Overgrown vegetation is one of the many concerns of the Westfield Heath Department after the owners of this house located at 31 Alquat Street in Westfield vacated the property leaving it to the elements. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Health Department, working in conjunction with the Law Department, is attempting to bring abandoned properties into compliance with state and local codes.
Acting Health Director Joe Rouse reported to the Board of Health Wednesday night that there are 13 abandoned properties in the city that have become not only eyesores, but an environment which shelters wildlife which may carry disease, such as rabies, and which pose a potential human health risk.
Abandoned properties such as this house located at 56 Yankee Circle in Westfield has Westfield health officials looking into bringing the property into compliance with state and local codes. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“These properties are mostly in foreclosure,” Rouse said. “so they’re vacant and not being maintained. They’re all pretty much in the same condition because of a lack of landscaping and exterior maintenance.
Typically the property owner is notified to bring the property into compliance, but property in foreclosure may be owned by an out-of-state bank.
“Sometimes it’s hard to determine who owns the property because the banks flip them so much,” Rouse said.
The Health Department is working in coordination with the Law Department to determine ownership and how to contact those owners.
“The Law Department is doing deed research who the owner is,” Rouse said. “We’ll then contact that owner to address the maintenance concerns which are mostly tall grass and weeds which are a harborage for wildlife.”
In other business Rouse said that city officials are meeting with Tighe & Bond, the city’s engineering consultant for the Twiss Street transfer station tipping increase, next week for a site visit. Transfer station consultants will also participate in the site visit to discuss possible reconfigurations of the facility to maximize its greatest potential.
The tipping increase is a concern to the City Council and Mayor Daniel M. Knapik. The tipping increase is a possible revenue stream and could offset the city’s solid waste collection and disposal expenses which total several millions dollars a year.
The city hired Tighe & Bond to develop schematic design and identify the best option for restructuring the Twiss Street facility. Those plans will be presented to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as part of the city petition to increase the tipping limit, currently 50 tons a day.
That tip limit is just sufficient for the city’s curbside solid waste collection.
Rouse said the schematic design will be a tool in determining what tonnage increase the city will seek under the new DEP transfer station permit.
“The tonnage cap will be dependent on the design,” Rouse said. “This project has not been progressing as anticipated, so I plan to meet with Tighe & Bond and the other (transfer station) experts next week to get it back on track.”
Rouse said key elements of that reconfiguration include building siting and traffic flow patterns. The DEP is requiring the city to enclose the tipping area at the transfer station as a condition of a tonnage increase.
The current open-air tipping area attracts large birds that pose a risk to motorist on the Massachusetts Turnpike directly abutting the tipping facility and to aircraft using Barnes Regional Airport.
