An East Williston home, which has been abandoned for years, poses a health and safety hazard, according to residents. The village agrees.
“It’s dangerous for our children. It’s dangerous for all of us. There are vermin living directly across the street…It’s a very personal issue for everyone sitting here,” said one of some two dozen nearby residents at Monday night’s hearing about the home, which sits at 26 Orchard Meadow Road.
Residents say the home is full of pests, including a family of raccoons, covered in mold, falling apart and has an overgrown yard, all of which make them and their families feel unsafe.
“I’ve been here for about 30-something years, and that has been in that disarray for a very long period of time,” another resident said. “It’s really beyond repair. The windows have been open for at least four or five years, so I know that that place has got disease, mold and whatnot…I almost feel like it needs to be condemned.”
“I think a bigger issue is the fact that this place may be architecturally unstable,” another resident added. “I know the inside of the house is going to be a total disaster.”
Others said the home’s state of disrepair is not a reflection of the high taxes they pay and prevents them from enjoying their property.
According to residents and the village, the homeowner left the house roughly five years ago but has refused to relinquish control over or repair the property despite multiple attempts by the village and family members to push him to do so.
East Williston Mayor Bonnie Parente said she agreed with residents and understood their concerns. Since her office’s consistent attempts to contact the homeowner and his family to make improvements have not been fruitful, she said she is moving quickly to get court orders and legal authorization for the village to handle the repairs itself.
After hearing residents’ extreme concerns over the raccoons and pest infestation, Parente and her board decided to authorize the village to address the pest issue by hiring an exterminator Tuesday morning, immediately after their Monday meeting.
One man told the meeting his children were scared to go outside because they saw a group of five raccoons run out of 26 Orchard Meadow Road and into their yard, “Since rabies is on the uptick, we will use that to justify going into the home immediately to exterminate,” Parente said.
On Tuesday, the village also planned to send out a formal, final notice to the homeowner, giving him 10 days to address the myriad of issues and hire a contractor to fix them. If the 10-day period expires without action from him, the village will be able to make the necessary repairs and bill the homeowner for their full cost.
To determine what repairs will be necessary, the village will work to secure a court order that will allow Building Inspector Jared Mandel to enter the home and develop an assessment, something Parente said she hoped would take place at the end of this week or early next week. Once he has been able to assess the home and make recommendations on what needs to be done, he will take his report to the board.
The board would then likely vote to approve those recommendations and begin hiring contractors at its Aug. 25 meeting if there is no response or action from the homeowner.
Some nearby residents also raised concerns that the home’s pests, mold, dust and other detrimental elements would be spread throughout the area when repairs started, but Mandel assured residents that procedures were in place to prevent that.
Parente said repairs would likely begin in mid- or late September. Residents said the repairs could not come soon enough, though people left the meeting mostly satisfied with Parente’s response.
