BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Village of Massena officials have attempted to crack down on absentee landlords for months now but a village resident is now calling on the board to step in and address tenant and landlord issues in his neighborhood.

At a recent meeting of the board of trustees, Donald Lucas asked the board to set up a public comment period to address tenant responsibilities.

Lucas, who lives on Richards Street, brought in photographs of "less than favorable tenants" in his neighborhood who are negatively impacting living conditions in the area.

“Since the closing of General Motors, a lot of people have abandoned their properties and we have unscrupulous landlords coming up and buying these properties. They have absolutely no consideration for the degradation and the blight they’re bringing into the communities,” he said.

Lucas said the properties near his home have historically been family homes.

"Families would come in, they would raise their children and then another family would come in," he said.

But things have changed over the last 20 years or more, Lucas said.

Lucas told board members of a number of instances in which properties were not properly maintained, including one instance in which a 14-foot-long, 3-foot-wide section of metal roofing blew off.

He told trustees the roof went unprepared, despite the metal roofing being improperly installed to begin with.

Lucas said the metal roofing was only tacked on to the ridge, allowing it to blow freely in the wind. "It was making all kinds of noise 24 hours a day," he said.

Lucas said in April and May it became insufferable with the high winds experienced throughout the north country.

"This went on 24 hours a day. My neighbor works midnights. He was up all day long. My wife and I are retired. We sleep at night, but we were up all night long," he said.

According to Lucas, code enforcement said the issue was to be corrected in 30 days, however he felt it should have required an immediate fix to negate both the safety concerns and noise issues.

"A section even blew off into my back yard," he said.

Lucas said the tenant began to repair the roof on day 28.

"This was 28 days of not being able to sleep at night. There's sections of the roof that are still missing," he said.

Lucas also touched on another incident he reported that involved a piano sitting in a neighbor's yard for weeks.

"It wasn't a nice piano. It was just a piece of junk, just sitting in the yard," he said.

He said eye sores like that need to be removed.

Lucas said garbage has also been an issue for a multiple unit dwelling that had 18 garbage cans.

He told trustees the cans were overflowing with garbage since residents do not recycle.

Lucas showed trustees photos of garbage bags piling up next to garbage cans just an hour after the garbage trucks went by.

"Now I’ve got skunks and apparently I guess we’re starting to get rats. But, we have all sorts of feral cats in our neighborhood. So, the garbage is an issue," he said.

Across the road is another apartment structure where the same tenant is carrying out a dismantling business that should require a permit, Lucas said.

Lucas said the tenant is likely collecting scrap metal as part of a business, which itself is unsightly.

“I don’t think there’s one person here that would allow their next door neighbor to do that. I’ve run a business in this town for 34 years, and some of my clients had to come to my home, and I was ashamed to have them drive through my neighborhood," he said.

At the request of Major Greg Paquin, Lucas provided the photos to Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Hardy to help build a case against the tenant.

“That’s evidence that can be used to turn properties into nuisance problems. Declaring a property as a nuisance property is more than just code violations. It’s also, being very general here, how many times the police department shows up,” Paquin said.

Though Lucas is seeking action as soon as possible, Trustee Ken McGowan cautioned, saying that in many cases individuals have 30 days to take corrective action for a code violation.

McGowan suggested that the village may need to take further action, pointing to a new apartment code requirement passed last year.

"Maybe we need to take it a step farther. I know there’s other places on Beach Street with this constant problem. So, maybe we need to have more of a presence over there, and maybe we need to start taking some of the property owners to court," he said.

McGowan said the property owners would then have to explain to the court why they are not properly maintaining the property.

But Lucas said the larger issue is that many property owners want to use rents to pay off properties as fast as possible "to put money back in his pocket."

“But, he has absolutely no consideration for the neighborhood. That landlord has no responsibility for maintaining his property or having any supervision over the people that live there,” Lucas said.

Until action is taken, Lucas said the problem will persist and continue to get worse.

Village officials reassured him they would address the situation, with code enforcement officers expected to investigate in the very near future.

No formal action was taken during the meeting by village trustees regarding Lucas' concerns raised during public comment.