Saugus selectman upset over several eyesores in town

SAUGUS – Selectman Michael Kelleher said he is still disappointed that little can be done regarding the Main Street Exxon Station, but it is not the only abandoned property he is worried about.During Tuesday’s board meeting Kelleher said there is an abandoned building on Vine Street that predates the Exxon Station by years that he would like to see addressed.”It’s been upwards of 20 years,” Kelleher said. “Developers got started and never finished. The DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) has gotten involved.”Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said the Affordable Housing Committee was interested in the property at one time but it, too, realized there were issues. He said whoever took on the property would have to clean up the environmental mess.”To clean it up you would have to tear the building down and get under the slab,” Bisignani said. “It is a blight on the neighborhood . . . if the town does take it though, we’d be responsible for the clean up and you don’t want that.”As for the Exxon Street station that was abandoned last spring, Bisignani said he has tried to put pressure on the property owner but there has been no response.Kelleher said between the Main and Vine properties and the four abandoned homes on Hitchings Hill Road, he is concerned about safety at the increasing number of abandoned properties.”There is even one on Route 1 that has been boarded up for awhile,” he added.Kelleher asked Bisignani to have Town Counsel John Vasapolli look at the town’s existing bylaws as well as state laws to see if there is anything that would allow them to go after property owners more aggressively.Selectman Peter Rossetti warned his colleagues that the Vine Street site would be a particularly difficult one to deal with. He said the location was at one time home to a cleaner and was most likely full of a number of different chemicals.”You’re dealing with federal law here,” he said. “That would be a superfund site.”Superfunds are toxic waste sites.Kelleher said his concern was mainly focused on the abandoned buildings because he felt they are unsafe eyesores and the neighborhoods shouldn’t have to suffer because of them.