Putrid smell brings citations

The place is swarming with bees, gnats and horseflies.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A housing code enforcement officer said she was “smacked right in the face” by the extremely putrid smell coming from the property at 253 E. Philadelphia Ave.

Laura Fulmer’s inspection then turned up the source of the odor. She found a van and two other vehicles parked in the driveway — all filled “floor to ceiling” — with molded, rotted fruit, vegetables, produce, eggs, flowers and full milk jugs. The vehicles also contain canned goods, kitchen utensils, empty soda pop containers, empty food wrappers and other items that Fulmer said in her report are consistent with flea market sales.

Fulmer said “bees, gnats and horseflies are swirling inside and outside the vehicles creating a public health hazard.”

The property owner, Sandra J. Leonard, 52, received misdemeanor citations on Tuesday charging her with one count each of noxious odors and failure to maintain an exterior structure. She was arraigned Wednesday in municipal court and will be back in court on July 9. That day, she is also scheduled for sentencing in an separate case of deposit of garbage, the court said.

Fulmer, meanwhile, said she found the rear yard and driveway side of the house littered with even more rotted food, juice, air conditioners, shopping carts, containers of whey protein, filthy children’s toys, rotted roof shingles, rotted plywood, filthy tarps, a playpen filled with various kitchen appliances still in the box, bicycles, empty flower pots “all lined up,” empty dry wall buckets filled with standing water infested with insects, 20 or more empty milk crates and empty laundry baskets.

The code enforcement officer also found empty cat litter containers, gasoline cans, sawdust, tires, windows, doors, luggage “and many more items too numerous to list.”

Fulmer then turned her attention to the exterior of the house. She found chipping and peeling paint, missing gutters and downspouts, missing or boarded-up windows, missing porch lattice and rotted/missing trim and eaves. The detached garage, she said, is collapsing and has a gigantic hole in the roof, leaving only a few shreds of wooden beams. The garage’s interior and exterior is littered with the rotten innards of the structure and more flea market items, she said.