NORWICH – Continuous efforts to fix up property in the south section of the Town of Norwich have been underway for over a month.
Town Supervisor David Law said the property known as the Halfway House and surrounding buildings have been on the top of his priority list for some time. The property, which he earlier referred to as an ‘eyesore,’ has been in disarray for over a decade. Law’s goal was to get code and health inspectors to survey the property and rectify the problems.
Law explained to the board a month ago the area needed more than just cosmetic work, saying the living conditions looked to be unsafe. In the past month, Law recruited both the code enforcer and health inspector to view the properties in question.
Law says the results of the inspection have led to some serious changes and should lead to even more in the near future. “The water passed inspection, the yard has been started to be cleaned up, there can be no sales out front like in the past and a new roof is being put on next week,” said Law.
Law met with landowners and informed them that the property was to be fixed or tenants could no longer live there due to safety conditions. The property failed to meet some of the codes and the problems are to be fixed. “There is a list of repairs to be done, but it is starting to look better already,” said Law. He also said landlords have until October to complete the work on the bigger apartment house on the property.
Law explained his meeting with the landlords and officials regarding the problem to the board at Monday’s meeting. Councilman Charles Brooks says he hoped the landowners keep up on the project. He also said at least ten years ago, the same property was said by landlords to be demolished and a new structure was going to be put in its place.
The board agreed they all need to keep track of the progress being made and Law said he will have the dates of completion by what was enforced by code in the coming weeks to better track repairs and the timeline property owners need to abide by.