The demolished remains of 614 Spring St. following a fire in January. Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said one of the reasons the debris is still onsite is because a controlled demolition was done, which requires a period of time for air monitoring following the demolition. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

Exterior maintenance was the top reported housing code violation in Jamestown during 2019.

On Monday, Crystal Surdyk, city development director, presented last year’s code enforcement activity report to the Jamestown City Council Housing Committee. She said there were 198 cases started in 2019, with an overall caseload of 464 cases. She added there were 266 ongoing code enforcement cases at the end of 2019.

Surdyk said there were 2,259 total inspections done in 2019, with 1,047 completed cases. She said 459 notification letters of violations were sent to property owners. She added that 592 appearance tickets for court were issued to homeowners because of code enforcement violations.

Vickye James, Ward 3 councilwoman and Housing Committee chairwoman, asked Surdyk of the 592 court appearance tickets, how many of them resulted in the problem being rectified. Surdyk said that statistic isn’t tracked by city code enforcement officials.

James also asked Surdyk what was being done with the debris pile left from the demolition of 614 Spring St. In January, an emergency demolition was ordered for the multi-family residential house following a fire.

Surdyk said a controlled demolition took place following the fire, which had to be done because the structure was not safe enough to do an asbestos survey. During a controlled demolition, she said there is a waiting period following the demolition to monitor the air, which is one of the reasons the debris following the demolition is still there.

Also, she said city officials are waiting for the remains to dry so they will weigh less when taken to the Chautauqua County Landfill. At the landfill, the city pays a per-ton cost to dispose of the demolition debris.

According to the report, the most reported housing code violation in 2019 was exterior maintenance. There were 215 total cases in 2019, with 107 new cases and 108 ongoing cases. In 2019, city code enforcement officers did 834 inspections and completed 363 cases.

Last year, city officials condemned 42 houses. At the end of 2019, there was a total caseload of 118 condemned properties, with 76 cases ongoing. In 2019, there were 199 houses inspected for condemnation, with 56 cases completed.

In 2019, there were 19 new interior maintenance cases, with a total caseload of 40. Last year, there was a total of 127 properties inspected for interior maintenance, with 56 cases completed.

As for nuisance violations, which could includes domestic animals, failure to renovate or demolish property, front yard parking, high grass and weeds, infestation and junk and debris, the top nuisance was junk and debris, with 675 total inspects. Last year, 328 appearance tickets for court were issued to property owners cited for junk and debris.

The second most-reported nuisance last year was high grass and weeds, with 254 total inspections. In 2019, 121 appearance tickets for court were issued to property owners with high grass and weeds.