Friends of Millville

The Friends of Millville site has been hacked.   Twice.  The big change was in removing the post that referred to Dennis Ingraldi. We are not implying that he had anything to do with this highly illegal activity, just stating a fact.  Internet activity logs are now being reviewed.

Slumlord of the Week:

Dennis Ingraldi makes yet another appearance. Ingraldi owns two properties at 222-224 S. 3rd St.

Both have been carved into multiple units. The soffit on one of the units is badly in need of repair. Pigeons came in to roost.

The pigeon droppings finally caused the drop ceiling to cave into the children’s room, covering the floor and their bed.

Ingraldi, 634 E. Landis Ave., Vineland, owns 12 rentals in Millville. One of his units was declared unfit for habitation a while ago, but is currently rented out.

It is this sort of negiigence that casts a bad light on the good landlords, of which this city has many.

Tuesday night was the monthly Center City Neighborhood Group meeting.
The meeting featured the Silver Run School Choir preforming Jungle Book. We heard from Commissioners Jim Quinn, Joe Derella and Tim Shannon. AHOME announced a program to help homeowners AVOID foreclosure. There was much information available for Center City Residents. If you missed this meeting you can stop by the RRCA on High Street. We bought most of the material to share with folks who could not make this meeting. Enjoy the video below and to see more go to http:/www.youtube.com/mkrull1 Its is wonderful to have families come out and support the children. buy cialisbuy cialisbuy levitrabuy levitrabuy propeciabuy propeciabuy somabuy somabuy levitrabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy levitrabuy propeciabuy soma

The City of Millville plans to vote on an Ordinance, on Tuesday May 20th 7pm at City Hall, that would enable the city to buy Millville Gardens and demolish it. This is something that in the long run would be a benefit for the 3rd Ward and the city. The city has spent many hours of police time to keep up with the crime at this development and the neighbors have been eager to have this eyesore fixed.
PLEASE BE THERE TO SUPPORT YOUR NEIGHBORS!!

110 North 4th Street is our nominee for this week’s slumlord award.

At first glance, the house appears to be well maintained. However, Friends of Millville believes that  architectural repairs should be in keeping with the character of the building and of the neighborhood.

The use of treated lumber for front porch repairs indicates that the owners will use the cheapest method to maintain the house at the expense of the historic nature of the neighborhood and building.

The inability to perform basic maintenance such as removing gang graffiti indicates an unwillingness to protect the investments of others in a neighborhood.

The landlords might claim they didn’t know about the defacement of their property. That defense holds as much salt as claiming an ignorance of the law.

If you have taken it upon yourself to own a rental property, you have an obligation to regularly inspect that property.  You also have an obligation to screen your tenants so that you are not renting out to people that will harbor the criminal or nuisance element.

This property is owned by Suman and Chandrika Mehta, 118 Iris Dr., Egg Harbor Twp, NJ, 08234.

There is a house in the arts district on Mulberry Street that continuously hangs laundry all over the front porch. Not just over the railing, they have a clothesline set up. I have driven by and seen it countless times over the last couple of years.

I understand we have no ordinance against this; if we do I have not been able to find a reference to it. Is it time for one (especially for the Arts District?).

This is an excerpt from Vineland’s code:

SECTION PM-308.0 ADDITIONAL DUTIES

PM-308.2 Laundry: At no time should laundry be located on front porches, deck railings or any other appurtenances that can be viewed from the roadway.

Congratulations to Friends of Millville member Mark Krull for winning the school board election. With the count being unofficial at this time, we  understand he came in number two. We are confident that he will do his best to pursue this position with integrity and dignity.

Friends of Millville has a lot of people quietly helping us in the background. Today we offer a heartfelt thanks to Amanda Page for her diligent support. Webhosting and domain name registration has been donated annually as her way of supporting our efforts.

Thank you, Amanda.

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In other news, Friends of Millville has adopted a road in Millville. We will be organizing 4 cleanup days a year on a section of Fairton Road. Please check back soon for more details.

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Slumlord of the Week follow up. Millville Gardens is still our choice for Slumlord of the Week. They have made a half-hearted effort to make long needed repairs. But they have still refused to take responsibility for the actions that have destroyed a once nice neighborhood.

Their lawyer claims these out of town landholders want to be friends with the city. If so, why did it take a court order to get them to even think about addressing the manifold problems?

They have blamed the Millville Police. Apparently they believe it is the responsibility of the residents of Millville to foot the bill to patrol their blighted mess. Millville Police had to respond to 296 calls in 2007 alone. But somehow the crime and drugs are the fault of the Millville Police Department!

To further insult the good people of Millville, they also blame a bar that has been closed for four years for the crimes committed by friends and associates of their tenants.

The Friends of Millville strongly support the efforts of the city commission and city solicitor to declare this property, once and for all, a nuisance. The only options, as we see it, is to raze the entire complex. A vacant field that could be used as a park would be a better use than to allow more guns, drugs and crime to exist in this perfect example of a failed experiment from the 1970’s.

Last night the Millville City Commission held a special meeting concerning Millville Gardens. This complex has been an eye-sore and crime-ridden place for years. As the Daily Journal reported:

“City officials formally asked commissioners to declare the West Foundry Street complex a “nuisance property” and demolish six of the property’s 13 buildings at a special meeting Monday. The six structures encompass 48 of the complex’s 102 units. The city filed its claim under the 2004 state Abandoned Property Rehabilitation, which allows municipalities to deem a property a “nuisance” if it’s dilapidated; plays a role in crime, drug or gang activity; and negatively impacts neighboring property values. The city has cited the complex numerous times and taken the owners to Municipal Court”.

The judicial hearing was postponed till Monday April 21st at 5:30. Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/mkrull1 for video of the meeting

A quaint little village bordered by Archer, Dock and Foundry Streets in Millville, this one hundred-plus unit apartment complex is the catalyst for blight in the 3rd Ward. Registered to 102 West Foundry St. Inc./ Millville Garden Apartments, PO Box 5596, 60 White Birch Lane, Parsippany, NJ 07054, this complex has received three citations since August 2007. The most recent citation was on January 17, 2008, and listed thirteen separate violations. Each citation lists basically the same violations.

They had their day in court today, hopefully the first of many. I spoke with Derek Leary, city code enforcement officer dedicated to the 3rd ward, Center City and South Millville residential districts. Among the many complaints are over fifty broken windows, chipping and flaking paint on the trim, missing siding and gang graffiti marking almost every unit.

In court, the owners claimed they were doing their best. To repair the broken windows, for instance, their solution was to place plywood over the non-compliant windows. That adds a certain charm that defies description.

They explained that they had cleaned up the graffiti – well most of it. A lot of it. Well, they started cleaning up some of it. Their defense was that the element causing the nuisance problems don’t actually live in the complex, they just congregate there. Basically they are evading the responsibility of maintaining a nuisance free property. But they have no problem collecting the rent that is due them.

If you know that people are trespassing and vandalizing your property, wouldn’t you make some effort to protect your investment? I can understand that they would not want to patrol the property themselves after dark, they would be mugged and possibly shot. How about hiring security to patrol the area for a month? I guarantee that after a month of constant harassment, the punks would move on to more fertile ground.

The menial fine imposed by the court was disappointing. They were fined a pittance, $250, and given two MORE months to make necessary repairs. They have already had seven months to correct the problems.

If they cannot bring the property up to code in that time, they will be hit with a whopping $50 a day! Wow! That is the way to teach these out of town slumlords that we will not tolerate the blight they have perpetrated on our neighborhoods.

Meanwhile the sentiment of the taxpayers and residents of the city and especially of the surrounding neighborhood is unanimous. Declare Eminent Domain and raze the entire complex. The general consensus is that there is no way to salvage this pit of despair.