Dangerous Buildings, Board of Review

BOARD OF REVIEW-DANGEROUS BUILDINGS MEETING MINUTES Wednesday April 23, 2014 23 Union Street MEMBERS PRESENT Gary Schnip-Chairman Alderwoman Sofee Noblick Joe East Andrew Zeeman Richard Caron Sr. (arrived at 5:22PM) MEMBERS ABSENT James Quarto OTHERS PRESENT James Troeger-Building Official H. Tucker Braddock Mr. Hamar-owner 241 Broadway Jim Heist-Fountain Street Committee Jill Brennan-Recording Secretary Tim Grant-owner 104 School Street 1. Call to Order:G. Schnip called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM. 2. Determination of quorum: It was determined that a quorum was present. 3. Acceptance of Minutes:Minutes of February 26, 2014 meeting Motion to approve minutes with following corrections, S. Noblick , 2nd A. Zeeman, Item #7 RFP for 631 W. Main Street and 105 Chestnut : Little Caesars, Allstate and Enterprise were interested in 631 W. Main, motion carried unanimously. 4. Communications: a. Mayor's re-appointment notifications. 5. Blight update/concerns: a. 556 East Main Street:J. Troeger received a call from the fire department that some of the bricks had fallen from the roof. This has been addressed. A. Zeeman asked what the owner's long term plans are for the property. J. Troeger reports they have not been in to formally discuss their plans. G. Schnip asked that Building Department send a maintenance letter to clean the place up. J. Troeger will issue a letter. The building is secured from the street. The lack of a hearing officer is holding up enforcing citations that have already been issued. Violations should still be issued. BOR 4/23/14 Minutes p-2- b. Broadway Barn:J. Troeger reports that a citation will be sent as soon as a hearing officer is appointed. Watch List: c. Mount Pleasant St:The abatement is in process. d. 107-109 Baltic Street:The owner is getting prices for demolition. e. Baltic Street:There is still no resolution on the tarp issues. We are waiting on the Blight Ordinance. f. 17 W. Town Street:J. Troeger is updating the citation which is on hold due to the lack of a hearing officer. The total is up to $22,000. M. Driscoll needs to be consulted as to what should be done due to the time lapse. J. East suggest that in his experience the citations stop until a hearing is held. There has been no work done to date. The owner stated to the BOR that by May 1st: new roof, siding and windows would be complete. g.274 Prospect Street-tarp: Nothing new to report. h. 16 Fountain Street: The owner has passed away and his brother is performing some property maintenance and the property is getting cleaned up. i. 117 Broad St: J. Troeger feels this is a dead end property. The building is secure, but nothing is being done with the vacant property. He feels that the blight ordinance will allow action. j. 195 B k. 152 Broad St:The garage has fallen down. l. Ed Belli on School Street: Owner reported to J. Troeger that the sale of the property fell through and new windows are on premises and siding should begin next week. m. 11 Grove Street: The machine is gone and a front street wall was knocked down. The back wall is still standing. Richard Caron arrived: 5:22PM n. 241 Broadway: Mr. Hamar, the property owner, appeared before the board. He reports that he missed a payment in October on his payment plan for past due taxes. The tax bill was referred to Attorney Amy Wickless. He received a demand notice on March 30 requesting the tax bill be paid in full. The mortgage company has paid the taxes and is threatening foreclosure. He claims that he spoke to Mr. Troeger who stated that there were no exterior code violations. He was then notified that there was a blight complaint against the house. He would like to know what the committee would like him to do. J. Troeger stated that the question is; is the property in violation of the exterior maintenance code? This committee has recognized that the building is not up to property maintenance code standards and they would like the property fixed up to meet the code. Mr. Hamar stated that he has put his property up for sale this week and he has extremely limited funding available to fix up the property. He is willing to work with the Committee if they can give him a priority list that he can address one at a time. The leaking roof is an immediate issue. He has a permit to re-roof the house that would have to be renewed. He has gotten a permit to fix the porch and began some of the work in 1996. The deck can be repaired as is, but not removed. S. Noblick asked is he can repair the roof, which is the priority, and what a time frame would be? Mr. Hamar stated that he could have the roof repair completed by July 1, 2014. J. Troeger stated BOR 4/23/14 Minutes p-3- that the board likes to work with people and if people can demonstrate that repairs are being done and progress is being made that is all they ask. A. Zeeman pointed out that if the yard is cleaned up then it may be more appealing to potential buyers. J. Troeger asked Mr. Hamar to call him before he begins any work on the porch and he will come out and look at things. 6. Public Comments: None 7. Other a. RFP for 105 Chestnut: taken off agenda b. Reprioritizing the Blight Lien Ordinance J. East reports that the staff group examining this has elected to adopt the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code and amend it to meet Norwich’s needs. The Fire and Building/Housing departments have already approved this approach. This will develop a model document from which to work and pull items out for the Blight Ordinance. J. East reported that they are in the process of getting all of the specifics down. G. Schnip mentioned graffiti and tarps which should be added to the Blight Ordinance . 8.Next meeting: S. Noblick suggested in the future, setting aside one hour for the BOR meetings. She suggested starting School Street at 5PM, Fountain Street at 5:30 and BOR at 6PM. The new schedules are posted this way. J. Brennan to double check with the City Clerk to make sure that the annual meeting schedules as posted are FOI compliant. The next Board of Review meeting will be held on May 28, 2014 at 6:00PM. 9. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn, S. Noblick, 2nd A. Zeeman, meeting adjourned at 5:49PM. Respectfully submitted by Jill A. Brennan