Aug 22, 2017 3 min read

A North Franklin Township road crew, accompanied by police and two code enforcement officers, was poised to remove trash from outside 132 Bellevue St. on Tuesday morning. The owner, according to the township, has been cited numerous times for allowing garbage to pile up.

The cleanup was canceled after workers found there was nothing to clean up. The day before, code enforcement officer Jarrod D’Amico stopped there to tell a resident the crew would stop by the following morning to pick up the rubbish … which was gone by sunrise.

“(The residents) filled three vehicles with garbage and got it out of here (late Monday) night,” said a neighbor, who declined to be identified.

D’Amico referred to 132 Bellevue as a “nuisance property,” one that he and assistant officer Matt Malik said has been cited 47 times in the 16 months or so they have been in their positions. D’Amico said there were “daily citations for a month and a half” in the summer of 2016 and that issues have continued.

“We’ve given them lots of time and they haven’t budged,” Malik said.

D’Amico identified the owner as Amy Work of Washington. He said that, to his knowledge, she does not live there – but that her daughter does along with three other adults and two children. Amy Work could not be immediately reached for comment; D’Amico said the last phone number he had for her had been disconnected. He said Work pleaded guilty to last summer’s citations and was fined.

“The property was cleaned up for about two weeks after that,” he added, “and by the middle of the third week, a neighbor called us.”

D’Amico said Tuesday’s canceled cleanup was a repeat of a scenario that played out this spring at 132 Bellevue. “I said we were coming out in three days to clean up, and when we came, everything was gone.”

He also said someone pulled out a pipe behind the house, resulting in sewage discharge. He said the township has filed citations on that.

“Multiple neighbors have complained,” Malik said. “I know of at least seven.”

A resident who spoke to the Observer-Reporter but asked that his name not be used, said, “People from about nine addresses (around here) plan to be at the (Sept. 12 supervisors’) meeting.”

Malik said he and D’Amico strive to work with residents and give them leeway if necessary, but their duty is to uphold municipal ordinances.

“Our job is to clean up properties so other properties aren’t devalued,” he said. “All we want to see is progress.”