Enforcement Far Past Needed - Editorial
The situation unfolding at 141 Williams Avenue is, to put it plainly, dire. The handling of the situation is baffling from all angles, but what remains clear is that immediate intervention from someone—anyone, at this point—is well past due.
Concerns abound in this situation. How did we even get here? The owner of the property is known to the town as being a poor steward of the structure; that was evident enough by the sanitary code violations and tens of thousands of dollars in fines that date back to 2019.
Those fines, however, were never paid, and it is not clear—at least, has not been made clear to us—why. The homeowner’s slate was wiped clean of $42,000 worth of fines in 2019, for issues that seem to persist to this day. Both the previous and current tenants have complained vehemently, and it seemed like the town was poised to put its foot down last week when the Bourne Board of Health ordered the homeowner to pull permits for the repairs deemed urgent—specifically a structurally unsafe deck that provides the only alternative egress from the home in case of an emergency—within 24 to 48 hours.
But the homeowner did nothing. Those hours came and went, and nothing happened. The board of health gave an order, the order was ignored, and enforcement… apparently...has yet to follow.
Things may be going on behind the scenes that we and the rest of the public are not privy to. We hope that is the case, because we just don’t understand how the alternative could be true—that nothing in terms of enforcement can or will be done until the board’s next meeting on August 14. It just doesn’t make sense to call an emergency board meeting to dole out an enforcement order with an expiration date, and then let two weeks pass before addressing the homeowner’s direct defiance of that order.
It sounds to us like the homeowner should never have been allowed to rent out the home after what seems like an utter mess unfolded in 2019, but we’re not the ones in charge. The board, however, ultimately decided to give the homeowner another chance: hence its order last week to pull a permit and rectify the situation. Apparently, the homeowner just wasn’t interested.
Frankly, this is not the best look for the board or the health department. It was a nice bark, but what happened to the bite? There was no follow-through.
There needs to be a better, more resolute showing from the town next time. And for the sake of the current tenant, we hope that time comes soon.