DAYTON — The City of Dayton sent workers to an abandoned house on Huffman Avenue in Dayton to remove large piles of trash after several complaints from employees at a neighboring business.
>>PHOTOS: City begins removing trash from abandoned Huffman Avenue property after neighbor complaints
Jim Owen, a long-time employee at Dependable Cutlery Service called News Center 7 Friday morning, detailing the state of disarray at an abandoned property adjacent to the business.
“We called and got a hold of you people first thing this morning and within an hour’s time (the city) was out here with the dump trucks and a front-end loader getting the place cleaned up," Owen told News Center 7′s Monica Castro.
“For at least the last 4 years the house become nothing but a dumpsite.”
Owen said he has called the city multiple times about the property, with the house being boarded up several times.
“Then the boards get ripped off, and you have to keep continuously calling the city to have something done. It’s just sad what this neighborhood is turning into," he said.
Before the city responded to the property today, trash was spilling into the alleyway and was piled up on the porch. Crews started cleanup around 9 a.m. and left with nearly four dump trucks full of trash.
During the day, Owen said several random people would come in and out of the house and would approach and confront employees of the business.
“They are bumming cigarettes, bumming money and employees are getting kind of scared over this,” Owen said.
A City of Dayton spokesperson said the owner of the property is responsible for taking care of it, however because it is abandoned, the city maintains it because the owner is not accepting responsibility to maintain it. A quit claim deed also indicates Shawnvel Scales, from Wisconsin, owns the property but owes the county nearly $17,000 in late property taxes.
Also, because the property was already in the city’s nuisance abatement program, crews were sent Friday to being cleanup, the spokesperson said.
“I’m glad to see (the city) getting something done,” Owen said. “I’m sure within in the next month or two, it will be back to the same thing it was before.”
“I’d like to see the place tore down to be honest with you,” he said.
Cox Media Group
