By JACQUELINE DURETT
Correspondent
SOUTH AMBOY — A Stockton Street couple who had enough with an abandoned house next door to them sought help from the City Council.
At the June 15 City Council meeting, Jennifer and Bryan Nesi said they have called code enforcement multiple times about the home next door to theirs. They said over the past six years, it has become inhabited by wildlife as well as squatters. In fact, there is a tree growing inside it, Jennifer Nesi said.
The Nesis told the council the situation was negatively impacting their quality of life in South Amboy.
“It’s not very pleasant to live next to,” Jennifer Nesi said.
Business Administrator Camille Tooker told the couple the city was aware of the problem with the property, which was abandoned by the owners.
“We tried to work with the bank,” Tooker said, adding that the city went in and cleaned it up a while back. “The bank promised they were going to come in and do everything else.”
Tooker said based on what the couple told her, someone would go out to the property to determine if the structure was still safe.
Council President Mickey Gross, who works for the county health department, said he would be sending someone out the following day to look at the property as well. He said he would be looking for erosion and rodents. If the inspector finds violations, he said an inspector has the authority to issue a summons to the bank, which would result in a lien being placed on the property.
As for the squatter situation, Mayor Fred Henry said the city would also make sure the structure was locked up securely.
“We just want to work with the town,” Bryan Nesi said.
The city’s answers, however, were not enough for resident Ken Feeley, who wanted to know why the issue has been going on since 2010 and had become significant enough that the Nesis had to attend a meeting to seek remedy.
“It should have been addressed a long time ago,” Feeley said. “You need to help these people.”
While officials did not have specifics on the situation on Stockton Street, Gross and Tooker said there are processes to address abandoned properties, processes that can sometimes be held up by the courts.
In addition, if the taxes are being paid, Tooker said, what the city can do is also limited. She also said there are still properties that have not had insurance resolution following superstorm Sandy.
“We don’t appreciate that building looking like that, but we do have to follow the rules that we have to follow,” Tooker said.
However, Tooker assured both Feeley and the Nesis that there would be significant improvements within a month.
Last week, Tooker said the city had cleaned the property and boarded up the house.
“It has been declared an unsafe structure by our construction official,” she said. “We continue our efforts through code enforcement for repair or demolition of the building.”