Officials get tough on negligent Main Street property owners
By: Cara Latham
PLUMSTED Township officials are looking to crack down on property owners who leave their buildings abandoned and in deteriorating conditions in the business district.
Officials plan to condemn one Main Street building and may take further action on a second neighboring building in response to property owners they say have ignored township efforts to see them repaired, according to Mayor Ron Dancer.
The Township Committee on April 4 authorized the initial proceedings for condemnation of the former Hartman’s Drug Store in the center of Main Street next to the township Welcome Center (formerly the Municipal Building), the mayor said.
The building was abandoned near the beginning of 2002 and was cited for not complying with property maintenance and construction codes, Mayor Dancer said.
"We were concerned because of the neglect and abandonment, which posed an imminent threat to the public," Mayor Dancer said.
Deterioration to the building can be seen from the street and officials were worried that its close proximity to other buildings that form a row along Main Street would cause a problem if a fire were to break out. Township officials shut the electricity off, he added.
The owner, Esther Hartman, had appealed the violations issued by the township’s construction officer, but the Ocean County Board of Construction Appeals upheld them on Dec. 21, 2006, Mayor Dancer said.
"There’s a significant penalty per month every month that the violations continue to go unaddressed," he said. "There’s also a contempt of court and a warrant for the arrest of the property owner, but the property owner lives in Maryland," Mayor Dancer said.
Municipal Judge Paul Carr also ruled that the property owner failed to comply, he added.
The township has been unsuccessful in bringing the propetry owner back to court, and as a result of the two legal rulings in the township’s favor, the Township Committee followed through to initiate the condemnation proceedings.
The township has no current plans for either property because the Township Committee has only authorized the first phase of the condemnation proceedings, which is to serve notice to the property owner, Mayor Dancer said.
The Township Committee instructed its attorney not to proceed with actually filing the condemnation complaint in Superior Court until the township receives a response from the property owner, Mayor Dancer said.
If Ms. Hartman fails to respond in a "responsible manner and in a timely fashion," the second phase will be to serve a condemnation complaint in Superior Court, Mayor Dancer added.
Still, "we remain hopeful that the Phase One action taken by the governing body will be the catalyst to have the property owner maintain the property, and eliminate the code and property maintenance code violations."
The township has not taken action on the second property, which is located on North Main Street, diagonally across from the New Egypt Auto Body. But the owner was given until last week to submit a maintenance and restoration plan for the structure to the construction official, Mayor Dancer said.
"The second property owner (James Viviano) was unresponsive to the construction officials request for a plan of action and therefore he’ll proceed with issuing summons," for violations to the property maintenance and construction codes, Mayor Dancer said.
Mr. Viviano has owned the property for about two to three years, but the building has been abandoned for approximately 10 years, Mayor Dancer said.
The former owner, Morris Friedman, had died before Mr. Viviano bought it. The property had received a state Department of Environmental Protection violation under the Friedman estate for an underground heating oil tank, but the contamination was remediated before Mr. Viviano purchased it, he said. At one point, it served as Al-Dot’s Restaurant, and as an attorney’s office while under the Friedman estate, Mayor Dancer said.
Mayor Dancer said that when Mr. Viviano bought the house about two to three years ago, it was around the same time the township received the NPP grant, and officials had hoped the building would have been restored.
Mayor Dancer said township officials have been working to avoid such proceedings as they had been notifying the owners of the two properties in the New Egypt business district for the past two years about grant opportunities that would help them upgrade their properties.Still, the property owners refused to cooperate, he said.
Ms. Hartman could not be reached for comment and Mr. Viviano did not return calls by press time.
The township is entering its third year of a five-year $525,000 Neighborhood Preservation Program grant, which provides grants to property owners within the business district to fix their properties.
So far, the township has used $225,000 of that money to refurbish and make improvements to other properties, and most building owners the township has approached so far have agreed to make improvements to their properties using the grants.
Mayor Dancer said further action could be taken by the Township Committee because "we are committed to beautifying our downtown," and want to have a thriving and aesthetically pleasing downtown business area.
"I think that in any downtown business area that when you have owners that are abandoning their properties and not maintaining them, that it certainly has a negative impact on the overall appearance and business viability of a downtown area," Mayor Dancer said. "We’re not going to condone it. We’re taking action, have taken action, and I think this sends a clear message to property owners that will totally abandon their properties."

