Sound Off: UNKEMPT PROPERTIES NEED ACTION
Thursday, October 25, 2012
After reading the Courier Post article by Lucas Murray about Gloucester City
fining owners of unkempt properties, I found my experience to be totally opposite.
From May 16 to August 17 I have made 24 phone calls to City officials, mainly Inspector Joe Stecklair, Jack Lipsett and Mayor William James, concerning the two properties bordering my home in Gloucester Heights.
Both properties fit the description city officials claim to be “unkempt properties.” On May 30 Stecklair met me at my home and after seeing the situation said, “John, I didn’t know it was this bad, you shouldn’t have to live like this.” He then called the “out-of-town owner” and said, “Jamie I’m here at Princeton Ave. There’s a problem, its bad out here, something must be done immediately.” A 2 p.m. meeting was set for that day. The other property on Oxford Avenue, an abandoned, bank-owned house with a collapsed building, is known to be a safety hazard to City officials. The lawn has been mowed twice all summer.
The Princeton Avenue property is still a mosquito breeding, unkempt jungle littered with the “out-of-towners” filthy dumpsters and broken down equipment.
In Haddon Township, where he resides, this probably would not be tolerated. But in Gloucester, where he has a city dumpster contract and busy construction business (permits, fees), it is no big deal. Why? How about the quality of life on the East side of town?
John Houser, Gloucester Heights
