Panel Will Advise Council Raze Crumbling Properties
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| 34-40 Arnold Place in North Adams |
Her street's pretty name may well have come from her occupation, a florist, and the greenhouse she kept just around the corner.
She might not recognize her neighborhood or the home she left more than a hundred years ago - the street's now Arnold Place and the building she and her neighbor Mrs. Lucy Farnham lived in may be headed for the wrecking ball.
The Public Safety Committee will recommend the demolition of 34-40 Arnold Place to the City Council on Tuesday night along with three other properties the panel toured more than week ago.
Mayor John Barrett III has targeted 13 deteriorating properties for razing to clear the way for neighborhood revitalization, an initiative he launched in his inaugural speech in January.
The North Adams Historical Commission is holding out hope that 34-40 Arnold Place won't go the way of Barlow's long-lost greenhouse. It is one of two properties on the mayor's list that it doesn't want demolished; sits among 14 other historic homes in a neighborhood dating back a century.
"We still object to it being torn down," said commission member Justyna Carlson, who provided the information about Barlow, indicating the building dated to the 1880s, a decade older than thought. The commission fears what might be built in its place.
But unless owner Franklin Perras comes up with a solid plan to rehabilitate the structure he's owned for the last decade, its future appears bleak.
Arnold Place, 34 Harrison Ave., and 223-225 and 229-231 East Main St. were toured by the the City Council subcommittee and other councilors the week before.
"We saw some properties that I feel were pretty much beyond repair, in most cases," said committee Chairman and City Councilor Ronald Boucher at last week's meeting.
He said of the first property discussed, 34 Harrison Ave., "overall structure of the building seemed to be in dire repair."
"Not dire repair, but unreparable," responded committee member Councilor Marie Harpin. "I don't see how it could be repaired."
The three committee members, which included Councilor Michael Bloom, voted unanimously to recommend the council declare all of them public nuisances.
They and several others who attended, including Councilors Richard Alcombright, Lisa Blackmer and Chairman Alan Marden, discussed the possibilities of rehabilitating the properties and if their razing would be too much of a hardship on the owners.
Councilors questioned if the admitted health problems of two of the owners, Perras and Arthur Boucher, who owns 34 Harrison Ave., made any effort of theirs to rehabilitate the buildings feasible. Both men had asked for more time to fix their properties at both the City Council hearing [Boucher by letter] two weeks ago and again in meeting with the councilors during the tour.
Charles "Rusty" Ransford, owner of the East Main Street buildings, also asked for more time at the hearing but did not mean the councilors at his properties.
Two Weeks Notice
Alcombright wondered if the time frame - two weeks from Tuesday (or March 25) if the City Council accepts the recommendations - was too short for the owners to raze or rehabilitate the properties.
Building Inspector William Meranti said his office and that of Health Inspector Manuel Serrano had been dealing with the owners for years to no avail.
"These are an attractive nuisance for children in the neighborhood to go and explore. They're always trying to get in the buildings," he said. "No matter how compassionate we feel for these owners [understand] I've been down this road with all these owners: 'please fix your building,' and they don't; 'please board it up,' but it doesn't stay."
The City Council held out the possibility the structures could be saved - but only if their owners offered up a realistic and concrete plan for rehabilitating them.
Boucher said it was notable that neither Perras nor Arthur Boucher (who is no relation) were at the meeting.
"They would be here if it was important. That's my theory," said Ron Boucher. "We have to draw a line somewhere. You have got to support your departments in the city. These guys go out and every day and bang their heads against a wall."
The council will also hear a request from the mayor to take a piece of undevelopable property on Ashland Street by eminent domain to aid in the redevelopment of the former Clark Biscuit mill into affordable housing; and a request to rename Barbour Street to Brayton Hill Terrace.
