Hamden Sells Blighted Property to Improve Neighborhood

The following is an article from the NH Register about a blighted property we were successful in acquiring and selling to buyer set to clean-up the land! By Ebony Walmsley, New Haven Register HAMDEN >> After more than a decade, a severely blighted property on Wintergreen Avenue will receive a makeover after the Legislative Council approved its sale early this month. The 831 Wintergreen Ave. property has been an eyesore in its community for several years, but new owner Brack Poitier plans to build a new home, according to town documents. Poitier, who works in construction and serves as chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, was not available for comment Tuesday. Poitier purchased the property from the town for $24,900. He must complete necessary blight improvements within 30 days after the closing of the sale and finish “overall improvements” within six months of the sale closing date. In a letter to the Legislative Council, Mayor Scott Jackson said “there will be great improvements to the physical home, the overall property and the surrounding neighborhood.” James Pascarella, legislative council president, said he’s “pleased the property sold.” “We’re happy someone can proceed and turn the property into a nice home,” Pascarella said. But Helen Demorro, of 810 Wintergreen Ave, was hopeful nobody would purchase the property. Her house sits diagonal across from the sold house. “We have a great view of East Rock Park. I was hoping the town would just let it be,” Demorro said. “Selling this blighted home and getting it cleaned up this season will be a visible benefit to the neighborhood surrounding it. Attacking blighted properties, with the force of law and serious determination, through citations, fines, liens and if needed foreclosure and sale, is something we take seriously and are committed to accomplishing,” said Curt Leng, chief administrative officer, in a prepared statement. Last year, the town initiated a sale to a potential buyer for $20,000, but that fell through because of “circumstances beyond the town’s control,” according to town documents. With a number of maintenance and anti-blight violations, the property is run down and needs a lot of work. Maintenance citations began on the Wintergreen Avenue property as early as 2002, according to Leng. Such violations include a lack of maintenance of the exterior structure, water entering the house, neglect of removal trash and inoperative appliances and lack of pruning of the property’s lawn and hedges. The property was also issued anti-blight violations for, creating substantial interference with the reasonable and lawful use and enjoyment of other space within the building or of other premises within the neighborhood, having missing or boarded windows, collapsing or missing walls, and overgrown plants in the front yard, among other things. The town enforced foreclosure actions on the property in 2010. While Pascarella wasn’t clear on why it took the property so long to sell, he did acknowledge its structure deterioration. “I think it might need to be razed and reconstructed,” Pascarella said. According to www.visionapprasial.com, the blighted house and property was appraised at $168,200 last year. Leslie Creane, town planner, said she’s happy to see the property return to the tax rolls. “It’s one more property that’s been remediated,” Creane said.

Hamden Implements Spending Freeze

Hamden halts spending on nonessentials By Michael Bellmore mbellmore@nhregister.com / Twitter:@bandango HAMDEN — Mayor Scott Jackson and Finance Director Sal DeCola implemented a spending freeze on nonessential items to “ensure a balanced budget” for this fiscal year. “When you have the type of infrastructure that a municipality maintains, you can have good years, you can have bad years, but you always have to project for the bad years. “For example: snow. Two inches of snow will cost us $50,000 to plow. So you always have to maintain reserves that will allow you to seamlessly address those issues,” Jackson said. “We didn’t know before last month that we would be expending overtime on police services to protect schools. Now we are, so we have to adjust course to accommodate that,” he said. Notice was sent to all department heads that even purchases approved by the Town Council for this fiscal year may no longer occur. Jackson said throughout the year, every dollar is watched, but during a spending freeze, all expenditures are subject to another level of review. Announcement of the spending freeze followed a series of recent belt-tightening actions taken by Hamden officials. Earlier this month, the town announced a move to restructure two departments. Curt Leng, chief administrative officer, wrote in a press release the position of “deputy assessor” has been cut, saving the town $70,000. Two positions at the Library Department were eliminated, a librarian and technical assistant. Library Director Marian Amodeo said this was the result of an offer for early retirement packages. “None of our services have had to be curtailed. We’re working with staff to reassign tasks to provide the best customer service we can.” Amodeo said. “We’re moving along.” The position of “business manager” for the Library Department has been changed. The job description has been adjusted and starting salary reduced. The three staff cuts will save the town $110,000. Amodeo said preserving the library business manager position was crucial to the library system. “After all, we are a three building library system,” Amodeo said. “And as such, we have myriad financial tasks on a daily basis.” Leng also said two more departments are being looked at for reorganizations —the mayor’s office and Economic and Community Development. “The word of the day is savings, and wherever we can try, department by department, to either downsize or reorganize with the existing staff in a way that saves money, we’re going to propose it,” Leng said. The town added to its bottom line through the sale of a building to Tri-Star Realty, owner of the restaurant Eli’s on Whitney. The move to sell 2384 Whitney Ave. will bring $200,000 to Hamden. Leng said the building was purchased by the town for the Memorial Town Hall project four years ago. It was used for a staging area and office space during the project, but, with the end of the project near, it is no longer needed. Eli’s Restaurant Group Operations Director Shawn Reilly said the plan is to raze the building and construct an addition to Eli’s. The kitchen will be housed in the new addition, creating room for more seating and, Reilly said, hopefully new jobs, too. Michael Bellmore can be reached at 203-789-5282. Follow him on Twitter @bandango

Hamden Central Fire Station Returns Fully Renovated

Fire units return to old home in Hamden (video) Published: Thursday, June 21, 2012 By Ann DeMatteo, Register Staff adematteo@nhregister.com / Twitter: @annddematteo HAMDEN — After 32 months away from the center of town, Squad 1 and Rescue 1 are back in the fire station at Memorial Town Hall. “The goal was to get them back in here as soon as I could,” Fire Chief David A. Berardesca said this week. Firefighters and apparatus that worked out of what is known as Station 4 were transferred to other firehouses in fall 2009, when the Memorial Town Hall renovation began. Town Hall renovations are incomplete; the police station has moved to some Town Hall space, as well as a 40,000-square-foot addition. This summer, Berardesca, Deputy Fire Chief Bob Surprise and their administrative staff will move from Hamden Government Center to space in Town Hall. Berardesca and firefighters say they are happy with the upgrade, which includes a new exhaust system and heaters in the garage bay. The kitchen had been in the formerly dingy basement and now is on the second floor, in an all-purpose room where firefighters can relax in large lounge chairs and watch a large-screen television on off hours. There are also four new bunks, new lockers, a room for the watch commander and new bathrooms and showers. The exercise room is in the basement. The whole station has been painted. “It’s a welcome relief. It’s nice to be back home,” said Firefighter Paul Turner after he backed Squad 1, a fire pumper, into the bay Monday morning. Now that the truck has returned to Station 4 from the Ridge Road fire station, and Rescue 1 has come back from Mount Carmel, response times will improve, Berardesca said. When Station 4 closed, other stations had to expand their territories, meaning firefighters sometimes took a bit longer to arrive at calls. While contractors continue to work on “punch list” items for the fire station, the Town Building Committee is working to be sure the cracked mahogany doors on the garage bay are replaced. The cracking was noticed soon after the doors were installed late last year. “While it was probably not the best choice of materials for a fire station, they were installed and it was realized the wood was faulty,” said Curt Leng, chief administrative officer. The doors are going to be replaced soon with a more traditional metal fire station door that will have a mahogany look. The company that provided the doors will pay for the new ones, Leng said. Other mahogany doors throughout the refurbished Town Hall have faulty wood and discussions are under way to replace them with other wood doors or with mahogany-looking doors, Leng said. It is expected Town Hall will reopen at the end of the year, after the two old police station buildings are remediated, razed and a parking garage built, Leng said.