A leveled property at the intersection of Hazzard and Partridge streets in Jamestown is pictured Thursday. A city resident questioned the lack of remediation in the last year. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

A Jamestown resident said he’s tired of dealing with an unmaintained and unsightly property two doors down from his Chambers Street home.

The nuisance, Todd Cordosi told members of the Jamestown City Council’s Housing Committee, has been an issue for the last decade and highlights the frustration many residents feel about the snail’s pace handling of obvious city code violations.

“Yes, the guy is my age,” Cordosi said during this week’s committee meeting. “It would take him 12 minutes to mow his lawn. If he can’t mow it, he can pay like I would have to if I can’t mow mine.”

Cordosi showed Housing Committee members pictures of the problem property. He then questioned the usefulness of an ordinance passed by the City Council last summer designed to address code violations in a more timely manner. It permits “quality of life ticketing” by city code enforcement officers to property owners who are non-compliant on junk and debris, high grass, snow accumulation or other maintenance issues.

“The problem is you guys came up with that new ordinance and so when that started, three different neighbors turned it in,” Cordosi said of complaints lodged over the Chambers Street lawn. “We thought after five days (with) no compliance, someone would come and mow it and it never happened. So I don’t understand what’s going on with you.”

Crystal Surdyk, city director of development, believes code enforcement officers will be able to start issuing tickets as soon as Monday. She said some legal issues, such as who would collect payments after fines were leveled, have delayed the rollout of the program.

“I believe we’ve worked it all out,” Surdyk said, though later cautioning, “There’s going to be hiccups. There’s going to be things that we thought we worked through that maybe we haven’t, but ‘go live’ is Feb. 12. We’re really hopeful that will help.”

Cordosi also addressed a property at the corner of Hazzard and Partridge streets in Jamestown reportedly destroyed by fire more than a year ago.

“I know I wouldn’t want to live next to that,” he said. “I just cannot believe in 13 months that somebody can’t go pick that up and take that to the landfill.”

Surdyk said handling the debris is not as simple as just hauling it away.

“It is assumed to be contaminated because it was burned by fire. So, we have to assume it has asbestos. That’s why it’s covered,” she said. “It’s also private property. We have to get a court order. … They thought they had insurance — we’ve been dealing with the insurance company for 13 months.”

After another housing issue was brought up, Surdyk said, “We have to go through a legal process as you have experienced and, as I’ve said a million times, we have to get court orders. We have to follow the law. We cannot just go on people’s property that they own without getting that court order.”

Surdyk noted the difficulties in getting compliance after some code violations are identified. At present, the office looks into violations only after a complaint is filed.

Getting a case to court can be time-consuming as well.

“Just because we can write the ticket, doesn’t mean we can enforce the ticket,” she said. “The enforcement part of code enforcement is kind of a misnomer because we can’t actually go and enforce anything. The bench warrant was issued — we can’t serve the bench warrant. Our code enforcement officers can’t serve the bench warrant.”

Addressing violations — ones already identified and new ones that come in — should get a little easier for the city Department of Development. Two code enforcement officers recently completed their training, doubling the number of officers in the department.

Speaking to Cordosi during the committee meeting, Surdyk said, “I know you’re frustrated. I know why you’re frustrated. We are also very frustrated. There has to be a better way. If I had the answers, I would have already figured it out and already solved it.”

Nearly all of the committee’s half-hour meeting was taken up by public comment and ensuing discussions. The committee did not have time to hear a status update on demolitions that was on the agenda.