At its Sept. 2 meeting, Evesham Township Council was given an update about the township’s ongoing plan to deal with abandoned properties that have fallen into disrepair.
Director of Community Development Nancy Jamanow specifically spoke about a house located at 38 Yale Road.
The property is a test case of sorts the township has been focusing on to learn about complications that could arise while trying to see through the entire process of forcing lienholders to care for abandoned properties or having the township itself acquire the property.
Jamanow said, as a result of some recent action in court, the lienholders came forward to get permits for building repairs, which Jamanow believes will start before the end of the month.
“The lienholders were in county court, and they got the permission to go ahead and do improvements to the property,” Jamanow said. “Last week, the contractor was in our office to apply for permits to do the improvements.”
Jamanow said the lienholders had also started tree removal and had plans to powerwash the house.
The property is a situation where the owner had passed away with no will, and where multiple parties had acquired tax liens and tax sale certificates, making it difficult for the township to hold someone responsible for the upkeep.
Mary Ellen Walls, a resident of Jay Court who lives near the property, first spoke publicly about the problem at the May 27 council meeting. She described the property as a “house of horrors” and said its former occupant was a hoarder.
Now, three months later, Walls again spoke, this time expressing relief that something was finally being done.
“I’m thrilled to hear they’re moving forward anyway because next door neighbors have been suffering for a long time,” Walls said. “We’re regularly seeing raccoons now. I ran into one the other night and it went up the side of the house, went on the roof…and it ran up a tree, and that tree is now down, so that’s good.”
Walls said she hopes the process continues to quickly move forward.
“It just shows you now that the trees are gone how horrible the house looks, so it’s good to know that they’re going to be fixing it, and as soon as possible would be great,” Walls said.
George Morris, who acted as township solicitor for the meeting, has been working with Jamanow’s office on the situation and was familiar with what had happened in court.
He said while the lienholders are still going through the foreclosure process to get the full title to the property, he shared Walls’ hope that the process would be quick.
“Once they get full control of that property, they will go in and clean up the mess that is there. They will rehab it inside and out because they’ll have full authority to do that,” Morris said. “It will get back on the market, and it will become a productive property again.”
Mayor Randy Brown recalled when he was first elected mayor how someone told him government was like a warship in that it takes a long time to turn around, yet he compared the quick turnaround time of dealing with the 38 Yale property to that of the private sector.
He credited the “outside of the box” thinking of council and township staff.
“You guys think outside the box,” Brown said. “You work hard. Our staff here works more than 40 hours a week, and I’d know because I call them on Sundays.”
