Published: September 13, 2009 11:11 pm      

Residents want a cleaner Oldtown

Citizens cite numerous quality of life issues

OLDTOWN — Bretta Reinhard chalks it up to personal preference.

The Allegany County public information officer sat in on an interview with code enforcement officers Jerry Michael and Pattie Talley on Friday to discuss an Oldtown neighborhood.

“We can enforce the county code ... but we can’t tell people how to live,” Michael said.

Last week’s Opessa Street house fire brought out the neighbors in droves. Much like any catastrophe, there always will be onlookers.

But these spectators, retired and current professionals and all of them longtime Oldtown residents, stood on neighboring lawns with concerns much more pressing than a single blaze. Several residents said there are numerous quality of life issues, including junk code violations, noise disturbances, dogs running loose, all-terrain vehicles being ridden on public roadways at high speeds and other threats to spending a calm, quiet evening sitting on the front porch.

About 15 of those residents along a three-quarters-mile stretch of Opessa Street recently met with Allegany County Bureau of Police Bobby Dick. From that meeting, a multi-faceted approach from county and state agencies are looking to help clean up the neighborhood.

“A lot of it involves dilapidated, run-down properties,” Dick said. “We have various places like this around the county.”

Many times, Dick said, there is nothing more than civil complaints but “sometimes they cross over (to) criminal violations. “If it wasn’t for looks, these people probably wouldn’t have come forward. Criminals do things that get people’s attention.”

More than 177 new code complaints have been opened in the Michael and Talley’s office. Two brothers share a property and live in separate mobile homes. Neither home has electricity, heat or running water, making officials wonder — where human waste is dumped — and worry — about the welfare of these men and others like them. The Allegany County Health Department is consulted in cases like this.

It’s even worse when children are involved. At a home on Opessa Street, Child Protective Services was called when a husband and wife, along with at least one child, were found living without electricity and running water. The electric company cut an illegal rigging of electricity. Michael and Talley found more than 1.2 tons of household garbage lying in and around the yard. Michael said the conditions were ripe for rats, other vermin and dogs.

The home in question first became an issue in March 2007, Michael said. The county sent a letter regarding stockpiled garbage and the resident cleaned it up. But “the cycle has just repeated itself” many times over, Michael said, and the couple paid multiple fines for code violations.

Last month, Michael again was alerted to a large amount of garbage in the yard. The resident had truckloads of tires, bags of clothes, household garbage, a mattress, a refrigerator, an inoperable riding lawnmower, a screen door, gym equipment and an old washing machine. There was enough there, Michael said, for the county to begin the abatement process. At that point, the county hires a junk and salvage company to haul everything away and sends the bill to the homeowner.

Michael said the man of the house claimed to have loaded his trucks and waited for a sufficient amount of trash before taking it to the landfill. This time, however, the state Motor Vehicle Administration had removed his license plates for failing to maintain insurance on the vehicles.

“He had no (legal) vehicle,” Michael said.

In addition to the 1.2 tons of household garbage, salvage workers removed three inoperable vehicles from the property.

Dick said the residents who came to meet with him appeared to be law-abiding people with a genuine concern about the state of their community. They’re the type of people, he said, “you’d love to have for neighbors.”

“It’s certainly a priority for us,” Dick said. “We’ll do everything we can legally to help maintain a high quality of life in Oldtown.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.