SALISBURY — By early this week, a collection of three dilapidated structures by Labonne’s market were almost gone. That’s because the Marketplace of Salisbury Inc., a private corporation that owns the Labonne’s building, bought the small lot last month.
The Marketplace purchased the one-acre lot on Feb. 6 for $250,000 from Howard "Buzzy" Morey and his daughter and son-in-law, Darlene and Vaughn Wellersdick of Sharon. The Academy Street property was assessed at a little more than $105,000, with a full market value estimated at only $150,000, according to records in the Salisbury assessor’s office.
Rumors have persisted that Labonne’s was eying additional spaces for its parking lot, which can quickly fill to capacity during busy periods such as the workaday lunch hour or on Saturday mornings. But Ward Belcher, president of the Marketplace, said in an e-mail that plans for the property are unclear at this time.
"We spent most of our money and so we really can’t plan anything," Belcher explained. "Just clean it up and ride out the recession." The Marketplace has contracted Bunce Construction of North Canaan for demolition services.
The one house and two shacks were the home of three generations of Moreys. The burly family patriarch, Buzzy Morey, was a familiar face in town, serving for years as the crossing guard for Salisbury Central School at the intersection of Lincoln City Road and Main Street.
Buzzy suffered a stroke in 2002 and never returned to work. He remains at Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Canaan.
One of Buzzy’s sons, Earl Morey II, was murdered on the shores of Long Pond in 1986 by Richard Duntz, whose brother, Roy, had partnered with Earl to burn down Salisbury Town Hall.
The two tumbledown shacks have often caught the attention of well-to-do weekenders shopping at Labonne’s. Dick Bunce, one of the owners of Bunce Construction, called the property "a dose of reality" as he labored with a co-worker last week to disconnect the shacks from water and sewer lines.
One of the shacks, described in the assessor’s records as a "cabin," appeared to be an old Airstream trailer wedged in between two sections of shack. A window on the other shack appeared to be attached to the rickety structure with nothing more than duct tape. There were "Beware of Dog" signs everywhere.
A small home on the property next door, formerly owned by the Bushnells, was purchased by the town in 2006 and is leased to the Salisbury Housing Trust, which rents it as affordable housing. The town bought the Bushnell home at the urging of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which has long been considering a proposal to reroute traffic and turn the area behind Labonne’s into something resembling a town green.
"It’s a classic set of buildings," First Selectman Curtis Rand said of the Morey’s home, adding that their removal is a sure sign of "Salisbury’s changing landscape."
