The foreman of a Norwalk company accused of violating local wetlands regulations in New Canaan in one case and damaging a public road in another says his crews are not at fault in either matter.
There are wetlands on either side of the driveway entrance at 86 Hoyt Farm Road. A Norwalk company is disputing the town’s assessment via a Municipal Citation for $1,000, saying it did not violate local wetlands regulations vis-a-vis fill that had been removed from a separate capital project around back of the house and reportedly dumped in front. Credit: Michael Dinan
Town officials last month assessed a $1,000 fine against M. Lato Excavating & Tree Service, saying that on Aug. 5 inspectors checking on an entirely different project at 86 Hoyt Farm Road (a swimming pool and pavilion installation) noticed that fill had been “graded, topsoiled and seeded in large areas on either side of the existing driveway and down to and partially in wetlands.”
“No soil and erosion controls are installed,” town officials said in a Municipal Citation letter sent to Mike Lato, head of the company. (The specific regulation violated is contained in sections 5.4 and 7 of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Regulations, officials say.)
Damage to the roadway in the area of 131 Soundview Lane has been caused by Norwalk-based company M. Lato Excavating & Tree Service. The town says it will cost $3,500 to repair the road via micro overlay, apparently damaged by heavy excavating equipment, and is seeking that compensation. Credit: Michael Dinan
Separately, town officials are seeking $3,500 from the same company for damaging with heavy excavating equipment the visibly scarred roadway near 131 Soundview Lane, site of another Lato project.
Bernard Esposito, manager for Lato on both projects, told NewCanaanite.com that the company didn’t do what the town believes it did.
Rather, in the Hoyt Farm Road case, Esposito said, the company was on site to price out a repaving project for the homeowner there. A completely different company had been working on the pool and pavilion around back of the house, and that company—not Lato—dumped the fill by the driveway and nearby wetlands in front, Esposito said.
The homeowner phoned three days later him in a panic to help with the fill, and Esposito signed on for the paid job of moving the material to the backyard again, he said. Because the areas on either side of the driveway then needed to be landscaping, Esposito said, his crew did minimal work to make it look nice.
“Our company did not dump the fill in the wetlands,” Esposito said.
“When you dump about 40 loads of fill and scrape it with a machine, you’re not going to get every little bit up, you are going to leave dirt marks there, so we put fresh new topsoil in.”
Esposito said that, as much as possible, he moved the fill back out of the wetlands and then hand-raked everything out.
“We seeded the same day and did not leave a mess,” he said. “After we dug it out, we didn’t just leave a dirt pile. We put down topsoil and grass. Nothing as far as the grade was changed. We took the pile and loaded it from that front area, drove it to the backyard again and dumped it.”
Asked why the crew that had done the pool and pavilion work didn’t take care of the fill itself, Esposito said he didn’t know. Esposito said he would not be against sharing the fine with the homeowner and other contractor.
On the matter of Soundview Lane, Esposito said that while some of the marks on the roadway may be from Lato vehicles, not all of them are.
“There are road marks up and down from other contractors, and now they pinpoint us?” he said.