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Mayor vows to resolve Willis mess
Vexed neighbor seeks answers to nine years of village neglect
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Referring to a section in the Village Code that calls for residents to keep their property free from debris, Mayor Margot Garant said Tuesday she expected village officials by the end of the week would serve a notice of violation to the Burdens, owners of 3 Willis Ave. in Port Jefferson.
After Warren and April Coburn, neighbors of the Burdens, came before the Village Board last month, Village Attorney Barry Warren was tasked to look into allegations the Burdens have been illegally storing automobiles, used tires, car batteries and cans of volatile liquids on their premises on that residential street. Garant confirmed Tuesday that based on Warren's report, the Village Board voted 3 to 0 to have the village attorney write up the code violations.
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| | | | At Monday’s public meeting Mayor Margot Garant faced off with resident Warren Coburn, who presented his case against neighbors he claims are violating Village Code with illegal storage. Center: Village Trustee Joe Erland looks on. Photo by D. Willinger. (click for larger version) | | |
Village Trustee Carmine Dell Aquila had already left the late-hour business session, Garant said, leaving only four members of the Village Board to vote on the resolution. Village Trustee Leslea Snyder recused herself because she has known the Burdens since childhood, the freshman trustee said.
"It's going to get resolved," Garant said of the longterm situation on Willis Avenue that has escalated more recently into something of a feud between the neighbors. That situation spilled over into the public meeting of the Village Board Monday evening, when Warren Coburn came to the podium to explain repeated attempts by his family and other neighbors to force the cleanup of the Burdens' property. The debris is causing health and environmental concerns and resulting in a mosquito and rodent problem for the neighborhood, Coburn said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation inspected the Burden premises Oct. 17 and found no violations. DEC is not investigating further.
Coburn recapped for the mayor and trustees nine years of efforts without results, beginning with a village-issued Order to Remedy from April 2000, and including a unanimous decision by the board in August 2007 to proceed with a search warrant to inspect the Burden premises. That warrant apparently was never executed. Garant said Tuesday there was not enough cause to resurrect the search warrant.
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| | | A view into the yard at 3 Willis Avenue. Courtesy photo. (click for larger version) | |
Coburn's exposition at the public meeting devolved into a testy give-and-take with members of the board and the village attorney. At one point Garant used her gavel to silence a man in the audience — the room was filled with more than 50 residents — who was chanting "seven years" in reference to the long history of the Willis Avenue complaint. Later, as Coburn was seemingly trying to cross-examine village officials, repeated shouts from the audience demanding he sit down and stop talking broke the decorum. Garant abided those interruptions without reaching for her gavel.
Coburn spoke of a recent incident when he allowed his home to be searched for explosives Oct. 17 by Port Jefferson Fire Chief Fred Leute, following allegations by Tim Burden, Coburn said. Chief Leute declined Tuesday to comment on the incident, however no officials have claimed any explosives were found.
Mayor Margot Garant told Coburn Monday evening she was "distressed for everybody involved." Garant told TBR Newspapers Tuesday she was disappointed the Coburns had chosen not to accept her invitation to meet with her and Warren prior to the public meeting. April Coburn said she and her husband, who have not yet retained counsel in this matter, were simply following advice of an attorney not to attend a meeting with two lawyers
unrepresented.
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