WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health Monday heard complaints from tenants about the conditions of their apartments and condemned a Longview Terrace home that has been on the board's radar for months.

 

The owner occupant of 92 Longview Terrace and her son attended the Monday morning hearing to ask that the board allow the family to address conditions at the home without taking the step of condemnation.

 

In the end, the board agreed with Health Inspector Ruth Russell that in order to ensure no one was living at the property, the panel needed to issue an order to condemn.

 

Monday was not the first time Russell told the board about her efforts to inspect the home following complaints from neighbors about the property.

 

In the past, she reported that steps had been taken to clean up the exterior of the home with the use of a rolloff container obtained with the help of the town's Council on Aging.

 

This time, Russell reported the results and showed the board photos of a Jan. 30 inspection, the first time she was able to enter the home after several attempts. She said that two of the bedrooms and the basement of the property were inaccessible, but she testified that what she did see was enough to find the home was not fit for habitation.

 

"In bedroom one, we had a lot of stacks of items – baggage, clothes, plastic," Russell said. "My main concern is lack of egress. I'm not confident emergency services would be able to move through this home if they needed to. In fact, I'm confident they could not. Bedroom two, I was not able to get into, but I did note that there was a blocked entryway.

 

"In the bathroom, there were some signs of rodent activity. Minimal egress in and out. Same with the kitchen … no access to appliances, lots of stacks of items. A little bit of food and some attraction for rodents there."

 

One of the complaints from nearby residents is that the house is harboring rodents who are then spreading to the rest of the neighborhood.

 

"Like everyone else, mine and my spouse's concern is [92 Longview Terrace resident Linda MacWhinnie's] safety, Linda's well-being," said Ronald Lavinsky of 104 Longview Terrace. "Until the house gets a full inspection, there are other things. There are holes in the roof. There are birds living in the attic. We see birds flying in and out.

 

"My other concern is the rats. They are migrating throughout the neighborhood. Nobody knows exactly how many there are. They do reproduce every 21 days. We have pictures of them on our property trying to get into my home."

 

 MacWhinnie, who told the board that she has a hearing deficit due to a recent viral infection, was represented at the hearing by her son, Raymond MacWhinnie of Concord, N.H.

 

MacWhinnie thanked Russell for her efforts, including getting him involved with addressing the issues at his mother's house. He also said that he had made arrangements to have his mother live elsewhere while the problem is being addressed.

 

"Hoarding is a tough issue," Raymond MacWhinnie said. "Hoarding is an issue of mental illness. Anybody who has family members who has this issue, you can probably understand it's not so easy to insert yourself. My mom is the legal owner of her house. I can't just show up and do things without her permission.

 

"At this point in time, I am now able to fully insert myself in the situation completely. Certain things have gone quickly. Smoke detectors are up. Fire extinguishers are on premises. Cleaning is in progress. But we've got to understand what we saw here. This cleaning is not going to happen overnight."

 

MacWhinnie pointed the board to a provision of the state sanitary code that might lead to unintended consequences of an order to condemn.

 

"I'm here because I'm concerned the orders that might come out of this hearing may leave my mom where she no longer has the ability to help herself or mitigate the situation due to lack of resources," MacWhinnie said.

 

He directed the board to MGL CMR 410.680, paragraph E, which states that any order issued under the state sanitary code is automatically forwarded to any mortgagee or lien holder on a property.

 

"At this point, I don't know what the mortgage lender's actions will be," MacWhinnie said. "But a recall of the mortgage, if this is the result, this is going to leave my mom with little to no financial resources to mitigate this situation.

 

"So my ask here is that I'm hoping we can find an alternative pathway other than a reportable order."

 

At the end of the meeting, after receiving testimony on all three action items on the agenda, the board took up each of the cases.

 

Chair Erwin Stuebner proposed that the board give a 90-day order to correct the conditions and then revisit the question of condemnation. But Devan Bartels asked Russell to clarify her recommendation.

 

"I think us ordering it's unfit for human occupation is us saying it should be condemned," Russell said. "I think they're one and the same. … I don't know how we get proof she's not living there without the condemnation."

 

Bartels argued that the possible consequences of an order, i.e., the notification to a lender, should not be a factor.

 

"I don't want to lose our enforcement capability by not issuing the appropriate order because the son is concerned about being financially dinged somehow," Bartels said. "I want to make sure we're keeping to the 90-day timeline to ensure the health of the community around."

 

Stuebner suggested, and Bartels agreed, that the board should give the family seven days to move Linda MacWhinnie out of the Longview Terrace home. The panel voted, 4-0, (with Ronald Stant absent) to condemn the order with a 90-day order to correct, concentrating on pest eradication.

 

The other questions before the board on Monday morning involved rental properties, including one that the tenant claimed was unfit for habitation.

 

Madison Keeler and Roger Tripp complained to the town about their apartment at 291-293 Cole Ave.

 

They brought a laundry list of complaints to the board, including inadequate heat and damage in the apartment from backed up sewage that, they said, landlord Peter A. Meyers had not addressed.

 

Russell said she had found several violations during an inspection of the property, including one that led her to involve the Building Department, but she has not had a chance to reinspect to make sure Meyers had taken corrective action.

 

Keeler and Tripp both testified that Meyers was generally unresponsive to their complaints and specifically had not adequately cleaned up after the sewage issue.

 

"I think the fact that there's still, as of a couple of weeks ago, moldy buckets of water underneath where we live and the raw sewage still being on our walls and floors is something that is not OK," Keeler said. "Him saying he's helping us is not true at all – in a safe way, at least."

 

Meyers testified about the actions he had taken and the money he spent to correct issues at the property, and he implied the tenants were not being truthful.

 

"I don't know how to respond to such a level of misrepresentation," Meyers said. "But I will say that the comments about what was existing at the time the apartment was rented … Fortunately, my lease includes a statement of conditions, and there were just to items listed on that statement of conditions. I'm looking at it now. I'm happy to provide a copy of that.

 

"The idea that all of this stuff or any of this stuff was present at the time of renting is belied by the lease and the statement of conditions, where the tenants listed the things they were concerned about. It's written in their handwriting. It's signed by them."

 

"We moved in in the summertime," Keeler said at one point. "Of course we didn't know the heat wouldn't work until the winter."

 

The board ultimately declined to take any action on the Cole Avenue apartment until Russell was able to reinspect, a step that had to be rescheduled from the previous Friday. Russell had planned to have that information in hand when the public hearing was posted.

 

"I don't want to get into the weeds with the landlord-tenant dynamics here," Bartels said. "I think we have to focus on what are the enforceable measures under the code of the Board of Health of Williamstown. I defer to [Russell's] judgement on what those are, and, honestly, it depends on your reinspection."

 

The second landlord-tenant dispute before the board on Monday concerned a second-floor apartment at 115 Water St.

 

Enrique Escudero complained that the apartment he rented sight unseen from ENL Madison Trust did not meet the state's requirement for ceiling height. 

 

He told the board that 7 feet (84 inches) is the bare minimum for an apartment, and Russell confirmed the ceiling in the living room/dining room measured 80 inches and the ceiling in the bedroom measured 78.5 inches.

 

Zafi Levy, the principal of ENL Madison Trust, asked the Board of Health to approve a variance for the unit, claiming that it would be prohibitively expensive to raise the roof and that the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

A couple parts of Levy's testimony prompted members of town staff to address the board.

 

Community Development Director Andrew Groff told the board that the building in question is not, in fact, on the national registry.

 

"It is listed as built in 1854, so the only thing that would apply locally is our demolition bylaw," Groff said. "If Mr. Levy was coming to the town to destroy the building or significantly modify the facade that faces the street, he'd have to appear before the Historical Commission."

 

Building Inspector responded to Levy's testimony that he renovated the shower prior to rental and had "fixed" the apartment's door headers right away when Escudero complained about their height.

 

"There's no permit for any renovation work done inside the building," Contenta said. "It's a mixed-use building. It's not a single family residence. Rules are different for buildings like that. Redoing a shower would require a permit. Modifying the header on a door does require a permit."

 

On the other hand, Contenta told the board that homes not in compliance with the modern building codes are not uncommon in Williamstown.

 

"Being in New England, we have a lot of building stock that's old," Contenta said. "With my jurisdiction, I can't just go around and decide, ‘This building doesn't meet the building code, so now you've got to bring it up to code.' This building doesn't even come close, the one we're standing in.

 

"Something that we use as building officials to get things done is, if we feel an existing building has a condition in it that's hazardous, then I would cite that particular item. Something that happens often is we might have an old set of stairs and there's no handrail, there never was a handrail. When we see that, we ask that a handrail is added."

 

Contenta said it was Russell's job to determine if a condition represents a health hazard, and Levy pointed out that her written report indicated the low ceilings don't present a danger.

 

Escudero countered that while he was not bumping his head on the ceiling, he had a letter from his therapist indicating the confining space was "negatively affecting" his life.

 

In the end, the board voted 4-0 to grant the variance Levy sought.

 

"The purpose of granting a variance, in my mind, is one of two things: We'll either wait until the problem is corrected or we'll say it's not a problem that can be corrected reasonably," James Parkinson said. "I don't think the former applies, but I'd agree with the latter. I think a variance should be granted."

 

Bartels agreed.

 

"I also want to point out Mr. Contenta's statement about the adherence to the building code in the setting of our very old housing stock here in Williamstown, where if every little thing was addressed and fixed, it would be, essentially, cost prohibitive," she said.

 

Russell noted that both landlord-tenant disputes were good reminders to landlord that town code " a pre-rental inspection by her office before new renters move in.

 

"For both the landlords present today, I'll be reminding them of the Chapter 2 pre-rental inspections," Russell said. "Neither of these properties had that, and I do think that would have helped.

 

"When you have a complaint based on a Chapter 2 inspection on a rental that hasn't been done, it's a $200 inspection fee that I'll be charging them both. I've been to both properties numerous times to deal with things that could have been taken care of with a $50 Chapter 2 inspection."

 

In other business on Monday, the Board of Health got some good news about a Cold Spring Road business that has been before the panel several times over the last year.

 

"I'm ‘excited to report that the 400 amp service has been installed at the [1896 House] motel we've been discussing for quite a few months now," Russell said. "It's been inspected by Joe Beverly. So our order that we've been discussing is considered in compliance on the Board of Health's end."

 

Meanwhile, a boil water order remains in effect for the adjacent ‘6 House Pub, owned by the same owner as the motel. Russell said that the owners continue to seek approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to dig a new well and have sought a request for determination of applicability under the Wetlands Protection Act from the local Conservation Commission.