Posted on 06/28/2002 6:31:22 PM PDT by mhking
Attorney is ordered to clean house By KELLI YOUNG Tribune Chronicle WARREN - The city Health Board has given a Warren attorney until the end of July to clean up his home on Drexel Avenue N.W., where health officials said the man and his family used 5-gallon buckets as a toilets. The board gave the cleanup order Wednesday to homeowner Albert Swartz, 1507 Drexel Ave. N.W. Swartz also has to show the board that he intends to keep it clean, or the house will be demolished. The city issued a condemnation notice earlier this month. Deputy Health Commissioner Robert Pinti said a main violation with the home was that it hadn't had running water in about nine years. ''You will not have a house with no running water in the city,'' Pinti told Swartz. Swartz, who attended the board's meeting to appeal the condemnation, said there has been a water leak in the cellar, and the water had to be turned off from the inside. He disputed the claim that the water had been off for nine years. ''We haven't needed it, '' explained Swartz, who said he takes showers at his office. ''We go out to eat a lot and drink bottled water.'' Swartz gave a handwritten plan to the health board outlining how he intends to clean the house. The first item on his list says he will get a ''roll off dumpster to completely gut the house'' and estimated that would take about a month. His plan also includes having a plumber at the house, and several of his antiques and collections will be put into storage. But Mayor Henry J. Angelo said the board needs a plan with timelines and commitments from companies that will do the cleaning and plumbing. Pinti said if Swartz does not satisfy the board's request by the next meeting, then the board will give Swartz a direct order to destroy the house within 10 days. After the 10 days, Pinti said, the city will destroy the house and bill Swartz. He said the city can take Swartz to court to recoup the money. Swartz said that for the summer, he and his family are living at a campground in Portage County like they do every year, but the family does live in the city during the winter months. ''We have been married for 55 years,'' Swartz said. ''We are at a point in our age that we can't do a lot of things that we used to.'' Swartz declined further comment about the property. Pictures of the home show that the outside looks mostly clean with only some children's toys and outdoor equipment stacked in front. But inside photos show that debris is piled throughout the house, and the family has created pathways to move about the home. ''There's no flat surface where there's not a pile of junk on it,'' said Angelo, who visited the house. A bathroom picture shows three 5-gallon white buckets filled with feces. Dirty toilet paper also is scattered on the ground. A fourth bucket is shown in the yard in another photograph. The bucket has been placed in a hole in the dirt. Neighbors John and Ginger Nolen, 1517 Drexel Ave., said they are embarrassed by Swartz' home and can't even have friends or family come to visit because of how the house smells. ''They aren't there in the summer, but we are, and it's horrible,'' Nolen said.
This is not a problem created by the lack of running water.
Sounds like some type of compulsive disorder, fairly common in the elderly.
More and more we hear living amongst garbage stories. Too bad being "neighborly" (not busybody) doesn't keep the situation from reaching critical mass.
And how do you define being "neighborly?" Since there's no description of what the neighbors have attempted to do.
Calling it a "compulsive order" is just medicalizing a situation where people just don't care.
Yes, but it also goes to prove that not all lawyers are full of sh*t. They just trail it behind themselves.
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