By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The construction schedule for a half-completed eyesore at Old Mill Beach had some Blight Prevention Board members worrying Thursday it might be another blue summer.

The notoriously blue-house-wrapped structure at 233 Hillspoint Road has been a bureaucratic bother for Town Hall, and neighborhood nuisance, for several years.

A few years ago, work on the restaurant-turned-upscale-residence went beyond what was permitted. Years of town orders and litigation ensued.

Following a court settlement, progress had been made in recent months. A zoning permit was issued and the owners had an unallowed chimney and cupola removed, as well as the deconstruction debris.

But Thursday, the blight board, which kept the matter on its agenda despite recent progress, appeared concerned about the construction schedule provided by one of the owners, Gibby Cohen.

That schedule lists all kinds of interior work, over which the board has no purview, and stated that installation of siding to cover the house wrap wouldn’t begin until September, and would be completed in October.

“That leaves the building blue-sided all summer long,” Building Official Steve Smith told the board.

“It should be moving along quicker than this,” Smith said.

“We got the place cleaned up. Everything that you’ve asked us to do, we’ve done,” Cohen said. “And this is the schedule that the builder gave us to do.”

Cohen said he was told by the contractor that the schedule was made with allowances for material and labor delays built in.

“He didn’t want to come back with something, and have to say, we can’t meet this,” Cohen said.

Smith said in order to meet the zoning approval, some windows had to be relocated. Once that’s done, he said, the siding can be installed.

“There’s nothing wrong with finishing the outside of the building,” he said of the work sequence.

Board Chairman Joseph Strickland said he wanted a motion to have “to give 30 days to recast the schedule, so that the first priority is to relocate the windows and install the windows and siding.”

It passed unanimously.

“We’re laying the foundation,” Strickland told Cohen. “Let’s get going on this.”

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Learn more about us here.