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An Anton Media Group Publication
VOL. 56, NO. 47
FARMINGDALE-OBSERVER.COM
JULY 20 - 26, 2016
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Farmingdale Property Owners Put On Notice Village to crack down, impose fines on code violations
BY CHRIS BOYLE
farmingdale@antonmediagroup.com
Farmingdale Village residents who may be remiss in trimming their lawns or cleaning up their yard may soon find themselves hit with fines a bit faster then they may have expected going forward. At the July Board of Trustees meeting, the village unanimously voted to pass a measure that would amend local code to allow officials a significant amount of leeway when it comes to enforcing property maintenance, according to Mayor Ralph Ekstrand. Essentially, this will remove a great deal of red tape and tighten up timelines for compliance before fines are doled out, he said. “This is more of a cleanup
procedure than anything else…we used to have a timetable, especially with ‘zombie properties’…you would tell the property owner that they had to maintain their property and that they would have ‘X’ amount of time to do it, and if they didn’t we would hit them with a summons,” he said. “Now, we want to cut to the chase and say, ‘Look, if you don’t mow your lawn, if you don’t maintain the property, we’re going to “zap” you with a fine right away.’ ” Ekstrand said that previously, code dictated that warnings had to be given in each instance, regardless of the past behavior of the property owner; now, he noted, the village has the ability to levy fines immediately upon repeat offenders who refuse to comply with local ordinances, and
actually step in and conduct maintenance themselves if a resident—who would be billed for the work—proves unwilling to cooperate. “For example, if we give you a week and you clean your property up, and then three weeks later the grass is growing again and you haven’t cut it and you keep doing it, this gives us the right to say that we’re going to ‘zap’ you,” he said. “If they don’t clean up the property, our public works department goes in under our current code and cleans up the property, and then we’ll charge the resident for it. If they don’t pay the bill, we have the legal right to apply it to their taxes, to actually put a tax lien on them if they don’t maintain the property.” This new law affects all properties in the village, residential and
commercial, as well as vacant lots and so-called zombie properties—abandoned homes normally left by their previous owners in an unsightly state of disrepair. “The village has approximately a dozen zombie houses left, which is actually pretty good for a village with all the problems that have occurred since the mortgage fiasco of 2007,” Ekstrand said. “We are currently maintaining all of the zombie properties in the village, and billing their owners appropriately. That includes vacant commercial property as well.” However, Ekstrand pointed out that this new measure isn’t simply about cracking down on people who don’t mow their lawns or pick up
see CODE VIOLATIONS on page 4
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Magic And Music On Tap On St. Kilian Stage The St. Kilian Players theatrical troupe, now in its 29th year, will stage a production of Aladdin Jr., a musical adaptation of the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. This is a shorter version of the show currently running on Broadway. The plot, however, is the same, and contains all of the story’s classic characters such as Princess Jasmine, the Genie, Jafar and, of course, Aladdin. Pictured are cast members singing at the Village Green in Farmingdale with (foreground center) Joseph Morelli as Genie. See more on Page 1A. (Photo by Bernie Geary | ARDSALLAGH Photography)
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