PROPERTIES Law could help develop vacant sites, trustee says

The police chief says the department is losing a lot of grant money next year.
By ANTHONY M. NICK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BROOKFIELD -- Trustees may look at the possibility of using a new state law to aid them in cleaning up and developing vacant, tax-delinquent township properties.
Trustee Gary Lees said Monday that the board should consider using provisions allowed under a new law, which started as House Bill 127, to acquire tax-delinquent properties in the township.
Lees said the law, passed by the General Assembly earlier this year, allows counties, municipalities and townships the right to acquire tax-delinquent property without having to assume that property's tax debt.
The law also stipulates that the acquired property must be used for developmental purposes, Lees said.
It also allows a governmental body to acquire the property before a foreclosure sale is conducted. Lees said he brought up the new law at the meeting to make fellow trustees aware of its existence and to discuss the possibility of using it.
Lees added that vacant, tax-delinquent properties are a problem throughout the township, and the law could be a valuable tool in developing Brookfield.
Lees said delinquent properties on Davis Street could be acquired under the law and developed into a township playground.
In other action, Police Chief Dan Faustino said the department will lose about $30,000 it receives in revenue from grants and contracts beginning in 2005.
Faustino said the department will not receive any money from the state Cops in Shops program next year. The program, which places police officers in stores to combat underage drinking and tobacco use, provided the township with $13,000 this year.
Also running out
The department is also losing funding from a grant that pays overtime costs for officers specifically deployed to enforce various traffic laws, said Faustino. The chief said the department received about $8,600 for the traffic enforcement program in 2004.
An additional $2,500 that funded a DUI enforcement program will also be lost in 2005, said Faustino.
He said the department will also receive $5,000 less in 2005 from a contract with the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority to provide security for properties it owns in the township. The housing authority paid the department $15,000 for security this year.
Faustino said programs funded by the grants could be reinstated if voters pass a 2-mill, five-year police levy that is on the Nov. 2 ballot. Faustino said the levy, which failed in March by 44 votes, will bring in an additional $250,000 in funding annually for the department.