. He said they might discuss the possibility of bringing public water to the area, which has been effected by the former Charbert mill site. A date for the workshop should be set at the next council meeting.

The council also voted 4-1 – councilor Gerard P. Curran against – to submit a brief to the Supreme Court backing the Chariho Regional School Committee’s stance in the suit brought by recently ousted member William J. Felkner.

Ellsworth prepared the town’s brief and outlined several instances where Felkner’s position on both the council and school board could cause a conflict of interest. In particular, she noted fiscal conflicts that could arise.

For example, Ellsworth wrote, the school district, experiencing a cash flow problem, approached its member towns for interest-free, 30-day $50,000 loans. The Hopkinton council then votes, she wrote, to approve the loan, but with 5 percent interest.

“How does Mr. Felkner vote,” Ellsworth wrote. “Does he want Hopkinton to earn extra revenue at the expense of Richmond and Charlestown taxpayers, or does he want to remedy the district’s cash flow problem immediately?”

The councilors all agreed that this had nothing to do with Felkner, but the issue of possible conflicts of interest. Curran still felt that Richmond should not get involved, though.

Felkner, whose four-year term on the school board began in 2006, was elected to the Hopkinton Town Council this past November. Days after he was sworn in to his council seat, the School Committee voted to kick him off. He subsequently sued the committee and his case, which was dismissed by Superior Court for lack of jurisdiction, is now in Supreme Court.

A closed-doors hearing by the court was scheduled for Wednesday. Make sure to check next week’s issue of The Times for an update.