By Charles Layton

Twenty-nine neighbors have signed a petition urging that Neptune Township take action, “without further excuses or delays,” against the absentee owners of the house at 24 McClintock Street.

“We fear that, in its untended condition, a fire might break out that could spread  to other homes, as has happened elsewhere in Ocean Grove in recent years,” the petition says.

It was delivered to the township clerk’s office on Wednesday.

Neighbors have been concerned about the property for several years. Township officials inspected it in 2009 and found a host of maintenance violations. When the owner, Jason Richelson of Brooklyn, NY, failed to address those violations, the Township issued a summons. However, no court action resulted. Last year, in July, the Historic Preservation Commission asked the Township to pursue action once more, which, after some delay, it did. Only recently has the Municipal Court set a date — June 23 — for Richelson to answer the charge of failure to comply.

According to the neighbors’ petition, “the house has rotting wood, many parts are bare of paint, parts of the roof appear to be in a failing condition, and windows are not secure. Water enters the building with every rain… Animals and birds have been observed entering and leaving the house. We can only imagine conditions in the interior.”

24 McClintock -- Could this be OG's "next disaster," petitioner asks

The 29 signers reside on McClintock Street, Pitman Avenue, Beach Avenue and Ocean Pathway. Lynn Merry, who lives on Pitman just behind the derelict property, wrote the petition and went door to door collecting signatures. Merry, a 4th-generation Ocean Grover and a former tent dweller, said her family received a serious scare two years ago when the house across the street from theirs caught fire and was destroyed, damaging the homes on either side of it.

“The subsequent fires on Ocean Pathway and Surf Avenue only reinforced our need to speak up,” she said, “to try to prevent the next disaster. 24 McClintock, through obvious neglect, is quite possibly that next disaster.”

According to Monmouth County online sales data, Richelson purchased 24 McClintock on July 11, 2005, for $400,000. It was assessed in 2011 at $355,200. It was built in 1895, according to those records. Richelson said in a comment published on Blogfinger last August that the house “doesn’t appear on the maps at the Historical Society we consulted and the ledgers and files there and the former owner told us it was not original to the site” — meaning it was built elsewhere and, at some point, moved to its present site.

In that same posting, the owner said his efforts to renovate the house had been tied up in court and bureaucratic processes. “The building is also for sale,” Richelson wrote, “in the event there is someone more experienced with navigating this process that we are who wants to take on this project. If anyone is interested, they should contact us…”

To all appearances, no repairs have been made since that time.

The petition delivered to the Township on Wednesday requests that the Township “respond to this petition by explaining how it intends to proceed, and to keep us informed at every step in the process until this threat to our safety and well-being is remedied.”