Village To Crack Down On Property Maintenance Issues

If you're letting your grass grow too high or not doing needed repairs on your property, the Village of Massapequa Park may be coming after you soon.

At this week’s Village Board meeting, Mayor James Altadonna announced a public hearing to be held on Monday, June 11, to amend the Village Code regarding property maintenance in response to certain property owners’ flagrant disregard of it.

“As you know, there have been some difficult times, and it’s affected a number of properties in the Village, either with foreclosures or with house maintenance,” he said. “Quite frankly, this Board is tired of doing the job of banks and individuals in maintaining people’s properties, or asking them to do so.”

Previously, the Village worked with offending property owners, asking them bring their properties up to Village codes. But according to Altadonna, work was never done in a timely fashion, forcing the Village to take firmer steps.

“We have instructed council to come up with one of the strictest Village Codes pertaining to property maintenance,” he said. “It’s egregious that people work hard in this Village, come home, and have to look at some of the unsightliness that they have to look at. It’s unfair to residents and it’s unfair to staff that are constantly chasing these individuals and banks to get them to maintain their property.”

Altadonna said that the new law will have the teeth to get offending property owners to comply with it.

“We’re working with council to make this law punitive, so it gets people’s attention,” he said. “Basically, what we’re going to let them know is that they’re going to have to clean their properties weekly and maintain them, and failure to do so will render steep fines and leans on their property. We will not sit back anymore and wait for people to do what they’re supposed to do.”

The law will govern maintenance issues such as (but not limited to) uncut lawns; homes in disrepair; and abandoned or filthy swimming pools. More details will be revealed at the meeting scheduled for June 11.

“This will be a strong message to banks and individuals,” Altadonna warned. “If you own property in this Village, you will maintain it, as everyone else does.”

Also discussed at the meeting was the employment status of Village worker Vasilios Tsimis, in regards to misconduct issues which Altadonna said were sufficient enough to warrant grounds for the dismissal of Tsimis, who works as a mechanic.

“There’s not much I can say about it...however, there was a hearing, and it was found in the Village’s favor,” he said. “There are some more legal challenges, but we’re going to adopt the decision of the hearing to dismiss this individual, with cause.”

The next meeting of the Massapequa Park Village Board is scheduled for Monday, June 11, at 8 p.m.