By Theresa Knapp 

As of press time, a court decision was expected any day on the “Ten Citizen Lawsuit” in which 10 Hopedale taxpayers filed suit against Selectmen Brian Keyes and Louis Arcudi III (plus the Grafton & Upton Railroad Company, Jon Delli Priscoli, Michael Milanoski, and One Hundred Forty Realty Trust) for allegedly not following guidelines set at an October 2020 Special Town Meeting to purchase 155 acres of land at or near 364 West Street. 

The suit has been making its way through Worcester Superior Court for several months and a hearing was held in early September before a new judge. 

Chairman Keyes said “We met with the new judge on Thursday [Sept. 9] at 2 p.m. Earlier that morning, the lead plaintiff of the citizens’ lawsuit, with a complement of the others of course, filed an emergency order injunction to stop the Railroad from clearing land that they’re using to access the land that they actually own that’s not part of the lawsuit.”

Abutter Linda Sarkisian disagreed with Keyes’ during public comment and said the Railroad “is clearing a lot of land…they’ve cleared quite a bit.” 

Keyes said the judge did grant a TRO [temporary restraining order] to have the Railroad stop cutting down trees “so that the judge could reflect and make a decision on the injunction itself.” 

Town Administrator Diana Schindler said the court took under advisement the arguments from both parties “and the judge was supposed to, by the end of the day (Sept. 9), review all of that [TRO] information and then provide an additional ruling by the end of day tomorrow (Sept. 14). 

A final decision was not available at press time