Springfield gives Ostrowski family more time to avoid demolition

The Springfield Select Board has given another person an extension on a demolition order for a dilapidated building.

Springfield gives Ostrowski family more time to avoid demolition By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer | May 16,2015 Email Article Print Article Photo by Len Emery The small house at 105 Clinton St. is being placed on Springfield’s blighted buildings list. SPRINGFIELD — The family of the late Lena Ostrowski have been given another two and a half months to bring their aunt’s dilapidated property at 105-107 Clinton St. into “compliance” or face immediate demolition. The Springfield Select Board voted 4-0, with one abstention, to give an extension to Aug. 1 after a niece and a nephew — both lawyers it turned out — said they needed more time to sell the property, which was owned jointly by Ostrowski and their mother, Stella Dempf, who lived in Delmar, N.Y. Christopher Dempf, an Albany, N.Y., lawyer, and his sister, Melissa Dempf Ranaldo, a deputy U.S. attorney in Burlington, told a skeptical board of their ongoing efforts in the past two years of trying to do something about the property. There are three buildings at 105-107 Clinton St., including what Dempf described as the “family homestead,” and two very dilapidated buildings: A garage on one side of the main home, and a small house, that is the most visible to people on Clinton Street. The demolition order is for the two smaller buildings, not the main house. Dempf and Ranaldo asked the board to put a hold on their demolition proceedings, since the family had a verbal agreement with a neighbor to buy the property. Dempf said that if the town didn’t grant them an extension, the family would likely file an appeal. Dempf insisted that he had the right to cross-examine the professional engineer, a member of the town’s three-person committee that makes the unsafe building determination. The engineer was not present at the meeting, although the two other members, Fire Chief Russell Thompson and Deputy Chief Scott Richardson were. Dempf declined to ask them a single question. Ostrowski died at age 86 in 2012, and according to her niece and nephew, she put little effort into maintaining either her home or the two other buildings in the past decades. The Ostrowski buildings were put on the town’s list of dilapidated properties in May 2013, and an official notice was sent to the family. Dempf called the town’s order “ambiguous and unclear.” The two lawyers said the two sisters, their mother and aunt, had invested $30,000 into a new standing seam roof onto the family home and after Ostrowski’s death, the building had been cleaned out and listed with a real estate agent for at least a year. Ranaldo said she had later erected sale signs giving her personal number. Despite their pleas, the brother and sister did not appear to have any support for their request until the Select Board went behind closed doors with Town Attorney Stephen Ankuda. Before the closed-door session, Select Board members said the family had had two years to decide what to do, and they questioned why, if the potential buyer was so serious, he wasn’t at the meeting with them. Selectman Walter Martone said the dilapidated structures, the so-called “hillside” house — which has been vacant since the 1940s, the brother and sister said — and the garage, were an insult to the neighborhood. And Selectwoman Stephanie Thompson said she was only willing to consider a 30-day extension, if that. “It’s been two years of stalling,” said Board Chairman Kristi Morris. “I’d like to talk to the buyer.” While neither Dempf nor Ranaldo ever identified themselves as lawyers, it was clear from their language and knowledge of the law that they were — a fact confirmed by Ankuda after the meeting. Selectman George McNaughton, who arrived at the meeting half-way through the hearing on the demolition order, voted to abstain.