Local NEWS
Resident says
By Susan Tuz
The News-Times
For the last six years she
has been watching the building at 51 Prospect Ridge deteriorate, she said.
Gutter pipes were missing and water was running along the walls, staining them
inside and outside.
The posts of the
wrap-around porch were rotting at the bases. Windows were poorly insulated and
cold air blew through in the winter. And the back steps to the building were rusting, making her wonder if they were safe to walk on.
Then in January of this
year, stone fell away from the facade of the stone foundation of the porch on
one side, followed by more stone falling away in August on the other side.
Barron felt her beautiful
home was becoming a slum.
"We live here from
necessity," Barron said Wednesday about the building she and five other
renters call home. "Why treat us poorly? I don't try to do damage to
anybody's reputation. I just want these things taken care of. The whole place
is falling apart."
Philip Berquist,
chairman of
But it is old, built in
1887, he said. And when the building was remodeled in 1990, the State of
A state grant has been
applied for through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, Berquist said. And the Ridgefield Housing Authority's
insurance company was contacted in January, when the porch foundation facade
first started to fall apart.
Funds are on the way, he
said.
Nanette Bracken, a
commission member, said Wednesday that as far back as 2003 a needs assessment
was done on the building and two structural engineers were called in, both of
whom said the building was compliant with structural quality. In short, it was
safe to live in.
Neither Berquist
nor Bracken could say why Barron felt she had to contact the press to get work
done at 51 Prospect. Both deny there is a problem with the person who oversees
maintenance at the building reporting back to the Housing Authority.
But Barron wonders.
"I suppose the guy who
is in charge of maintenance is not doing a good job," she said. "He
no longer cleans the entry hall, and I've seen the building steadily decline.
Sometimes you feel tired trying to get things done, because you don't have any
response from the office."
Barron has copies of
letters she sent to everyone she could think of in
In November 2005 she even
took it upon herself to contact The Lewis Fund through the Ridgefield Bank to
try to get a grant for the Housing Authority to have work done.
The senior vice president
of the bank, Joyce Ligi, got back to Barron after her
second request to say the Housing Authority would have to apply itself. Barron
heard nothing more.
In August 2006, she wrote
to town planner Betty Brosius after she heard about
Planning and Zoning's approval of more affordable housing to be built at 51
Prospect Ridge.
Brosius forwarded Barron's letter to Berquist.
Barron said she is not
alone in her dissatisfaction with the maintenance of the building, but other
tenants are senior citizens who are "afraid" to complain.
Berquist said Wednesday that no definite
plans for repairing the building can be made until funds come in.
"We are a very
responsible commission," Berquist said. "We
don't renege on our duties. I've been on the commission for 26 years. I take
this very seriously."
Bracken agreed, saying that
in general the buildings overseen by the Housing Authority are "really
very well maintained."
The Ridgefield Housing
Authority also oversees senior housing at Ballard Green and congregate housing
adjacent to the building that Barron lives in at 51 Prospect Ridge.
Contact Susan Tuz
or at (203)731-3352.