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Vacant Boardman house persists as site for sore eyes
BOARDMAN
A foreclosed property with an unsettling past continues to be an eyesore on Sylvia Lane in the northwest part of the township.
Megan Taylor lives next to 4060 Sylvia Lane and told township trustees this week that she’s exhausted her resources and patience trying to get the property cleaned.
“The house should be condemned. Someone broke in and left it open, and I’ll admit I walked in and then I walked right out,” she said, adding she’s contacted the township zoning office, Mahoning County auditor and board of health about it.
The house is still in Joseph Mullarkey Jr.’s name. Mullarkey, a veterinarian, was found dead Feb. 25, 2008, after an apparent suicide in the house, a month after pleading guilty to attempted child endangering for placing a child into a plastic dog crate as a punishment.
“I’m aware of the house, and it’s still in his name,” said zoning inspector Anna Mamone.
“... The township can’t condemn it, and we don’t have the money to tear it down,” she said, adding that she thinks the house is still in probate court and likely will go to a sheriff’s sale in the coming years.
The Mahoning County Board of Health is an agency that can condemn the house, but the last complaint it received about the house was in 2008 — and that complaint was closed, said Mary Helen Smith, director of environmental health at the board.
The complaints have to be in writing, she said.
Mamone said she “absolutely” will write a letter to the board of health.
“If you can see that something is in disarray or other issues in the house — for instance, we’ve gotten complaints that there’s water in the basement — we’ll let the board of health know that. ... Then the health department has to go out and try to check that out,” she said.
In the meantime, the house was among 107 properties on the nuisance-abatement list presented to township trustees Monday, and Mamone said the Sylvia Lane property was on the list several times last year, too.
“Once the grass reaches 10 inches, then it’s declared a public nuisance and we have to have it taken care of. If it remains vacant and unattended, it remains on the watch list,” she said.
When the grass reaches 10 inches again, the property again will be declared a public nuisance. The nuisance-property season is from May to November.
The house, valued at $20,020, has a history of delinquent property taxes. The prior delinquent taxes total $3,973.03, and the property tax owed this year will be $5,535.41, according to the county auditor’s website. Court records show that The Bank of New York Trust Co. foreclosed on the property in the fall of 2008.