Renovo Hearing Board Rejects 14th Street Residents Appeal

RENOVO – Renovo’s Appeals Hearing Board Thursday night rejected the appeal from the 14th Street row house residents seeking relief from a borough condemnation notice.

The vote was 3-0 against the residents. It came at the end of nearly three hours of discussion on the request and followed a three-hour session on Wednesday. In the end the residents were unable to convince the appeals board to rule against borough-produced evidence that the 16-unit structure is unsafe.

The residents, through their attorney Rocco Rosamilia, have the right to challenge the Thursday night decision in Clinton County Court. There will be a 30-day window to do that after receipt of the board’s written decision.

Voting to reject the appeal request were board members Eric Fletcher, Larry Glenn and Charles Grieb.

Rosamilia called one witness, an expert in residential construction, who testified the building could be pulled together and salvaged for those who live there.

Wednesday night saw two code/engineering specialists testify in support of the borough decision to declare the 16-unit building an unsafe structure. They were the borough’s property maintenance officer Victor Marquardt and structural engineer Jeffrey Brooks. Both were again part of the hearing on Thursday.

Both on Wednesday had detailed their September visit to the 14th Street building; they entered multiple units there as the borough posted the building as unsafe. Brooks went into detail on his report, much of it centered on the unoccupied unit at 155 14th Street. He displayed pictures which showed that portions of the second and third floors had collapsed onto the first floor. Brooks said the firewall at that unit is unstable and if it would give away, would have a “catastrophic effect” on the rest of the units.

Brooks also showed shots of the vacant fire-damaged unit at 137 14th Street. He said if not repaired, that unit will fall into further disrepair, similar to 155. He said there is a danger to the entire building because of the 155 section, noting the row houses were built some 75 to 80 years ago as part of one building with firewalls in-between each of the 16 units; six of those units are in repository status, going unclaimed for unpaid real estate taxes.

Renovo borough was represented by their solicitor, Stuart Hall; Attorney Paul Welch represented the hearing board.