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Poland residents blame village council for "mess on the Manor"
POLAND
Members of village council got an earful from village residents regarding a property on Poland Manor at last night’s council meeting.
“It’s a damn disgrace. You guys are not doing your job,” said Pete Foxx, a resident of the Manor. “You’re sitting on your butts doing nothing about this disaster.”
The “disaster” to which Foxx referred is 12 Poland Manor, a property that has been in a state of disrepair since the owner, Bret Barnhizer, began work on it in 2010. The project remains incomplete, despite the fact that village officials have issued three zoning permits to Barnhizer since 2010 to renovate the structure.
Dozens of residents showed up at the meeting to take council to task for its handling of the situation, saying council has done little to enforce the zoning ordinance.
“We love Poland Village, but the [council] is not doing anything to enforce the ordinance,” said David Gabriel, who along with his wife, Melissa, is concerned about the Manor property as well as other neglected properties in the village.
“It has now been four and a half years since this mess started,” said Jennie Phillips, who has spearheaded the residents’ efforts at resolving the issue on the Manor. “We look at it four times a day. For four years. I’m done.”
Phillips said she does not see it as a safety, health or financial issue so much as a moral issue, and demanded that council tell her what they are going to do about it. “If he can’t fix it, I think he should sell it,” she said.
The council also heard from Ed Muransky, a resident of the township who offered to put together a committee to investigate how other communities deal with similar zoning issues.
“Doing nothing, or sitting back, puts the whole zoning ordinance ... in jeopardy,” Muransky said. “There has to be something with teeth ... I think that all that Poland Village is about, and the history of it, is at risk” if nothing is done.
Residents questioned council members, as well as solicitor Anthony D’Apolito, zoning administrator David Raspanti and prosecutor Dominic Leone.
D’Apolito expressed sympathy for residents of the Manor, but said it is not fair to blame village council because village officials have been trying to fix the problem for years.
“It’s in Struthers Court now. It’s their prerogative, it’s their area,” he said. “It’s not council’s prerogative to cite him.
“We’ve tried a few [solutions]. They haven’t worked. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep trying.”
Poland Village Council officially declared the property a nuisance in June 2013 under the Poland Village General Offense Code 660.05, according to documents obtained by The Vindicator. On Jan. 20, village officials sent Barnhizer a letter asking him to abate the nuisance. Following an inspection in May in which Raspanti found that the nuisance had not been abated, the issue was handed over to Struthers Municipal Court.
“The idea [now] is to continue putting pressure on him,” D’Apolito said. “The pressure is being ratcheted up. And we will continue to do that.”
Barnhizer will not be issued any more permits by the village, meaning he cannot continue to build on the property. He also has been issued a criminal citation from the prosecutor’s office, which carries a $150 fine.
Leone and Raspanti are in the process of citing Barnhizer for a housing violation, which would cost much more in fines, D’Apolito said. He said a housing violation citation could cost Barnhizer $100 a day, and the criminal citation from Struthers Municipal Court puts Barnhizer at risk of serving jail time.
As for the strong response from residents, D’Apolito said their passion is a good thing.
“I love that. I’m frustrated too,” he said.