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By GARY PINNELL For the Times Leader
Saturday, March 15, 2003 Page: 3A
FORTY FORT – Piles of garbage. Broken car windows. Maggots and rodents.
Late-night parties. Drug pushers. Unshoveled sidewalks.
Those are just some of the complaints neighbors of Bidlack Street have
about the apartments in the old house at 69-71 Bidlack St.
But they say no one is listening; not the Forty Fort police, not the code
enforcement office and certainly not the landlord.
The property’s owner is Andy Tuzinski, president of Borough Council.
Neighbor Jeff Aberle of 65 Bidlack St. says Tuzinski doesn’t set a good
example for the borough he governs.
“He campaigned on beautifying Forty Fort. Don’t get up on a soapbox when
your property looks (bad).”
Tuzinski acknowledged trash bags were stacked outside his apartment house
for several days. But, he said, he couldn’t get onto the property because he
was evicting a tenant.
He dismisses other complaints. So does acting police Chief Eric Morgantini,
who says the people of Bidlack Street have complained about each other for
decades.
A female neighbor spoke on the record about her complaints, but then called
the newspaper office a short time later asking that her name not be used
because her husband fears retribution from Tuzinski.
Aberle said Tuzinski has used his position as borough president to
intimidate them.
“What kind of retribution could I do?” Tuzinski asked.
The woman said she called the borough about the garbage and an employee
promised to pass her message on to the code enforcement officer, but the trash
was still there two weeks later.
“I think I know what’s happening,” said code enforcement officer Ron
Keener. “Disgruntled neighbors are having an argument, and they’re using you
and me in the situation.”
Keener recalled he was phoned on March 5 about the trash problem, and it
was handled several days later.
Aberle said after Tuzinski was called by at least four neighbors, he placed
garbage stickers on some of the bags to get them hauled off. Aberle said he
put his own stickers on the final two bags, and yelled to Tuzinski, “You owe
me $4.”
The woman said she saw rodents around the bags and had to jump over maggots
on the sidewalk. A neighbor, Joe Andrews of 60 Bidlack St., confirmed he saw
maggots, but no rodents.
“I don’t think so,” Tuzinski challenged. “If there were, where are they
now?”
Tuzinski doesn’t live at the property.
He acknowledged that neighbors have complained about his tenants.
“That’s one of the reasons why I served the eviction notice.”
But neighbors maintain Tuzinski turns a deaf ear on many of their
complaints.
Andrews said he has called police about children from the apartment
throwing rocks or firing slingshots to break windows of his father-in-law’s
Ford Bronco. The police wouldn’t do anything, Andrews said, because they
didn’t personally witness the incident.
On Thursday, Morgantini directed an officer to check police records, who
found only four complaints related to Bidlack Street during the past year.
Police characterized the files as “neighbor complaints,” and said no crimes
were reported. Tini wouldn’t release the records.
Keener likewise wouldn’t release complaints pertaining to Bidlack Street,
saying a written request must be made to the borough solicitor.
Behind Tuzinski’s apartment building is a crumpled child’s wading pool, an
empty Smirnoff beverage case, a pizza box, a Butterfinger wrapper and other
trash.
Asked if he will clean up the mess, Tuzinski accused the neighbor and a
reporter of trespassing. Tuzinski said he posted “No Trespassing” signs, but
Aberle said the signs are his, posted to keep neighbor children off his
property.
Answering complaints that he didn’t shovel snow in front of his apartments,
Tuzinski said he has been a good neighbor.
“I go over there with a snow blower. I not only do my sidewalks, I do
theirs and vice versa.”
Neighbors also have complained about drug activity associated with the
apartments.
In August 2000, David Sullivan was arrested in one of the apartments and
charged with selling large amounts of Ecstasy to undercover police officers.
Aberle said he spoke about the drug dealing to Tuzinski, who did nothing.
Sullivan “was not a tenant of mine. He was a boyfriend of a tenant. I
evicted her,” Tuzinski said.
Tuzinski said he reported the drug problem to Forty Fort police and to
Kingston police. “I had some suspicions myself.”
A neighbor said she wished Tuzinski would more carefully screen tenants, or
sell the building. All of the neighbors, including Clem Asklar, Joe Andrew’s
father-in-law, said the problems occurred after Tuzinski purchased the
apartments.
Tuzinski said he screens his tenants and has turned down applicants.
Andrews said the tires on his vehicles have been flattened and that his
wife, Wanda, has been called filthy names by children across the street.
Adults have thrown lit cigarettes at his property, Andrews said.
“When I approached the landowner,” Andrews said, Tuzinski “screamed for me
to call his lawyer. He acts like he’s the king. He rides around in a (Forty
Fort) ambulance like it’s for his own personal use.”
Tuzinski said he is hurt by his the accusations, and that he has been there
to answer their medical emergency calls.
“He should be straightening his tenants out,” Andrews said.
Because of the problems next door, Aberle says he’s moving, although he and
his father have spent $100,000 fixing up their house.