Moorestown Resident Describes Vacant Home as a Safety Hazard and Financial Hardship

For the second consecutive meeting, a vacant home on Church Street was the subject of discussion when Moorestown Council met on Monday night.

This time, it was resident Marlene Hall who introduced the subject. Her mother lives on Walnut Street, across from the home.

Hall described a situation in which a tree had fallen on to half the fence, rodents run all over the property and she had begun to take on the burden of maintaining the property.

“It’s a safety issue, it’s not appealing and it’s causing a hardship on my finances,” Hall said.

Another resident raised the issue of the home at the Aug. 18 council meeting. He said the home had been vacant for about 20 years.

Council began the discussion at that meeting because Mayor Chris Chiacchio said it’s one of the top things people in the township have asked him about recently.

“That property is owned by someone,” Chiacchio said Monday night. “One of the reasons I chose to bring this up is because we have two homes like that in our neighborhood. One home has become a complete eyesore. The neighbors on my street have begun to clear the leaves, but the home poses a great risk. We’d love to just bulldoze it, but we can’t.”

Council directed Hall to contact the Department of Community Development.

The resident who spoke at the Aug. 18 meeting said the township maintains the property “sporadically,” and the neighbors have taken turns cleaning up the property.

At that meeting, Chicacchio said warrants could be issued to anyone who doesn’t maintain their property. He added the owner of the property on his street has a warrant out for his arrest.

According to Township Finance Director Thomas Merchel, if residents don’t pay their taxes, their property goes to a tax sale.

The township would then be able to obtain the home, fix it up and put it back on the market. A lienholder would also be able to obtain that property.