Dalton Health Board Extends Vote on Blighted Home
DALTON, Mass. — The Board of Health last Wednesday agreed to extend its vote on condemning 27 Mountain View Terrace to the October meeting.
Roberta Steele and her niece, Kathleen Winterstein, who lives in Utah, have been working since June to develop a plan to address the home's condition.
Steele has been cited several safety issues with the home, including clutter blocking egresses, a collapsing roof and porch, mold throughout the house, especially in the basement where there is water damage, and the lack of water, electricity, and gas.
Neighbors have complained that rats coming from the "abandoned" property have infested their homes.
Winterstein has provided the board with invoices and a projected timeline of the work and board Chair Robert Kinzer had wanted to see action, invoices, and a plan by last week's meeting.
"Things do come up and my background is a criminal prosecutor and a defense attorney. It gets suspicious when things are always brought up at the last minute," Kinzer said.
"[When] there's mysterious circumstances, but I haven't seen anything personally that makes me question it, other than the timing of it."
The board agreed not to condemn the home to allow the family time to address the issues because condemning the property would not result in immediate action and could take up to a year before any demolition could occur.
The timeline that Winterstein presented would have most of the work done by November and all the work left to be done would be making the house look nicer on the inside and livable for Steele.
Some work the board had requested to be done has been delayed due to several family emergencies.
"Life happened and she shared with us some experiences she had in her family and I took them as genuine. That changed my opinion on moving the timeline," Kinzer said.
"Frankly, it seemed like a real issue to me. It seemed important, it seemed genuine. So I was willing to allow the grace for that. It didn't seem like it was BS to me, and that's what I'm looking for."
During Wednesday's meeting, Winterstein informed the board that pest control had visited the property on Sept. 10 and provided invoices.
Pest Off conducted a thorough inspection in and around the property and found no evidence of rodents.
The investor Winterstein mentioned during the August meeting is still interested, but Steele has been on the fence because she is still considering moving into the home.
Winterstein said she has questioned why Steele is hesitant to sell and why she is considering living next to neighbors who do not like her. She said Steele had been harassed by the neighbors who had posted online about her, which has caused a lot of issues.
Steele told her that the neighbors have been "literally screaming in her face at her about her being rat woman and things like this."
During the meeting, Jonathan Baker of 33 Mountain View said he could not speak about the online harassment as he is not friends with his neighbors online. However, he has not seen the interactions Winterstein described and asked if there had been police involvement.
Kinzer said if there are ever situations like this, the police should be called.
Baker also expressed his frustration with Winterstein and Steele's lack of communication about updates, citing an email sent to the board with an update just hours before the meeting on Wednesday.
The update showed the work projected to be done in the coming weeks and months and the reason for the delay.
It showed that the furniture, yard waste, moldy drywall, insulation removal, and electrical and plumbing repairs have been scheduled.
The furniture will be removed on Sept. 17, and the yard waste will be removed on Sept. 19.
During the August meeting, Winterstein explained that Steele had started the yard work but had to stop because of health issues requiring bed rest on doctor's orders.
Winterstein said her daughter and her cousin were supposed to visit over Labor Day weekend to take over the yard waste project, pest control, and emptying of the home and garage. However, the cousin got into a car accident, and they were unable to help.
"They felt really bad about it, so I was actually grateful they went to bat, tried to figure out who they could get to do this," she said.
A friend from Pennsylvania who is visiting the area agreed to provide yard waste removal services "at a very low cost."
"I can't complain too much about it taking extra long, other than I wanted it done, obviously, well before this meeting, but we do have an agreement that they will be out there next week," she said.
Winterstein added that the tentative start date for the roofing is Sept. 30, but it is dependent on permit approval. The contractor has also revised its scope to handle the drywall repair and mold remediation, but plans to start in early October, pending permit approvals are in place.
The contractors will communicate and schedule their work in a phased and coordinated manner as the renovation progresses, Winterstein said.
Electrical and plumbing repairs, including new water heater installation, are estimated to start on Oct. 15 and no one has been hired for the heating system but they have spoken to several contractors who said the heating system can be installed within a week of placing a service order.
The drywall repair, paint, and installation of carbon monoxide and smoke detectors has a tentative start date of Nov. 4, Winterstein said in her email to the board.
Tags: blight, board of health, condemned,
