Concerns about vacant home grow
Work proceeding on finding new owner for house on Sherwood Way
Township officials are still working to find answers about an abandoned house on Sherwood Way, while residents say they’ve seen more creatures coming and going into it.
“Rest assured, we’re going to continue to work on this. It’s on our radar screen, and on staff’s radar screen,” said supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson.
Last month, a group of residents who live on and around Sherwood Way brought to the supervisors new concerns about
a house they first warned of in May 2017, which they say has been unoccupied for at least a decade and has fallen into obvious disrepair.
Solicitor Jack Dooley reported that since the May supervisors meeting when residents came forward with complaints, township staff have mowed the lawn and boarded up some openings on the garage doors to try to keep creatures like raccoons from going in or out.
“What we have not done is go inside. I don’t want to get into too much detail publicly, but we anticipate taking steps to get inside the property, to see what we can find there,” he said.
Dooley said he has been investigating claims made by the neighbors last month that a federal IRS lien in the amount of roughly $3.4 million against the house has been released, while a smaller federal lien of roughly $24,000 still remains.
“That’s still significantly different than what we were dealing with previously,” he said.
At the state level, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue filed a lien against the property in 2010 for $237,000, and Dooley said he estimates the accumulated interest since then could add about $120,000 to that total, if the original amount has not been paid down. The owner appears to have still been paying local taxes on the property, and Dooley said he’s still researching whether the same applies for state taxes or the state lien.
“He might have been making payments on that. I don’t know — they (the state) would know that, and we’ll find that out,” Dooley said.
If the state can be convinced to list the property for a tax sale, according to
“It’s not just the rabies I’m worried about. Lord knows what else is living in there and growing in there.” — Barbara Vargas, of Canterbury Drive
the attorney, the property could then be bought by either a new owner or by a contractor willing to make repairs and then resell it.
“I still believe the quickest way to do that would be if we can get this property sold at a tax sale,” Dooley said.
The group of neighbors who raised concerns in May said Wednesday they still see raccoons going into and out of the house, and they think they’re going in and out of an elevated vent that hasn’t been boarded up yet.
“They’re getting in through the upper gable vent. That’s where they’re getting out and back in. We have pictures of them sitting on the top,” said neighbor Steve Stigliano.
“I caution you guys, if you go in that house, please be careful,” he said.
Neighbor Pat O’Brien said he has seen a family of raccoons coming into and out of the house, saw township police were called this past weekend to kill a raccoon that appeared to have rabies and was told by the officer that that was the second raccoon appearing to be rabid that they had killed that week.
“Our concerns are, you have a lot of little kids playing on that street. And if these raccoons living in the house get rabies, they could bite any one of these little kids,” O’Brien said
Barbara Vargas, of Canterbury Drive, across the street from the house, said the neighbors are worried not only about whether it would be inhumane to trap raccoons inside the house but also about anything else that could be living in the several feet of water they can see in the basement.
“It’s not just the rabies I’m worried about. Lord knows what else is living in there and growing in there,” she said.
Vargas also said she was worried about local children and teenagers going to look inside the house, and board members said anyone who sees someone trespassing should call police immediately.
Kevin Fitzpatrick, also of Canterbury, asked if the animal issues could lead to charges being filed against the property owner, and Dooley said any injury could lead to the owner being held liable but likely fall short of criminal charges.
Neighbor Melissa Schubert asked if Dooley thought the latest developments were good signs — “to me, it sounds like progress” — and he agreed.
“The end spot has to be that this property gets sold, and so ‘How do we get there?’ is my focus, and I think it is progress,” Dooley said.
“We’re learning a lot more and getting close to that finish line. How, ultimately, that’s going to happen, I can’t tell you yet,” he said.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7:30 p.m. on June 27 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information or meeting agendas and materials, visit www.Towamencin. org.