Neighborhood Walk

I missed the "Walk the Neighborhood" with city staff last Thursday but here's a report on it from D. Gorton:

Walk the Neighborhood", a program initiated by Mike Pierceall, Development Services Director of the City of Carbondale (third from left), took its first tour of neighborhoods in the Arbor District on Thursday afternoon. The goal was to listen to the views of residents about the condition of housing in the area. Careful scrutiny of foundations, roofs, parking areas and other issues of Code Enforcement were discussed. Sandy Litecky, Arbor District President (2nd from left), Brian Swoboda, Arbor District Board member (3rd from right) along with Tom Redmond (2nd from right) and Bob Child (on right) were joined by Building and Neighborhood Services inspectors and staff including Steven Phillips (far left), Kenneth Lynon 4th from left) and David Miller (5th from left).

The group toured W. Cherry St. along with College, Hays and Beveridge in the afternoon. It was noted that there are a large number of vacant rental houses. Ironically, the neighborhood was looking better than it had in memory with most yards mown, trash out of sight, and of course the new roofs and siding that were replaced after the May 8th storm.

It was also noted that many of the Fisher properties were in poor repair, especially the roofs which are long overdue for replacement. The group was informed that the Fisher interests at Home Rental had successfully argued in court that since they had such a large number of roofs to replace, ostensibly because of the storm, that they were allowed to take longer than most repairs in the area on any particular property. However, out observation was that the Home Rental roof deterioration stood out from all others by its long time lack of maintenance.

Problem housing was pointed out to the "Walk the Neighborhood" team from City Hall, and they will return in the near future for a more careful assessment and inspection program in the area.

"Walk the Neighborhood" will take place in all of Carbondale's neighborhoods this Fall. Sandy Litecky, President of the Arbor District said that "its impressive when the city sends out busy inspectors and staff to work with us on neighborhood improvement. We're looking forward to the results".

We're hoping that the Police Department will institute a similar program to incorporate our concerns about crime in the area.

Residents of the Arbor District are encouraged to call Mike Pierceall at 549-5302 x 257 (with any questions or observations about Code Enforcement in the neighborhood. Our experience is that Mike and his staff are more than accommodating with our concerns.