Clarksburg Board Orders Occupant to Vacate Condemned Property
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday ordered a moldering Daniels Road property to be vacated and referred it to the Attorney General's receivership program.
"I've been to this property multiple times, beginning last year, I worked with the owner's grandson who was living there, and to no avail," said Health Agent Valerie Bird told the board. "It's a mess. It's a mess."
The property at 750 Daniels Road was condemned by the board on April 21 as a public health hazard but neighbors' complaints date back further. Bird and James Massey of the Berkshire Public Health Alliance, contracted by the town, said the conditions are deplorable.
"There's so much trash there, it's, it's beyond belief, and the stench coming from the property itself, you can smell it when you pull up into the driveway, you can smell it, can be 30-40 feet away," Bird said. "They've had ample time, we've been working on this for over a year, it's been a year now, and there's been like no progress as far as the trash."
The health agents cited overwhelming trash and junk vehicles around the property and a mobile home fill with feces and trash, with holes in the walls and ceilings. The home had no heat or electricity and neighbors complained of a generator running all day.
"We made an arrangement, this is back in September, that they would continue working on the property," Bird said. "And it's only gotten worse."
Steven Candiloro had been ordered out of the mobile home after the April hearing but moved into a camper on the property. Occupants of another mobile home on the property apparently left some time ago.
He said some of the building debris wasn't on the property, owned by his grandmother, and that most of the junk vehicles were owned by someone else. Candiloro said he was taking out two trash bins a week, had removed one car, and had dealt with the heating issue.
Board members said it wasn't enough — a serious cleanup was going to require multiple roll-offs to make a dent in all the trash and debris.
"I did notice when I was there the amount of household garbage piled up on the front portion," said Chair Daniel Haskins. "I saw the barrels overflowing, and down there from 20 feet away, I could really strong odor coming from it, so really nothing's been removed."
Massey said there was a concern of the air quality inside the home, for both humans and three dogs living there. As to the dogs, Bird said they were not licensed or vaccinated.
The board's actions in April were made with the intention that Candiloro would continue to clean up area and repair the mobile home. Bird said she'd tried to get him to sign up for housing closer to a bus route so he could find employment, rather than being out in the "middle of nowhere."
"He doesn't have a driver's license, he doesn't have a job, he doesn't have an order to clean up the property, he's relying on his grandmother," she said. "It's not fair to her, and it is not fair to the neighborhood. The stench is horrific."
Town Administrator Ronald Boucher said the former police chief and the Board of Health had been there "a million times" and described the property as a "shithole."
"It's deplorable to me, and I'll be very honest with you, to let something go like that is inconceivable to me," he said, adding to property owner Joan Wyman, "you shouldn't have to go through this. I'm very honest. I feel bad for you at this point in your life. You shouldn't have to do this."
Bird went through the board's options again — issue citations to Wyman or refer it to the AG's Office, which was her recommendation.
"They would choose a receiver who's been vetted by the court. He would present a plan to the court what it would take to clean it up. He would start the process and go back monthly to the court to give a progress report at the end, when it's compliant, then he puts a lien on the property," she explained. "At that point, he can call in his lien, and the property can be auctioned at that price. At the minimum price is what he has into it.
"If it's not substantial, she may want to buy it. He may want to buy it. That's one way to get it compliant without, without Mrs. Wyman footing the bill."
Attorney General's Abandoned Housing Initiative and Neighborhood Renewal Division works with municipalities to address blight while trying to balance property owner's rights with the public health needs and works through the court system. Bird believed that the Daniels Road property would be a good candidate.
When the board voted to condemn in April, Select Board member Seth Alexander had voted no, citing how difficult cleanup could be and believing that Candiloro was making a "good faith effort."
On Monday, with Alexander absent, board member Colton Andrews said, "I don't see how there's been any good faith effort, really, in theory, from July of last year."
He and Haskins voted to order Candiloro off the property by Friday at 3 p.m. and asked Bird to start the process of having it placed into receivership. They also urged Candiloro to take advantage of Bird's resources in getting housing help.
Tags: blight, condemned, public health,
