Milford Strengthens Rules on Nuisance Properties

Voters at the special town meeting Monday overwhelmingly approved a new bylaw that will crack down on nuisance properties.

Voters in Milford agreed to strengthen regulations against vacated, blighted properties in town, adopting a new bylaw that officials say will help protect neighborhoods. The so-called nuisance property bylaw requires all property owners to properly maintain their properties. The article was placed on the warrant by the Milford Selectmen, who said it is needed to protect property values and ensure building, health and safety standards. Among other things, the bylaw will prevent people from putting garbage out for collection, and left in public view, for more than three days. In addition, people can't discard things such as mattresses and broken refrigerators, and leave them outside, for more than 15 days. The bylaw proposes a $300 daily …

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New Restrooms, Concession Building Approved

Town Meeting representatives, in a divided vote, approved $150,000 to help construct a new restroom and concession facility for the Milford High School athletics complex.

Special town meeting voters agreed to provide another $150,000 to construct a new restroom and concession building to complete the athletics complex at Milford High School, after 20 minutes of argument. The money was approved Monday in a divided vote — 112 in favor and 48 opposed. The additional funds, when combined with about $150,000 in savings on the $3 million athletics fields project, will provide up to $300,000 for the new concession-bathroom facility. Selectmen were divided in their recommendation to Town Meeting. William Buckley, who opposed the article, said the town needed to reach out to contractors, who could contribute their services. "I think it's time we represent our seniors and our neighbors," he said. Selectman Brian …

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By The Numbers

$1.2M Requested at Special Town Meeting [Poll]

Milford voters will decide several spending items at a special town meeting Oct. 24. Among the requests: $374,000 for portable classrooms at Woodland Elementary School.

More than $1 million in requests are expected to be presented to voters in a special town meeting Oct. 24. The warrant will be discussed by Milford Selectmen on Oct. 17. In addition to the financial requests, the town is expected to consider a new noise bylaw and new standards for maintaining properties. The money requests break down as follows: $18,000 for fireworks for July 4, 2012 celebration $110,000 for Town Hall repainting $26,000 for wheelchair accessible ramp at Draper Memorial Park $70,000 for environmental cleanup on town property behind Benjamin Moore Company $77,500 for collective bargaining agreement with police $34,850 to transfer funds to school department $30,000 for demolition of unsafe structure at 8 Blanchard Rd. $22,500…

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Putting 'Teeth' into a Nuisance Ordinance

An ordinance that establishes $300-a-day fines for owners who neglect to maintain their properties will go before Town Meeting voters later this year.

Milford Selectmen endorsed a nuisance bylaw Monday that will put more "teeth" into enforcement efforts to make people take care of their properties. It will address trash on streets, junk in yards, construction debris in neighborhoods, and decrepid-looking structures that selectmen, and other town officials, say have become more of a problem in recent years. To take effect, the measure would have to be adopted by Town Meeting voters, because it is a bylaw. "We have something here we're very confident [about]," said Dino DeBartolomeis, chairman of the Milford Board of Selectmen. "This will give us the teeth to take the appropriate action." Initially proposed in June, the bylaw has had several additions, based on feedback from several town …

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SomeoneOrSomething

6:04 pm on Sunday, November 6, 2011

Well put Mr. Rizoli.   more ›

Milford Targets Nuisance Properties

The town already has a bylaw regulating vacated businesses, now residential properties may get a nuisance bylaw.

Tired of seeing unoccupied, dilapidated houses in Milford? Apparently many people are. Town officials this week said they will start to craft a bylaw that would enforce basic standards. The first draft of a "nuisance and vacant property bylaw" was prepared recently by Town Counsel Gerald Moody, who said he reviewed similar ordinances in communities in eastern Massachusetts, including Framingham and Marlboro. The proposal addresses residential and business properties, whether they are occupied or not, but has a section that specifically targets vacant spaces, Moody wrote. "These are, in these difficult economic climate, the kinds of abandoned or foreclosed properties which do not have an owner paying good attention to the properties …

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