It’s been going on for years — at least 8, according to Benjamin Church Manor resident Barbara Salstead. That’s how long she has occupied her second floor apartment on the east side of the property at the corner of Hope and Chestnut Streets. You would think the view from her window, looking out over a wooded, town-owned plot between the senior housing complex and the adjacent St. Mary’s Cemetery, would be a nice one.

It’s not.

For years, unknown persons have been using the land as their personal dumping site, leaving everything from storm doors to cabinets, appliances to mattresses.

It’s better in the summer, when foliage hides some of the mess, and it’s better too when the trash is under a layer of snow. But when there is no snow, and no foliage, the view out Barbara’s window is like looking at a dump. And for years, Barbara has been making calls, trying to get someone to deal with the mess. First she reached out to St. Mary’s Church, thinking if they built a fence it would take away the convenient turn off that has been used by individuals in pickup trucks to dump their refuse. But that didn’t happen.

At some point, after several calls to Town Hall, Barbara reached someone who came out and looked at the site and said he would do something about it, but he left, and nothing changed.

“I’ve contacted the town several times over the years,” said Candace Pansa of the Bristol Housing Authority, which oversees the complex. Pansa says that she’s glad they got a grant for the fence at the back of the property, that hides the view of the impromptu dump from first floor residents. “They (residents) couldn’t even enjoy sitting at the picnic tables” before the fence went up.

“But my second floor tenants still have to look at it,” Pansa said.

A promise from the town

It looks like, at long last, Barbara’s persistence will be paying off.

According to Pansa, Town Administrator Steve Contente has ordered no dumping signs for the egress points on Chestnut Street and at the end of the Wood Street extension. And the Department of Public Works will be following up with a cleanup, once the weather permits.

“I’m so happy that the town will be taking care of this,” said Pansa.

“Barbara is wonderful; she gets things done. She should not have to look at trash out her window every day.”