Nov 10, 2015 3 min read

The vacant house at 380 Hillside Ave. in Washington is a nuisance. The doors are gone, boarded-up windows have been graffitied and, over the weekend, a television and couch turned up in the surrounding weeds.

Neighbor Susan Chipps is fed up.

“I just don’t think it’s fair, because we live in the West End,” Chipps said. “You live in the West End, you get nothing.”

Chipps, who walks her dog past the eyesore, said she has called the city at least three times to clean up the abandoned property. She believes she is being ignored because of her neighborhood, home to the highest crime rate in the city.

“Now I live in the West End with the drug dealers and a garbage dump,” Chipps said. “We already get the rats that do the drugs down here … now we have real rats.”

City Code Enforcement Officer Ron McIntyre, who has spoken to Chipps about the house, said he is working to get the property up to code. The city has set aside $75,000 to tear down blighted properties. With a pending list of 26 residential properties on the to-be-demolished list, that doesn’t permit a lot of razing.

“We’ll get to it, it’s just a matter of time and money,” he said.

McIntyre notified council that the abandoned Hillside property, of which Washington County Tax Claim Bureau is trustee, should be considered a priority. In case of a fire, he marked an ‘X’ on the home, so firefighters know the house is abandoned.

Chipps doesn’t think that’s enough. She said the grass should have been cut and the garbage picked up by the city so that others don’t follow suit and throw their garbage on the lot.

“Here’s the thing, if they would have cleaned it all up to begin with, people wouldn’t have seen you can throw your stuff in there,” Chipps said. “It’s become a garbage dump.”

In addition to the TV, couch, tires and garbage, Chipps said someone recently threw insulation in the yard.

“The rats are going to come, that’s my big thing,” she said. “The house is open. The city blocked it one time, that was it. Basically, they’re just waiting for someone to burn it down.”

McIntyre said he notified a city contractor about the mess. He said there is only one worker to deal with neglected properties and that he has a very limited budget with which to clean up those lots.

“Hopefully, he’ll get to it,” McIntyre said. “We’re working on it.”