Greenfield Board of Health to resume daily fines on bank over Chapman Street squatter mess

GREENFIELD -- April 15, 2026, Greenfield Board of Health confronts years-long squatter standoff on Chapman Street, hears kratom warning. Five Chapman Street residents told the board April 15 that drug activity, piling trash, and safety fears at 291 Chapman Street, a bank-owned property where squatters have resided for years, have made their neighborhood intolerable, with one neighbor saying his family is actively planning to leave. Health Director Michael Thero explained that the eviction process has had to restart three times due to procedural errors, most recently after Carrington Mortgage, the California-based lender, filed against the wrong occupant at an October 31 housing-court hearing. Thero said the bank is now pursuing a cash buyout with the current occupant, Jennifer, while he resumes daily fines, up to $500 per day, against Carrington if the dumpster that briefly appeared at the property does not return by Monday. The board also heard a presentation from health policy staff at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments on concentrated kratom products, described as pharmacologically opioid-like and now sold in at least one Greenfield retailer, with a draft local sales ordinance modeled on Northampton's circulated for board review ahead of the next meeting, tentatively set for May 20 or May 27.