THOMASTON – When a former town manager and his wife had their Booker Street property dug up, they wound up opening a can of worms.

What developed from Monday’s excavation of William and Theresa Judson’s 1-acre parcel was a handful of court motions, including a contempt-of-court document seeking jail time and fines for the Judsons if they do not restore a townstorm drain to the way it was two months ago.

Judson was town manager from 1987 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1993. The couple now lives in Cushing, but they owned a parcel of land that was next to the property where they once lived in Thomaston.

The dispute began in May 1999 when the Judsons filed a lawsuit seeking $300,000 in damages, claiming that the town and neighbors Lee-Ann and John Upham had drainage pipes installed on the Judsons’ property without permission. The Uphams’ property abuts the rear of the Judsons’ land.

The Judsons claim that the most recent work by the town was done at the behest of Lee-Ann Upham, who is chairwoman of the Thomaston board of selectmen, and that the Uphams were maintaining a portion of the Judsons’ land as if they owned it.

This past September, the town and the Judsons’ attorney, Randal Watkinson, reached an agreement with terms that provided for the town to obtain a 35-foot-wide strip of the Judsons’ property by deed, running the length of the back of the property abutting Uphams’ parcel. In exchange for the strip of land, the Judsons were to receive $10,000 and the right to connect to the town’s storm water system.

The case had been in the court system for more than a year before the settlement agreement was formed.

It started in 1999, when the Judsons obtained permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to remove about 900 cubic yards of fill and underground openings, according to the approved application. The Judsons had written to the DEP, saying that the stream on their property was part of the Georges River watershed.

In 1982, the town installed a drainage system on the property without an easement.

According to current Town Manager Valmore Blastow Jr., William Judson replaced some of the culvert in 1992 when he was town manager, and the town replaced more in 1996 to relieve flooding of homes in the area.

When the town learned the Judsons wanted to alter the land, the town and the Uphams sought a court injunction to stop the project, and Superior Court issued one.

On Tuesday, Blastow said the town believes that injunction may still be in force since the settlement agreement was never signed by the Judsons. Just in case, the town sought a temporary restraining order Monday to stop any further work to the site. Knox County Superior Court Justice John Atwood approved it.

The town also filed the contempt motion and a second counterclaim Tuesday, arguing that the Judsons breached the settlement agreement. The counterclaim seeks unspecified damages and demands that the Judsons restore the property to its Sept. 7 condition.

The stop-work order was requested after a construction company, hired by the Judsons, began excavating the Booker Street parcel and removed about $10,000 in town-owned culverts, Blastow said.

He said a 6-foot-wide concrete manhole was smashed and torn out. Blastow is concerned about potential flooding of homes, particularly because of the size pipe that remains in the storm system. It is smaller diameter pipe, which will increase the force of the water coming out of it, he said.

“The real question is: can anyone in the state of Maine excavate out storm drains installed for the good of the people?” he said.

Court documents also have been filed by the Judsons and their lawyer.

In a motion to withdraw as counsel filed Thursday, Nov. 9, Watkinson states the reason as a difference of opinion with his clients on the management of the case.

On Tuesday, a Nov. 10 letter from the Judsons to Superior Court Justice Francis Marsano asked that the judge set aside any and all agreements involved in their case. They stated that they have no knowledge of a settlement agreement nor have they signed one. According to the letter, the work that the town did on the Judsons’ property diverted a brook and has created a drowning hazard. Because of the widening, deepening and diversion of a stream onto their property, which was a very shallow swale, an impoundment of water that attains depths of over three feet has been created, they wrote.

The letter states that children in a nearby apartment complex, which abuts the Judsons’ property, play near the opening of the 36-inch culvert. One child told the Judsons that youngsters often play “in the cave,” which involves crawling through the unguarded, underground culvert. The Judsons noted that the culvert has several thousand gallons of water flowing through it per minute.

When contacted Tuesday, William Judson said that they had had pipe removed that was failing and was plugged. He said the water now drains into an open swale, which is an improvement. He also said that his DEP permit to do the work was still valid.

Besides the town not having the landowners’ permission, it also did not have a DEP permit to do the drainage work in a resource protection zone, Judson claimed.