Worst of the worst? 179-181 Shrewsbury Avenue.
Municipal Court Judge William Himelman last week slapped an Eatontown couple with $36,000 in fines and threatened them with up to 360 days in jail if they don’t correct dozens of problems in four rental properties they own on the West Side by Feb. 21.
Iris and Miguel Acevedo, who list their own address as 250 Broad Street, Eatontown, pleaded guilty to 41 summonses in borough court last Thursday, according to Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels, who was present for the case.
Himelman imposed fines totaling $72,000 on the couple, but suspended half as part of a plea bargain that also reduced the number of summonses from 72, said Kevin Wigenton, the attorney who represented them. (Wigenton was retained privately by the Acevedos; he wasn’t acting in his capacity as the borough’s public defender, he said.)
The judge also said he would immediately jail each of the defendants for 90 days for each house that was not brought fully into compliance with safety and building codes, Sickels said.
The Acevedo prosecution, said Sickels, was the first test of a new database being created by borough officials to comprehensively track the enforcement of overcrowding and other rules.
“We started with the worst case,” Sickels said, adding that the database enabled Borough Prosecutor James Butler to demonstrate to Himelman the breadth of the Acevedo’s problematic property holdings, which have been cited in the past.
Monmouth County records show Iris Acevedo as the owner of 17 Red Bank properties in her own name and two others with her husband, Miguel; he owns another solely. All the addresses are on the West Side.
Last week’s prosecution concerned four houses:
• 38 East Westside Avenue
• 84 West Sunset Avenue
• 125 Leighton Avenue
• 179-181 Shrewsbury Avenue.
The Shrewsbury Avenue property alone accounted for nearly half the violations to which the Acevedos pleaded guilty. Sickels said Himelman slapped the couple with the maximum $2,000-per-violation fines.
“Those are significant fines,” he told redbankgreen. “And he told them, ‘You will go to jail’” if the deficiencies aren’t fixed.
Wigenton said that the Acevedos are “very remorseful” and working hard to bring the houses into compliance.
“They have a lot of work to do,” he said. “But they look forward to getting all the homes up to code.” He said that borough officials “have been willing to work with us in spite of the fines and in spite of the jail terms.”
Sickels said landlords have been sentenced to jail stints in the past, but this is the first instance in some years.
Mayor Pasquale Menna is planning to use information developed in the database to publicly shame repeat offenders among absentee landlords, including, he says, swells from Colts Neck and Rumson whose photos frequently appear in the so-called society pages of a weekly newspaper.
Delays in completing the database, and practical questions about how to put Menna’s goals into effect, have delayed a formal announcement, expected two weeks ago, on the mayor’s overall plan.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP. Bravo Mr. Mayor, Mr. Sickles and the rest of you. about time.
The first of many one would hope.
Sad to see any property run down so badly. But isn't this site locally significant?
Finally Himmelman is imposing fines. Too bad he screwed up with Sullivan & Ansorage. He's quite inconsistant. But it is about time we got rid of some of these blighted properties. How about the Dweck property on West Front Street.
As someone who has long been critical of the McMenna Team policies over the years, I too applaud loudly for a good move in the right direction. Let's keep it going; especially looking forward to seeing some of the "right people" on the wrong side of this ledger.
Bravo, Mr. Mayor. Encore; encore.
Mr. Menna, Mr. Sickels. Very nicely done.
I have personally dealt with 70 leighton ave for quite some time. It is one of their many beautiful properties. They are threatened with jail, but I live in the one they created everyday.
Alright! A move in the right direction.
Slowly we will start to see some changes in Red Bank. I have to say Thank You to Mayor Menna and to Mr Sickles along with other members of code inforcement!
Now as John Ross has put it..we have to take care of 70 Leighton Ave next.
Oh…finally getting that new telephone pole put up! As I said " Don't let anyone ever tell you can't make a difference!"
We still have many miles to go!
its about time. what are the violations for? overcowding? where are these people going to move to if so? i would like the list of all landlords that have violations in the past year- posted
I am lost why Stanley and mayor get the Thanks. Should thank the guys doing the job. Just because 1 time this happens Stanley gets the applause. This should of been done long ago. Now its a little to late. They will just move from house to house i have seen this happen. Maybe Stanley needs to take a ride threw the west side and see what is really up here. Live are life Stanley and i am sure you will do what you get paid for.
go figure this, me defending Stan and Pat.
stormin Norman got the praise for the result of the Gulf War, Patton got the praise from WW2, Pershing, the list goes on and on. I am not trying to elevate these two into such a status, but those three mentioned above had the plan and implemented it, yes the troops did it, but praise fell on the big guns. So to make you feel better angry westsider, good job code enforcement also. You are the guys that actually go into these shi%holes.
Angry Westsider,
If the mayor and Sickels get praised profusely, they are more likely to keep up this kind of work. So even if you don't think their work is praiseworthy, just smile and say "thanks."
I think this is the start of a real push to improve the quality of life in our town, and that push started at the top. (In reaction to complaints from citizens, certainly.) If we want to keep the push going, we should thank those who have the power to keep it going or let it languish.
This one case is not the end of the story, and maybe it was too long in coming, but it's still praiseworthy.
While I appreciate the positive comments on behalf of the Mayor and the Borough and in my capacity as head of Code Enforcement, the day to day hard work of our inspectors is what is bringing these matters to court. Code Enforcement Officers Frank Woods and Edward Araujo are in the field inspecting these homes and issuing summonses for violations on a daily basis and are responsible for the summonses issued in these particular cases. When they discover violations of the Uniform Fire Code and/or Uniform Construction Code, they are assisted and supported by Deputy Fire Marshal Tom Welsh, Building Subcode Official Jim Williams, and Fire Subcode Official John Drucker. When we inspect a building we attempt to address all violations observed. I am proud of each inspector and their collective efforts.
In April I posted on this website about how the landlord of the house next door permitted the condition of his house to become dangerous, disturbing, and an eye sore. (The siding had been falling off for months, some was dangling and banging in the wind.) What made matters worse is that the landlord would not return my calls.
Grace Cangemi saw my post and told me to contact code enforcement. I am not sure how the process worked at that stage, but the situation was soon resolved. I confess that I did not need to have Miss Cangemi point me in that direction, and at the time I was more interested in posting the name of the slumlord next door.
My points are that I like the idea of putting up the names of these selfish pigs and I can attest that at least in my case, even before the new publicity, the Code Enforcement Officers were on the ball.
post the names! post the names! post the names!
To the Angry Westsider…
My parents lived on Shrewsbury Avenue and East Westside Avenue before moving next to my grandfather on McLaren Street. My wife and I lived on Locust Avenue and then on Bank Street before moving into my grandfather's house. I travel the streets of the westside daily either for work or dropping off and picking up friends of my son's and my wife travels them daily to go to work at the Primary School. We talk with residents and friends living throughout the Borough seven days a week whether at Foodtown, at the schools, at the doctor's at community meetings, at sporting events, etc. While we share your concerns for the quality life issues we share them for the entire Borough.
Please keep in mind we locally are addressing the symptom of a much larger problem on national level. In many ways our hands are tied but we will take whatever steps we can to address the issues with the tools we have available.
I commend the efforts in the trenches by RedBank's troops. The next step is to pass a resolution like the one manasquan just passed. In essence, it urges Congress to provide a permanant and comprehensive solution to the problems of day workers and illegals. It would help the citizens of RedBank to know that there elected officials are committed to them and not just dancing around issues. It also has been a year since I first proposed the listing of Slumlord names in the paper. We are waiting. I bet if we took up collections from residents and some businesses, we could release a color circular that included pictures and addresses.
where can i send the check to?
If someone's willing to do the research, we don't have to wait for the council. Aren't all the charges and convictions public? If someone is willing to get the names and violations, didn't redbankgreen volunteer to put them on the Web? If not, it's easy enough to publish them. Anyone ready to spend some hours at the courthouse looking up the violations?
Stanly, if its public information, can we get a list of the addresses that the borough has been called about for suspected overcrowding, (How about right next door to me for example), then we could go to the data site on the app and see for ourselves who owns these propertys?
Now if only the folks in city hall can enforce the laws that prohibit businesses from hiring "undocumented workers", and if Mayor Pat would announce that Red Bank is no longer a "sanctuary city", maybe the town can come back from the precipice. But I won't hold my breath.