BELLOWS FALLS — With the return of warm weather, Dari Joy's parking lot is busy with customers from the Greater Falls area far into the evenings.
But after dark, the restaurant's second-generation owner, Richard “Richie” DeMuzio, has seen a notable drop-off of customers after dark - a loss that, he says, has come in the aftermath of the destruction of his illuminated sign by a town snowplow in February.
“People think we're closed, and drive on by,” DeMuzio said.
The town's insurer, Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT), offered to pay half the estimated $13,524.46 to replace the sign, citing its age and “depreciation” over the years.
The town has refused to match the other half, prompting DeMuzio to take town officials to task for not being fully accountable for the destruction of his sign.
As a result of the board's decision, DeMuzio's lawyer, Thomas Costello, served the board on June 2 with a complaint, with the intention of taking the town to court on June 22 if the town does not enter “into a meaningful conversation” with him and his client in the meantime.
Costello also charged that statements made by two board members at the May 2 meeting were defamatory, and he has added that to the list of claims in the complaint as well.
As it stands, the ruined sign is gone, leaving a walled stone with just the fixtures of the old sign. And DeMuzio, who also works a full-time job in Keene, says he cannot afford to replace it on his own.
No free ice cream
DeMuzio, unable to attend the May 5 meeting, said he did not feel well-represented by Town Manger Willis “Chip” Stearns, to whom he went seeking redress for the town-damaged sign.
He said that when he earlier spoke with the town manager, it was his understanding that Stearns would represent him and that it would be a “slam dunk” to get the board's support in replacing the sign.
In spite of Stearns' comment that the sign was “a well-put-together sign from years ago [that] hasn't changed in my lifetime until a snowplow hit it,” after only a brief discussion on May 5, the board unanimously passed a motion made by Selectboard Member Anne DiBernardo to go with VLCT's offer, and not make up the difference.
Stearns noted that if the sign is not replaced within a year, DeMuzio will have to go through the zoning and permitting sign-review process anew.
When Stearns laid out the request, saying he was representing DeMuzio, Selectboard Member Anne DiBernardo asked if he was “getting free ice cream,” to which Stearns replied with a firm “no.”
In addition to showing the board the cost estimates of sign replacement, as well as the April 30 VLCT offer of release for the partial payment, Stearns admitted the town's fault several times.
DeMuzio said that if the case goes to the court and he prevails, the town can add the attorney's fees and transfer fees to the costs, which are not as simple as “just replacing the sign.”
He disputed board member Josh Hearne's statement that “the interior of the sign was so bad that the electrician took it apart and put it back together and said, 'I'm not touching this sign.'”
Included in the packet the Selectboard received was an invoice for the Dari Joy sign upgrades for Sept. 17, 2014 from Lawrence & Lober Electric, Inc., for $2,855, for “rewiring” the sign, “troubleshooting” and replacing the lights with new LED bulbs.
Richard Hamm, one of the owners of the electric company, said he has had a long relationship with Dari Joy, and that “as and when” DeMuzio can, he hires his firm to maintain and upgrade the sign. Hamm said that is usually yearly.
DeMuzio said that the total to replace the sign now includes removal of the sign “for public safety” (which has already been done), the cost of new posts, the cost of removing the old posts, the cost of “Sonotube and concrete, the planter,” and pavers, and labor fees to replicate a sign of the original design.
These items alone are estimated at $3,400. The body of the sign and all its parts, plus LED lighting, come in at an estimated $8,268.
Just before the vote was taken, DiBernardo told Hearne, when he stated he was going to buy a cone after the meeting, that she would “get a taster for that ice cream cone.”
Costello told The Commons that “this is just the sort of thing we want to nip in the bud,” noting that he had heard similar statements repeated “on television.”
Stearns declined comment, and, on advice of town counsel, declined to provide the VLCT's correspondence about the sign, citing the pending litigation.
“I have no comment at this time for your article,” Stearns wrote.
A 'betrayal'
DeMuzio, who said he hired his daughter, Mallory, a fresh-out-of-college graduate, to manage the Dari Joy this summer, continuing “a family business into the third generation,” said his father, Joseph A. DeMuzio, started the business 63 years ago, and the family has been paying town and village taxes since.
He told The Commons the town has also used the Dari Joy parking lot during the winter to store plowed snow, sand, and salt, and every spring he spends a lot of time cleaning up the debris. He said he has never asked the town for any help in cleaning that up, nor has he felt any need to.
In light of those community contributions, the lack of board support to help defray the costs of replacing the sign feels like a betrayal to him. He said replacing the sign is not something he can afford alone.
Mallory DeMunzio, who has begun a change.org petition that has garnered 200 signatures to urge the town to reverse its position and replace the sign, said the board's decision left “a bad taste” in her mouth. She considers it an undermining of the town's purported intention to attract and keep businesses, and wonders how this will look to new businesses considering locating to Rockingham.
“It doesn't set a good precedent for businesses in town,” she said.