A long-blighted house on Derby Avenue finally came down last week after city officials declared it a danger to the public.
The rental house at 196 Derby Ave. was badly damaged in a fire that took the life of a Derby resident in March 2010.
Since then the property has sat rotting, much to the dismay of neighbors like Frederick Picroski.
Picroski has been a fixture at Derby Aldermen meetings, repeatedly reminding his local elected officials of the property’s deteriorating condition.
Picroski worried about neighborhood kids because the property was attracting copper thieves and vagrants a few feet from a school bus stop.
He said last week he was happy to see the eyesore removed, but is a little worried about what happens next.
“Now it’s a vacant lot. If it’s seeded and grass grows and somebody mows it, odds are we won’t have a problem,” he said.
Public records list the property owner of 196 Derby Ave. as Kenneth Crepeau, of Milford.
He walked away from the property after the 2010 fire, according to comments made in 2012 by then-Derby building inspector David Kopjanski.
The property was placed on the city’s blight list, where it accumulated $143,700 in fines as of May 5. The owner also owes back property taxes ($17,353.80) and sewer taxes ($2,081.50) to the city.
The city started to foreclose on the property last July. That process is still in the courts. Court records show the property is the subject of a 2011 civil lawsuit brought against Crepeau by local businessman Pasquale Civitella.
Push came to shove over the property in late April, when Derby building official Carlo Sarmiento inspected it with an engineer.
The foundation of the house was in obvious disrepair, and the extensive fire damage on the upper floors was compounded by being exposed to the elements for years.
“It was bad,” Sarmiento said. “The front porch was leaning like the Tower of Pisa. A mo-ped could have come along, bumped into it and knocked it off.”
The engineer officially declared the house in “imminent danger of collapse.”
That allowed the city — acting under state law — to send a threatening letter to Crepeau saying he had 10 days to do something about the property or the city would do something for him, and possibly relay the matter to the state’s attorney’s office if the letter was ignored.
Crepeau responded to the letter quickly, and hired contractor Frank Pepe of Derby to tear the house down. It was a giant pile of rubbish by May 27.
Crepeau still owns the property, and will likely come to the Board of Aldermen at some point, probably to request that his blight fines be reduced since he removed the offending house.
Derby officials said the tear-down is evidence that the city is serious about getting rid of eyesores.
The city has created a committee that deals specifically with blighted properties, and created two new local laws meant to give the city more leverage to quickly tear down problem properties — without taking over ownership of them.
Alderman Carmen DiCenso is the chairman of the new blight committee created by Mayor Anita Dugatto.
He promised more buildings will be coming down in Derby.
“When we took over, we said we wanted to take care of blight. We have four to five other buildings on the horizon,” DiCenso said.
DiCenso said blighted properties can wreak havoc on property values, not to mention lessen the quality of life of Derby residents.
As of May 5, 25 properties on the city’s blight list owed a total of $2.69 million in blight fines to Derby.
The property at 245 Francis St., once home to Castle Seltzer, owes the most money to Derby, totaling $207,800. The property, now falling apart, was abandoned by owner Brian Dworkin, according to city officials. Dworkin moved on to greener pastures.
DiCenso complained loudly to the Valley Indy May 30 about a horrid-looking property at 67 Minerva St. The building on the Caroline Street side of the property looks like a bomb went off. DiCenso said it’s a miracle a child hasn’t wandered onto the property and gotten hurt. He complained that a fence is needed to ensure safety.
“Someone is going to get killed there,” he said May 30.
The property has an unpaid blight fine of $113,000. The property is partially owned by John Guedes, a prominent developer in the region.
A fence was erected at the property Friday a few hours after the Valley Indy contacted Guedes about DiCenso’s concerns.
Workers were also spotted at the property last week cleaning up the Minerva Street side of the property. Guedes, in an e‑mail, said there is a sale pending on the property.
Derby City Treasurer Keith McLiverty has been urging city lawmakers to get tough on blight for more than a year.
Derby has a density problem, McLiverty has said repeatedly. Tearing down a single, dilapidated property can do wonders for a neighborhood.
“We’re not helping anyone’s property values by doing nothing about blight,” McLiverty said. “When a blighted property comes down, it is a benefit for everyone. Reducing density should also be a huge target in the city.”
He credited DiCenso and the new blight committee for getting more aggressive with blight.
The city also has roughly $200,000 in a fund set up to specifically deal with tearing down blighted properties.
“They have a war chest to take this on,” McLiverty said.
Here is a list of blighted properties in Derby as of May 5, along with the amount owed in fines.
The information comes unedited from the city’s building department.
23 Anson St. — $100,400
105 Camptown Road — $116,400
20 Clark Ave. — $125,600
199 Caroline St. — $51,800 (held in abeyance)
196 Derby Ave. — $143,700
189 Derby Ave. — $195,500
350 Derby Ave. — $116,000
108 Derby Ave. — $79,500
256 Derby Ave. — $100,400 (appealed, designated blighted, started remediation, incomplete as of May 5)
245 Francis St. — $207,800
46 Fifth St. — $103,300
81 Grove Ave. — $79,500
105 Hawkins St. — $167,100
201 Hawkins St. — $170,400
103 Hawkins St. — $51,800
226 Hawthorne Ave. — $74,400
249 Hawthorne Ave. — $61,400
67 Minerva St. — $113,000
77 Minerva St. — $188,800
49 Marshal Lane — $132,200
12 Ninth St. — $79,500
114 Olivia St. — $6,700 (appealed blight, lost, remediated, owes $6,700)
253 Roosevelt Drive — $51,800 (property sold, remediated blight, owes $51,800 penalty)
310 Silver Hill Road — $159,000
13 South Division St. — $11,100 (owner remediated blight, but failed to pay penalty of $11,100)
98 Water St. — $55,500 (appealed and lost blight appeal, remediating blight but has not completely complied)
Here is a photo gallery showing what 196 Derby Ave. looked like after a fire in 2010:
