Derby Aldermen voted Sept. 27 to place two more residential properties on the city’s blight list.
The abandoned house at 196 Hawkins St. has a convoluted history and city officials aren’t sure at this point who holds the mortgage. It is making its second appearance on the blight list.
Derby’s two facilities inspectors — Joseph Moore and Andrew Cota — first inspected the property in October 2011.
“A warning letter was sent to the owners in regard to overgrown vegetation including weeds, grass, trash and other debris,” according to a letter on file at Derby City Hall.
The inspectors recommended the property be added to the city’s blight list on Oct. 3, 2011 after repeated visits indicated the property had been abandoned.
Property owners with homes in the city’s blight list face fines of $100 a day if they don’t address the problems.
Nationstar Mortgage, LLC took over the property and representatives started to clean the property, according to city paperwork. The blight problems were resolved as of Jan. 26, 2012 — only to appear once again when a new owner took control of the property in February 2012.
City officials have been unable to get notice to the property owner. The house is once again abandoned.
Meanwhile, the siding of the house has fallen off in spots, the lawn is overgrown — and, as of late September, there were a bunch of feral cats living at the property.
Blight inspectors also noted that poison sumac and poison oak is growing unchecked on the property.
The Aldermen Sept. 27 voted unanimously to put the property on the blight list.
They did the same thing with 98 Water St., a home near the Derby Police Department. The rear of that property was filled with trash, according to the blight inspectors, who thought the garbage was being dumped onto the property from residents from Caroline Street, which sits atop a hill above Water Street.
The sheer volume of trash attracted cats — probably an indication there were rodents in the trash, blight inspectors noted.
Derby police were notified of the dumping problem but couldn’t tie it to anyone from Caroline Street. The city has been sending letters to the property owner since March but hasn’t seen progress.
There were about 30 or so open blight files in Derby City Hall as of late September.
