The vacant multi-family home at 40 – 42 Gilbert St. in Derby has so many problems — trash in the yard, broken windows, a sagging porch — neighbor Nicole Riccio made up a story to keep her daughter away from it.
“I tell my daughter that a tiger lives in there because I don’t want her to go anywhere near that place,” Riccio said.
The troubled property is owned by Derby Alderman Stephen Iacuone and has been in a state of disrepair for years. However, it is not on the city’s blight list.
The blight list is a tool used by Derby government to address neglected or abandoned properties.
The owners of properties on the blight list face fines if they do not start to address the issues raised by blight inspectors.
The city’s Board of Aldermen has failed to add Iacuone’s property to the blight list, despite recent recommendations from the inspectors and a subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen.
Alderman Iacuone, through his attorney, fellow Alderman Barbara DeGennaro, has said his property has special circumstances.
Iacuone’s property and home have extensive water damage caused by a flawed Derby drainage system that sees Iacuone’s property inundated with water just about every time it rains.
The Aldermen and Iacuone have been discussing purchasing a portion or all of his property so that construction crews can repair and improve the drainage system in the neighborhood.
However, Derby blight officers have argued that the blight on the property and the larger drainage issues are separate problems.
Neighbors, meanwhile, say they deal with the same flooding problems as Iacuone.
Enough, Neighbors Say
While the Aldermen won’t add the property to the blight list, neighbors live with the consequences.
People dump their trash in the backyard and kids throw rocks at the windows. They questioned why the house on the property is still standing.
Nicole Riccio lives at 17 Gilbert St. She doesn’t understand why Iacuone wants to keep the dilapidated property, she said.
“Why does he want it? It would be one thing if he was keeping up on it and wanted to sell it, but he’s let it go straight to hell,” she said.
Riccio also called the abandoned house ​“creepy,” ​“disgusting” and an ​“eyesore.”
Alexander Castellini lives at 6 Gilbert St. and owns and rents out the surrounding properties at 2 Gilbert, 4 Gilbert and 8 Monaco Circle.
Castellini said Iacuone is preventing the surrounding drainage system in the area from getting fixed because he wants a better price from the city to buy it. A 2009 letter shows Iacuone wanted $120,000 for the property, which included reimbursement for some repairs he made in the house.
“I think he just wants to get more money for it,” Castellini said. ​“Steve is holding it up now. He needs to come to an agreement with the city. He’s stopping the work from getting done.”
Tropical Storm Irene and the melting runoff from the October snowstorm flooded many of the basements in the area, including his own, Castellini said. Iacuone’s property sits on drainage pipes that need fixing.
“If they can go under the house, they can get into the pipe work and fix the drainage,” Castellini said.
The property is attracting dumping and vandalism, he said. It sits just off Route 34, up the road from the Marie Antoinette bridal shop.
Pointing to broken windows at the house, Castellini said he has chased away kids throwing rocks at the house. Castellini can also see a large old TV, a tire and miscellaneous trash in the backyard of 40 – 42 Gilbert St. from his adjacent property.
“What if a child wandered in there?” asked Maria Brancadoro, who lives next door to 42 Gilbert and rents from Castellini. Brancadoro moved in about eight months ago.
“It just seems like there’s more stuff since we’ve been here,” she said.
Brancadoro said she’s also seen people dumping trash in the yard and she suspected homeless people living inside at one point.
“Look at what we have to look at,” she said. ​“It’s falling apart.”
One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said she felt Iacuone’s position with the city has kept the property standing.
“That thing is an eyesore and it needs to be taken down by the city,” she said. ​“But he’s got the city backing him up. It’s not right.”
The property was discussed in an executive session at the Jan. 26 Board of Aldermen meeting.
Executive session meetings are closed to the public and are allowed in certain circumstances, such as when a city is talking about a real estate deal and publicly airing the dollar amount could compromise the deal between the parties involved.
However, in this case — both Iacuone and DeGennaro are included in the discussions, which would seem to make the need for executive session unnecessary.
After the Jan. 26 closed-door session, the Aldermen voted to table the discussion until they could pow-wow with the city’s treasurer.
Click here for more on the Jan. 26 meeting.
No action on Derby Alderman’s dilapidated property
Neighbors to Derby Aldermen: Do Something
Derby to again consider adding Alderman’s property to the blight list