Lynn house demolition on hold; second property on tap

LYNN – A judge has granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from tearing down a house at 38 Rockaway St., but City Attorney James Lamanna contends that doesn’t mean the structure won’t face demolition in the future.Lamanna said this week that a court clerk and personnel from the Bank of New York Mellon, which owns the property, toured the home and found the building to be secured, not open to vagrants or rodents and therefore not a public threat.”He remanded it back to the City Council to make a list of specific issues with the property,” Lamanna said.The bank then has five days to address the issues or, Lamanna said, the case goes back to court.Lamanna said attorneys for the bank insist the bank would address the issues immediately.”I think they took the bank at their word that they will solve the problem,” Lamanna said.The bank has owned the property since Oct. 7, 2010 when it purchased it as the highest bidder at a foreclosure auction for $49,500. The city, however, had declared the property to be a nuisance in July and by fall had issued a demolition order.The Rockaway Street house is not the only home the council is seeking to demolish. The City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday at 8 p.m. in regards to a property at 226 Western Ave.Ward 2 City Councilor William Trahant said he has been trying to get the home cleaned up or torn down for several years.Trahant said the inside of the house is a mess.”He was a pack rat,” he said of the owner. “It is full of debris and papers. He was a hoarder who saved everything.”Trahant said he held a hearing on the house in 2006 or 2007 and the council decided to give the owner time to deal with the property. Trahant said it wasn’t long before it slipped back into disrepair.At one point after the owner had moved out, Trahant said the house was broken into and the copper plumbing stolen.”That was when the city actually padlocked the front door,” Trahant said.Fresh plywood also covers what could have been a basement door at the rear of the house.Nearly a dozen trash cans, brush, a rusted exercise bike and a tiny toy stroller litter the small backyard. A thin piece of plywood hangs precariously from the ceiling of the back porch and another first-floor window has been boarded up.Trahant said his main concern is that place is a fire hazard and with an auto body shop next door any fire could prove disastrous for the neighborhood.”The whole block could go up,” he said.