Dangerous Buildings, Board of Review

BOARD OF REVIEW - DANGEROUS BUILDINGS MINUTES WEDNESDAY April 25, 2012 Committee members present: Gary Schnip, James Quarto, Alderwoman Sofee Noblick, Richard Caron and Andrew Zeeman Committee members not present: VACANCY. Others present: James Troeger 1. Call to Order: Gary Schnip called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. 2. Determination of a Quorum: It was determined that a quorum was present. 3. Acceptance of Minutes from March 28, 2012. Upon motion by Jim Quarto, seconded by Sofee Noblick, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes. 4. Communications: None. 5. Blight updates/concerns: a. 77 Chestnut Street –Status Update - Haz Mat work is complete and there is a report. Barry is getting estimates for the Council. b. 60 School Street Ed Belli - A permit has been pulled. Work has started c. 145 Wightman Avenue - Citation has been issued for failure to progress. The homeowner has a chance to appeal and then it is $50 a day dating back to 8/25/2011. The letter was sent 4/9/2012 and there has been no response as of today d. 105 Stonington Road (Garage) - Jim Troeger tried to contact the owners or their property maintenance company. The numbers he has don’t work. Jim Troeger will send them a citation. e. 17 West Town Street – The owner, Mr. Constantino, is not interested in giving the property to the neighbor. He still has a mortgage on the property. Ed has sent him a citation to clean up the property. f. Laurel Hill clean-up at Quonset Hut Site – According to Ed it has been cleaned up. Watch List: g. 205 Gifford (Shed) – No change h. 54-58 Broadway – Currently empty awaiting cleanup. There is a lot of smoke damage. John Day owns 50-52 Broadway. His intent is to fix it up as soon as possible. i. Curran Street – Pretty much the same. The owner is keeping the yard clean. The walls are up and it’s safe. Board of Review – Dangerous Buildings 04/25/2012 Minutes Page 2 j. 15 Park Street – It has been pretty much disassembled. The problem now is that his year has expired so he may not be able to get a zoning permit to rebuild. Jim Troeger has put him on notice that a zoning permit is required for work to continue. Andrew Zeeman asks when the year begins. Is it when the damage occurs or when the building is completely down. The committee is going to try to find out how the timeline works when the property owner is continuing to work k. 105 Chestnut Street - Haz Mat work is complete and there is a report. Barry is getting estimates for the Council. l. 191-193 Broad Street – Porch of Greenish building – The porch is back up and it looks good. m. 26 Sherman Street – Jim Troeger has been in contact with the owner. The owner got a price from a contractor for demolition but it was too high. The owner is continuing to research options. n. Oak Street – Fire – Jim Troeger has been in touch with the insurance company. The City has a bill of approximately $4500 for the demolition of the building during the fire. The insurance company is going to pay that. The owner (Ten Wen Yan) and insurance company are working on it and it should be taken up relatively soon. o. 556 East Main Street – Given 90 days on March 28, 2012. Jim Troeger discusses 24 Harland Place, which had a fire over a year ago with the same insurance company. A citation has been issued due to failure to take care of the wing of the building that was burned. The insurance company states it has paid the owner on this. 6. Public Comments: There are none. 7. Other: Burned out house on Rockwell Street – Jim Troeger sent a letter to the owner on April 5, 2012 telling him that he must make the structure weather tight or demolish it within 30 days or on 5/6/2012 there will be $100 a day fines imposed. The damages were caused by a fire that occurred on 7/10/2011. Sofee Noblick has a few properties to discuss: 133 Mount Pleasant – referred by Housing Management Team. There is fuel stored there. This will be added to the watch list. Not sure if there is a blight issue or a danger from fuel storage so wanted to bring it to the attention of the committee. 312 Boswell – There is a bio-fuel storage problem. Jim Troeger doesn’t know if this is a dangerous building issue. It may be a Fire Marshall issue or maybe a Zoning issue if they’re producing something not covered under current zoning regulations. Board of Review – Dangerous Buildings 04/25/2012 Minutes Page 3 47-49-51-53 Washington Street – These are the properties that the Committee had pulled from the auction so would like to have the committee go look at the properties and address this at the next meeting. 631 West Main was also pulled from the Auction block in the hopes of getting an abutting property owner to want it and to tear it down. Gary Schnip wishes to have something added to the watch list also: (386?) West Thames Street – next to Keith’s Appliances – there was a fire and the building is in bad shape. He would like the committee to look into it. The committee wants to go over the maintenance code at the next meeting. 8. Next meeting – the next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, May 23, 2012. 9. Adjournment: Sofee Noblick motioned to adjourn, seconded by Jim Quarto, and the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:10 p.m. Respectfully Submitted By: Christine Averna