At a recent Village of Walden Board of Trustees meeting, several residents brought up concerns around the village that centered around one thing: code enforcement.

Code enforcement is a common topic in any municipality, specifically for the Village of Walden recently when considering a new local law that would manage short term rentals. When considering enforcing it, many board members asked “How?”

Last Tuesday, many Walden residents shared village-related issues that they believed could be enforced better. “Does the Village of Walden have a code enforcement officer?” was a question asked at the meeting. Following this came issues such as overgrown grass, hazardous parking on Liberty Street and furniture in yards.

Former Mayor Susan Taylor brought up a wooden file cabinet and mattress in a front yard in the village with a sign on it saying, “free mattress.”

“This is why we have codes because evidently they haven’t realized by now that nobody’s going to pick that stuff up and it’s sitting in the front yard,” said Taylor.

She also mentioned that many construction projects happen over the weekend and many without permits.

“There’s porches being built, roofs being done [and] you don’t see any permits. Maybe every once in a while the building department might want to ride around on a weekend and find out what’s really going on,” Taylor suggested.

Further, the former mayor brought up code enforcement in general.

“We still have landlords here that haven’t completed their fire and safety inspections or allowed them to be completed. We still have people in this village that haven’t had the new water meters installed in their homes, and we have landlords that still aren’t on the registry. We keep creating laws, and they don’t get enforced. So why bother? If you can’t enforce them, you’re not going to enforce them,” said Taylor.

Walden resident Diane Sanboothe brought up parking on her street, although later, Village Manager John Revella confirmed it wasn’t a code issue.

“Parking on Liberty Street is really, really dangerous. It’s hazardous,” said Sanboothe “People are parking and you have to go through a maze.”

Revella, when asked about it later, said the building department does not handle parking. The police department deals with any parking issues.

As far as the other concerns, Revella said, “All other matters had already been addressed before people even went to the board meeting.”