In March 2021 the Town Board passed a resolution to have Mahadevan Venkatraman, who owns a building at 9 Commercial Avenue to either take it down or fix it and have it certified by an engineer.

After much cajoling and patience on the town’s part, Venkatraman has removed a section of the building that faces Meadow Street but to date the building is still in serious disrepair and the yard is littered with metal scraps and debris. The building has been placarded as an unsafe structure by the building department.

The Town Board approved erecting a cyclone-type fence around the property to ensure the safety of local residents, with the cost of $100/mo. levied on the property owner. The town has instead ringed only part of the property using wooden pallets held together by orange snow fencing.

Supervisor Pizzuto said the town, “has a tremendous liability still.” Councilman Joe Mazzetti said the rundown condition of the building, “has been there for years, if not decades.” He said the Building Department should be more forceful in their enforcement actions and not let a structure get to the point where it is in danger of imminent collapse.

It is unclear what the next step will be by the town concerning this dangerous structure.

Revals
Supervisor Fred Pizzuto said because of the pandemic the town took no action on revaluations of properties in town, which is usually done on an annual basis.

“The town is at about 97%, which is extremely good. There are some towns that are far below that, which creates a problem with revaluations,” he said.

Mazzetti said area towns are concerned about revaluations because real estate prices are so inflated.

“The concern is that if they do a reval and this bubble does burst, it may cost them a lot,” he said.

Pizzuto said that scenario was brought up at a meeting of the Association of Ulster County Supervisors and Mayors.

“We’re going to watch that because that is of grave concern; before we go forward into something where we have a bit of an inflated market,” he said.

Water and Sewer line
Councilman Lenny Auchmoody recently spoke with the contractor about the final step of bringing the water and sewer line to the Frank Skartados educational building at the riverfront park. Auchmoody said the contractor has a few items to discuss with the town engineer, “and he promised me that he will be down there as soon as he can as far as doing the water and sewer lines over to the building.”

A rock has been set in place on the south side of the building that will have a plaque attached to it in honor of the late Supervisor Bob Shepard. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for October 13th, which would have been Shepard’s 80th birthday. Shepard supported transforming the former oil depot lot into a riverfront park. He died of a heart attack in September 2007 at the age of 65. In addition, the plaques that are on the bulkhead will be relocated and attached on the southern side of the building.

Rent Control
Mazzetti pressed the issue on the town establishing a rent control law, citing instances where people are “getting gouged” by landlords with significant rent increases.

Murphy said the first step would be for the Town Board to declare an emergency, stating that the vacancy rate in Lloyd is under 5%. The town would then recommend to the department of housing that a 9 member board be appointed to run the rent control program.

Supervisor Fred Pizzuto said he is working with Murphy to consider establishing a law. He said when he met with the Supervisors and Mayors Association in the county he found out that 37 states had determined that rent control laws are illegal, “and flies in the face of the Commerce clause; some groundwork needs to be done so we can move forward with it.”

ZBA to Report to Town Board

A section of the town code [Ch 100-56 H (2)] requires that the Zoning Board appear quarterly before the Town Board and summarize, “all applications and appeals made to it since its last previous report and summarizing its opinions on such applications and appeals. A copy of such report shall be filed with the Planning Board and the Code Enforcement Officer at the same time that it is filed with the Town Clerk.”

This code provision has never been enforced by the Town and both Supervisor Pizzuto and Councilwoman Claire Winslow strongly opposed having the ZBA appear before them, saying their liaisons to the ZBA [Councilman Guerriero] and Planning Board [Winslow] provide adequate monthly reports to the Town Board.

Mazzetti said the town in this instance is not following the code.

“If we’re going to have laws and have rules that we’re not going to follow, why have them,” he said, urging the board, “to do what is right.”

A few days after the Town Board meeting, Pizzuto reached out to the Southern Ulster Times, stating that after consulting with the town’s attorney, a verbal report does not meet the code requirement and will schedule times for a representative from the ZBA to appear.