Residents of one South Bethlehem neighborhood are hoping an approaching court date could close the book on years of complaints over an abandoned and dilapidated house on Willowbrook Avenue.
Residents said the home was abandoned years ago and has fallen into disrepair. Local kids often used the home as a hangout spot, but last August when the creek behind the property overflowed after Hurricane Irene, the surge of water caused the back of the home to collapse.
“It’s a terrible eyesore,” said Jim Goss, who has lived at the corner of Willowbrook Avenue and Orchard Street for nearly 30 years. “The house is disgraceful and it’s bringing down the values of our homes.”
Town Building Inspector Gil Bouchard said he has been contacting the owner of the home, James Albertine, since he took over the job in 2008. He has no record of how long the home has been abandoned, but said he knows his predecessors had contacted the owner when it started to get run down.
“I think I called him 30-plus times since then, and I finally decided to take him to court,” he said.
According to Bouchard, most of the home’s doors had been left unlocked and many of the windows were open so people could easily get inside. He also said furniture and clothes had been left throughout the house. There is an empty in-ground pool at the back of the property. There is no water in the pool, so Bouchard said it isn’t a drowning hazard, but it would still be an issue if someone were to fall in.
“You could pretty much walk right into the pool,” he said. “If somebody falls into that they can sue him, you you’d think the owner would want to get it taken care of. The whole property is a hazard.”
Albertine did not return numerous calls to comment for this article.
Bouchard said the town has been in court with Albertine before in efforts to get him to clean up the property, but those orders have clearly not been carried out. The town’s next court date is April 28.
“Nothing has been done,” said Bouchard. “I take pictures in between each court date for my records. I’ve been working on it. I have a file thick enough to fill a filing cabinet.”
Although Sandy DiNoto is a Delmar resident, she has a friend how lives in South Bethlehem and she has walked by the dilapidated home for years while they exercise.
“I feel there is a double standard here,” she wrote in an email. “This has been a mess for years. If it was in the middle of Delmar, it would never be tolerated.”
Bouchard said all cases are treated the same by the town, but property owners must be given time to repair the home if they wish. It then goes to the court system. He said there is a law in place that stipulates the town can tear down the house if it is abandoned and in ill repair, but it doesn’t specify a time limit.
According to Bouchard, if Albertine does not show up for the court date or the judge doesn’t take sufficient action, he will go before the Town Board to get approval for the town engineer to condemn the home.
“I can’t do that. I’m not a structural engineer,” said Bouchard. “But at this point it’s uninhabitable. There are too many codes not met, but it could possibly be repaired depending on what the engineer sees.”
Goss said it’s embarrassing when people come into the neighborhood for the first time and see the home.
“It’s a shame that people going to church have to see it. Enough is enough,” he said.
Bouchard said once the building is condemned, the town would have someone remove the building and the cost would be added to the owner’s taxes.
“The problem is if they have back taxes, the town might not ever see the money so that’s why they tend not to do it,” he said. “People don’t pay, so we’re trying to exhaust all of our other options because it’s an expense the town would have to pick up.”
Bouchard said the town is not ignoring the situation.
“It all depends on the person you are dealing with… on the judge. (If this home were in Delmar) we would go after them the same way and people would still be up in arms,” he said. “We can’t forcibly make someone do something they aren’t doing. It’s difficult.”
