After a public hearing, the Orangetown Town Council came to a resolution on how to deal with two properties in Blauvelt that have maintenance code violations.
The board voted unanimously to fix up the two properties at a cost capped at $3,000 for the two properties combined. The two properties were both abandoned and are in foreclosure. The town will get it’s money back once the properties have been auctioned off.
The resolution comes after an initial list of 10 properties with maintenance code violations in Orangetown caused a bit of a stir among some residents who felt that it shouldn’t be up to the town board to rule on how residents maintain their property. At Tuesday’s meeting, members of the town board said that in certain cases, the properties were in such poor condition that it just wasn’t fair for other residents to have to live near them.
“The process worked,” said Councilman Thomas Morr.
Morr said a house he occasionally drove by that was on the list always had uncut grass, tree branches all over the lawn and bushes not tended to. When he recently drove by the house, everything was fixed.
Others said that some of the properties belonged to older residents who might not be able to keep up maintenance of their property.
One of two people to speak at the public hearing Tuesday night asked if there was a way to get scout troops or other volunteers to help out those who might not be able to keep up their property. Stewart said that after the initial list of 10 properties was put out, he did hear from residents in the community who wanted to know how they could help.
“f you see something like that, please bring them to the town board and we’ll try to see if there’s a volunteer-based solution to help them out,” he said.
He added they would only try to bring in volunteers if the property owner was on board and gave permission.
That wasn’t all the town board discussed at Tuesday’s meeting. The board also discussed the following issues.
- The town council voted unanimously to raise the overtime rate for police officers working special events, such as a filming or bike race. Officers will make $115 an hour from now on, up from $110. The price for a police vehicle at those same events was also increased from $15 an hour to $20 an hour.
- Piermont’s Sylvia Welch will provide research and write grants for the town after the board voted in favor of a resolution to use her services from 9/1/12-12/31/13 at a rate of $55 an hour to not exceed $8,000 during the contract term without further authorization.
- The town council set a public hearing for the Sept. 24 meeting at 8 p.m. to amend town code to not allow street parking on Western Highway north of Erie Street.
- The town board approved a trio of items for the Highway Department. First, the board voted to declare a 1982 four-wheel drive dump/plow as surplus of equipment for the department. It will be auctioned off online. Next, the board awarded a bid for a heavy duty four-wheel drive plow truck to Gabrielli Truck Sales Ltd. in Jamaica, New York, in the amount of $281,580. Lastly, the board voted in favor of creating a sick leave bank for department employees to give extra sick days to a fellow Highway Department worker battling a serious illness.
