The LCI Rep for Westville is Elaine Braffman. 946-7835. If you lose or forget the number you can always find it on the Westville wiki, www.westvillect.org and go to the Community Management Team page. All the numbers are there.

Well I am not sure if it will even get fixed. A call was placed to Elaine Braffman in July and the only thing that happened is that the family put up an orange tape fence. I am not sure what the law is but I am sure that this is in violation and that the family should be fined until they put up the appropriate fence.

6-months after calls to LCI and this issue is still not fixed...

DON'T BLAME LCI......THIS IS A BUILDING DEPARTMENT ISSUE / ZONING ISSUE. ITS SO EASY TO SAY LCI DROPPED THE BALL...HOWEVER THIS IS NOT FOR LCI...

I KNOW ELAINE IS THE BEST @ LCI AND THIS WOULD NOT BE HER STYLE......THUS BUILDING DIVISION STAFF NEED TO FOLLOW UP....CALL BUILDING DEPT DOWNTOWN AT 203.946.8040 OR 946.8045.

LCI / ELAINE ALWAYS RESPOND AND REFER ISSUES AND SINCE THEY HAVE HELPED ME SO MANY TIMES.....I WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO BASH HER/ LCI!

GET REAL FOLKS!!!!

I checked in with LCI and indeed this complaint needs to go to the Building Dept.

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/LivableCity/building.asp

The Director will assign an inspector once this complaint is called in.

Ok, just called it into the Building Dept and was told "we will look into it and see what we can do". Greg it would be great if you could follow-up on this one, it is an accident waiting to happen.

whomever this is that's wrote the above note, please contact me directly please. dildine25.org

Also, the "clarification" I got from LCI today was not specifically about this issue, but that this type of issue is something the Building Dept. and not LCI would help with.

Let's not let this (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1386033.html) happen.

Still not fixed....

Greg,
This does not make any sense. LCI's job is to keep our communities clean and safe ie LIVABLE. I am guessing that if talk to Frank or Evan Trachten they would not say, "Its not our problem"

While they might not be the one's to fix it with their own hands part of their job is the work with the building department to make our city more livable.

This passing of the buck between departments sounds like the words of a lower level staffer and not that of the department heads.

If this is really happening Rob Smuts and the Chief Administrator's office should be getting involved.

this is a pending enforcement issue in Corp Counsel's office.

Here's a photo

I sent an email to Atty Ghent through his company's website letting him know that there is public record of the violation on his property.

Hopefully he just did not know that his neighbors felt this was a safety concern for their children and will address it.

Well for me a pending issue with the Corp Counsel's office is not good enough. Their pool is now open (no longer covered) and any child or animal can easily access it. As can be seen in the photo you can see the pool from the street and there is direct access. I certainly hope that no one dies while waiting for the corporate counsel's office to do something, the city building Dept was notified about this 6-months ago.

Anon Poster,
Please pass this issue around to your neighbors and ask them to comment or vote on the issue. Not only is it not good enough LCI should be fining them every day for being in violation.

Additionally,
A building permit must have been filed for the extension on the porch and in no way should the building department have signed off on the the certificate if they were not in compliance with code ie: no fence.

Found this on the city's website:

Sec. 9-4. Outdoor swimming pools to be fenced.
(a) All outdoor private swimming pools that have been operated and maintained before the effective date of this section shall be provided with barriers that comply with the law in effect at the time of installation.
(b) All outdoor private swimming pools that are installed after the enactment date of this section shall be provided with a barrier that complies with the State Building Code in effect at the time of the installation.
(Ord. of 7-12-65; Code of 1985, § 9-2.2; Ord. No. 1401, 1-3-06)

And found this on Norwalk's website: (Why its not on the City's website I'm not sure but it might explain why corp. council needs to be involved if it took more than a 5 minute google search for me)

Section 421 of the State of Connecticut Building Code

CGS PA – 140

Every person owning land on which there is situated a swimming pool, which contains twenty-four (24) inches or more of water in depth at any point, shall erect and maintain thereon a 4’0” enclosure with a self closing, self latching gate surrounding the property or pool area, sufficient to make such body of water inaccessible to small children. In addition to the required enclosure, a pool alarm is required by public act 99-140 that states when a person or object of 15 lbs. enters the water the pool alarm must emit a sound of at least 50 decibels.

The laws and building regulations of the State of Connecticut and the City of Norwalk shall at all times have precedence over drawings and specifications. Anything contrary to said laws and regulations that may at any time appear in drawings and specifications, or in the work as executed, shall be corrected without delay upon the receipt of due notice from the Building Inspector. The granting of a permit for the proposed work shall not be assumed or construed any right or permission to do anything contrary to the laws and regulations of the aforesaid, under any circumstances.

Official Response from Andy Rizzo,

"Ben,
I believe the correct address is 42 McKinley Avenue (there is no 52 on GIS).

-On June 18, 2009, a certified letter was sent to the owner concerning the pool fence.

-On September 17, 2009, after no response from the owner, the matter was referred to Corporation Counsel.

-On September 29,2009, a certified letter was sent by Assistant Corporation Counsel Audrey Kramer requesting compliance.

-On May 11. 2010, the Corporation Counsel filed papers in Superior Court for a civil action against the homeowner.

If you have any questions call me.

Andy"

I looked this up on Vision Appraisal and it turns out the address is 42 McKinley Ave.

The Owner is Robert Ghent. Coincidentally Mr. Ghent is a residential and commercial Real Estate Attorney out of Waterbury: http://www.rghentlaw.com/

Mr Ghent,
Please fence your pool so we as tax payers do not have to suffer the cost of corporate council arguing with you over this. As a lawyer I'm sure you understand the liability. As a neighbor I'm sure you understand the liability as well to your neighbor's children. I see from vision appraisal that there was once a fence on the property but you have since had it removed.

How about we just fence the property and give the lawyers in city hall a break.

Official response from Corp Council,
"Ben:

I appreciate your interest in this matter. In addition to the Andy Rizzo's e-mail notifying you of the commencement of legal action, you also should know that a contract already has been entered into for the erection of a fence around this property. For your information, I have attached a PDF copy of this invoice.

In providing this response, I also want to add some context on issues of enforcement from my perspective. I greatly appreciate the vantage point of a neighborhood seeking resolution to a problem and am committed to resolving these neighborhood enforcement issues as effectively and efficiently as possible. However, I must look at these issues from the broader perspective of all of the legal issues facing the City of New Haven and that the Office of the Corporation Counsel ("the "Office") is required to address. I also must broaden that perspective even further to consider the fiscal resources allocated to this Office to do so. With a staff of ten full-time lawyers handling a docket of over 700 matters, issues cannot be handled as quickly as everyone might want. Indeed, discussing these issues solely from the perspective of caseload severely devalues the amount of work that has to go into any individual legal matter. If you are on trial on one matter, every other matter has to put off until later. I want every lawyer in my Office focusing on the task at hand and handling every case effectively.

Nevertheless, even with limited resources, I remain committed to figuring out how best to address all of the City's legal needs, including those related to neighborhood enforcement issues. I also am always happy to meet and discuss comprehensive solutions to these problems.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Victor"

Every time I walk by this I am astounded that this is still an issue. It's worse now knowing that the culprit should know better. A prior post mentioned that a fine should be in place and accruing - can this be done? My other question is whether or not the adjacent neighbors have actually spoken to the owner in person and if so what kind of response they have gotten. At this point it is hard to believe that the owner thinks no one notices/no one cares but I wonder. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen....

There is an article on the front page of the New Haven register today about this issue. Thank you to everyone who kept this issue going and to Ben who really pushed to get answers.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/22/news/new_haven/aa1_tue_thatpool_art062210.txt

Thanks to the Register for looking into this.

The Register article states the homeowner has "ordered the fence" and is "at the mercy of the vendor". This is a cop-out. There are dozens of fence contractors in this area (some manufacturers, too) who have pool-code fencing available for immediate purchase and/or installation in most materials (wood, vinyl, aluminum), yet this has taken over a year? Even if the contractor or manufacturer did not have the required material readily available, the order process only takes 2-3 weeks and the install only takes a couple of days. Someone is not being totally forthcoming here!

Agreed. He also should have safety temporary fencing installed immediately.

City's Corp. Counsel has forwarded me the agreement with the property owner to have the fence installed by 4/9.

Greg:

So what is the next step for the Corp Counsel? They have a temporary fence up right now, I am sure that it does not meet code as it could easily be pushed over.

Thanks.

Fence is up. Does this close this?

Greg:

Is it a real fence or the wire one they have had up for the past month or so (you know the type you put up to keep rabbits and other small animals out of your garden). If it is a real fence I will be happy to close this issue.

Compliant fence is not quite finished in rear yard. Bldg dept will let us know when this can be finally closed.

The city says the fence is installed

I believe this has been resolved.