Fulton Street resident, Paul Wolff, speaks in front of the City Council during Monday’s meeting. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Fulton Street resident Paul Wolff has become a familiar face for City Council members as someone who is not afraid to bring concerns to council meetings.

During Monday’s meeting, he reported that he has heard of many others in the city that are afraid, as there is a growing feeling that nothing will happen when they do.

Wolff said much of what he has heard has come from going door to door to talk with people as he continues his plans for running for the council in two years, along with from his talking with residents during his visit to the No Kings Rally in the city last weekend.

“I started talking with them about the city and how they felt about the city, and it really seemed like the overwhelming thing was fear,” Wolff said. “My fellow citizens out here seem to be afraid to do anything. They’re afraid to come here to address you folks because they see the posts you make online about not being able to do anything and it not being your fault. They hear about the things with the police from their neighbors and they don’t feel comfortable with that.”

Wolff briefly discussed police presence on Fulton Street, saying he saw three officers working this last week, praising them for getting a lot of drugs and weapons off of the street, which he said he and his neighbors appreciate.

Returning to his question from one of the latest meetings about whether or not it would be possible to organize a community clean up for the street, Wolff added that he has at least five or six people he has talked with that would be willing to help, but that again the others do not show up to meetings because they do not think it will help anything. As far as a community clean up goes for condemned properties, city development director Crystal Surdyk said without a court order they would be allowed to clean up trash anywhere along the right-of-way, but would not be allowed to enter the houses. She added that as far as even cleaning up garbage on the properties goes it is not as simple as getting a court order, but that once the condemned houses start to come down and debris is removed, all of the garbage will be taken away as well.

Wolff said that council president Tony Dolce also approached him before the meeting as he drove by Fulton Street to see and ask about what has been happening with the condemned houses that were meant to be coming down soon.

“I drove by because I knew they were coming soon and I knew they had been there so I wanted to see if the trucks had been there yet,” Dolce said.

Surdyk noted that there are several phases that come with demolitions, including asbestos surveys and litigation of asbestos if it is found, and with every phase that needs to be done needs to be put out to bid for about two weeks. With each phase there needs to be an allowance of at least two weeks, and an accounting for contractor availability.

“I wish I could give you an answer that you want,” Surdyk said. “It is going to happen. It is already on the docket. I just received an email today from our demolition contractor that bids have gone out for three of those properties for the actual demolitions. So now they have to wait for those bids to come back and then they will select the demolition contractor that has the best price and they will take the timeline into consideration.”

She added that they know Fulton Street is a priority so that will determine when those houses come down, but they still have to wait a few weeks to get the responses back. Returning back to the possibility of a neighborhood clean up, Surdyk said Wolff could organize one, but with several different properties belonging to several different people it would require the city getting more than one court order, and if any of the properties were occupied that makes it an entirely different situation, as they could say no one can take the garbage on their porch or property as it is their property.

“There are rules and regulations in place that we have to follow,” Surdyk said.

Later in the meeting Surdyk gave another short update on the current status of demolitions in the city. It was noted that two have been done on Cross Street, and Dolce returned to the fact that he had gone down and visited Fulton Street to see if anything had been happening there as he knew it was scheduled soon and had seen equipment there.

“I went down to see if they were there, and they were not there today but the utilities have been marked so it’s getting close,” Dolce said.