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Posts Tagged ‘derelict buildings in Ocean Grove’

Township Attorney: Koplitz Still Not Abiding by Court Order — “unreasonable” and “tantamount to bad faith” —

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on December 13, 2012| 13 Comments »

By Charles Layton

Marshall Koplitz, owner of the notorious Park View Inn building on Seaview Avenue, has again failed to meet his obligations under a court order, prompting Neptune Township attorney Gene Anthony to accuse him of acting in bad faith.

This week, in a letter, Anthony gave notice to Koplitz’ lawyer that her client is in default of the court order. By our count this marks the fourth time this year that Anthony has threatened to take Koplitz back to Municipal Court for being in default.

Koplitz and the Township negotiated a consent order in July of 2011, in which he promised the court and the Township that he would renovate the boarded-up and dilapidated Park View Inn according to a specific five-phase schedule. This agreement came after years of conflict with the Township, with neighbors and with the Ocean Grove Fire Commissioners over the dangerously run-down condition of his hotel.

Although he has since met some of that agreement’s deadlines, he has missed others, to the frustration of many long-suffering Ocean Grove residents living nearby.

Marshall Koplitz at an HPC meeting last December. Photo by Charles Layton

Marshall Koplitz at an HPC meeting last December. Photo by Charles Layton

The subject of this week’s letter, from Anthony to attorney Michelle Lebovitz Lamar, was Koplitz’ failure to submit revised architectural plans to the Township. Although Koplitz did submit plans, Anthony wrote that those plans “have not been responsive to the requirements of the Construction Department.” Given that the department requested revisions “as early as June 6, 2012,” Anthony wrote, “it is hard to believe that proper corrections and completion of such plans have not been completed six (6) months later.” The delay, he said, “is unreasonable and is tantamount to bad faith on the part of your client.”

Asked for comment, Lamar told Blogfinger that it was her policy not to “speak to the press about any of my clients.” (Koplitz himself has failed to return our phone calls on several occasions. He has an open invitation from us to explain his side of these disputes at any time.)

Anthony said if Koplitz does not respond with the proper complete architectural plans by December 25, he will take the case back to Municipal Court. Under the consent order, if the court finds Koplitz in default he could be fined $35,000 or more.

NOTE: For extensive background on Koplitz and his various clashes with Neptune over property maintenance and safety issues, just type “Marshall Koplitz” at the top right corner of this page.

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Koplitz Again in Default of Court Order on Park View

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on October 9, 2012| 19 Comments »

By Charles Layton

As we know, Marshall Koplitz, owner of the famously derelict Park View Inn in Ocean Grove, has ignored the Township’s pleas, the complaints of long-suffering neighbors, the requirements of the local fire code and a court’s explicit orders again and again and again.

On Tuesday, Neptune Township declared him once more in default of a court order. This time the problem is his failure to deliver revised architectural plans to the Neptune Construction Department according to schedule.

Marshall Koplitz.

On July 28 of 2011, after years of ineffectual prodding by the Township, Koplitz signed a consent agreement in Municipal Court binding him to restore the Park View, at 23 Seaview Avenue, as a 31-room hotel with a commercial kitchen and a dining room/banquet hall. This was to be done under a five-phase schedule. Progress under that schedule, one might say, has not gone smoothly.

For instance, under Phase II of the schedule Koplitz was to have submitted floor plans and elevations for the Township’s approval. He was late in doing that. In April of this year the Township declared Koplitz in default of the consent agreement. In May the Township again declared him in default and threatened to take him back to court. Failure to comply with any portion of the rehab schedule was supposed to have triggered a fine of at least $35,000. But the Township gave Koplitz extra time, and he finally did submit floor plans.

Now, in a letter to Koplitz’s lawyer dated October 9, the Township attorney, Gene Anthony, says that Koplitz is in default of the next phase of the rehab schedule, Phase III. Under that, he was to have submitted more detailed, corrected plans to the Neptune Construction Department.

“On August 23, 2012, the Construction Department requested submission of revised plans,” Anthony said in his letter. “The Architect responded that all would be re-submitted by the following Friday, August 31, 2012. Despite a phone call on October 2, 2012, to the Architect’s office to determine the status of the final revised plans, the same have yet to be returned to the Construction Department in Neptune.”

Therefore, Anthony said, “notice of default is hereby given.” Unless the default is corrected within 15 days, Anthony wrote, he will file a motion in court to have the consent order enforced.

NOTE: For background, just type “Marshall Koplitz” in the search field at the top right corner of this page, and you will find some two dozen articles chronicling Koplitz’s recent struggles with the local government over various problems with the Park View.

The Park View Inn, seen from the Wesley Lake side. Photos by Charles Layton

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Neighbors Say Koplitz is Polluting Their Street With Lead — They’re Planning to Petition the Township

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on August 7, 2012| 8 Comments »

By Charles Layton

The Park View, seen from the Wesley Lake side. Photo by Charles Layton

It’s been more than two years since neighbors presented Neptune Township with a petition, asking that something be done about the dangerously derelict Park View Inn at 23 Sea View Avenue.

Although the Township has since taken the owner, Marshall Koplitz, to court and forced him to agree to rehab the building, little tangible progress has been made in the building itself. It remains an eyesore. Neighbors still live in fear that it could catch fire and burn them out of their homes. One elderly man who lives nearby is said to keep a packed bag beside his door in case he suddenly has to flee for his life.

But now these neighbors have a new concern. They say that paint, possibly contaminated with lead, is spreading from the Park View onto their properties. “You’ve got paint peeling, chips are blowing off the building, and the neighbors are getting it on their porches, it’s on the street, it’s in the alleys,” one man said.

This man, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, recently bought a lead detection kit and used it to test samples of the paint chips from the Park View. Most of those samples tested positive for lead, he said.

He and some friends are now circulating a new petition, which they hope to deliver soon to the Township Committee. It asks that the Township perform its own independent testing to confirm the existence of lead. “If lead paint is found,” the petition says, “we would ask that the Township of Neptune take steps to correct this situation immediately.”

“Our concern is for little kids, for pets, you know,” one of the petitioners said. “I don’t know what danger that paint is to adults unless you actually eat it, but I suspect if the town found out about it they would have to do something to get rid of the lead paint.”

The test kit these neighbors used contains pencil-like swabs. When a swab is pressed against a surface, such as the surface of a paint chip, a liquid chemical causes its tip to turn red if lead is present. If no lead is present, the tip of the swab remains white.

When this test was applied to the paint samples from The Park View, neighbors said, most of the samples turned the swabs red.

This swab turned red, indicating lead, when it was touched to one of the paint chips from the Park View Inn. Photo by Mary Walton

Some of the neighbors along Sea View Avenue are losing faith that the Township has the determination to force Koplitz to fix up his property. Back in June of 2010, when 33 of these neighbors submitted their previous petition, they were given to understand that the Township would keep them informed from that point forward. But this has not happened. “We’re getting no feedback from the Township,” one of the petitioners — the man with the lead test kit — said.

They worry that Koplitz will continue to make excuses and stall, just as he has done for years — and just as he did with The Sampler Inn, another of his derelict buildings that became a public nuisance and was finally demolished in 2009. Their greatest fear is of a fire breaking out inside the Park View and spreading to nearby homes, which has happened on two other occasions in the same general vicinity in recent years.

Marshall Koplitz

Koplitz is under a court order to rehab the Park View on a specific schedule, but the neighbors have yet to see many visible signs of improvement. He was, this spring, twice declared in default of the court agreement, although the Township’s head of code and construction, Bill Doolittle, has since said he is back in compliance. Still, so far as anyone in the neighborhood knows, he has not yet obtained bank financing for this rehab project, as the court order requires. A workman who has entered the building in recent months told one of the neighbors that the place remains a total mess inside.

To be fair, though, there was one positive development this week. Workers showed up and cut the grass and then edged all around the property.

Neighbors say chips of paint, like those shown here, are peeling off and blowing onto adjacent properties. Photo by Mary Walton

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OG TidBits

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on April 25, 2012| 10 Comments »

CL photo

1.   A last-ditch effort is afoot to save the derelict house at 14 Spray Avenue. We reported recently that the Township had condemned this old house – classified as one of Ocean Grove’s “key structures” —  and that it probably would have to be torn down. But not so fast! Now comes word that a member of the family that owns the property wants to make emergency repairs and then renovate the building. Also, we are told, a prospective buyer is interested in rehabbing the place. Both the current owner and the potential buyer were told that repairs would have to be made very soon or the Township Committee will schedule a demolition hearing. Neighbors have been complaining about the condition of 14 Spray since at least 2009. The owner has made some corrections, but a recent inspection showed the building to be in a hazardous condition. The above information comes to us from Bill Doolittle, the head of code and construction, via Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn.

2.  Neptune police have charged Michael Barrett, 29, of Heck Avenue, Ocean Grove, with stealing a credit card and making charges on it. Police said Barrett entered a neighbor’s unlocked car, took the credit card, used it for purchases and then replaced it in the car, hoping thereby to avoid detection. The crime took place on April 7, according to police. The victim got wise when the bank reported suspicious transactions against her account. Barrett was released after posting bail.

3. Back in January, we reported that the Neptune Zoning Board had given permission for the owner of 6½ Surf Avenue to further encroach into Ocean Grove’s famous “flared setback” area. (For that article, go here.) But on Tuesday the owner’s attorney, Jennifer Krimko, informed the Historic Preservation Commission that this further encroachment would not happen. The run-down two-family structure is about to be rehabbed. The front porch already intrudes 1.69 feet into the flare — a so-called “pre-existing nonconformity” — and the rehab was to include second-floor porch structures that would compound that intrusion. Both the next-door neighbors and the HPC had strenuously objected to this, and on Tuesday Krimko told the HPC that the architect had altered the original plans. Both the HPC and the neighbors said they were pleased.

4. Ocean Grove Neighborhood Watch reports the following recent crime incidents. A bicycle was stolen from the area of 20 Lake Avenue. Someone stole personal items from an unlocked vehicle in the area of 130 Clark Avenue. Someone entered an unoccupied apartment in the 80 Heck Avenue area and stole personal items. And a thief assaulted a man in the area of Lake Avenue and stole his briefcase.

5. A neighbor reports that as of Wednesday painting has finally begun at 24 McClintock Street. (They’re painting it bluish-gray.) On February 16, under legal pressure from the Township, the absentee owner of this notoriously dilapidated OG house entered into a court agreement to fix all outstanding maintenance violations. Subsequently, repairs were made to the porch and windows. Now, it seems, the painting that was promised will also get done. For background, click here.

6. Another bit of crime news: Dayshaun Cooper, arrested on January 6 for burglarizing a home in the 100 block of Abbott Avenue, was released from Monmouth County Jail on Tuesday. The reason for release: his sentence has been served.  Cooper, 20, entered the Abbott Avenue house on October 17, police said, and stole two televisions. His last known residence was on Adams Street in Asbury Park.

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Township Condemns House at 14 Spray Avenue

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on April 12, 2012| 12 Comments »

By Charles Layton

14 Spray is on the list of Ocean Grove's "key structures." Photo by Charles Layton

It looks like the run-down house at 14 Spray Avenue will have to be torn down.

Neptune Township’s head of code and construction, Bill Doolittle, has condemned the property, and according to Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn the Township Committee will soon hold a demolition hearing.

Neighbors have been complaining about the state of this derelict home since at least 2009. For the past year the Township has sought to induce the absentee owner to correct long-standing code violations. Despite limited funds, the owner has struggled to comply with various code department and court orders.

The house, built in 1895, is one of Ocean Grove’s “key structures,” meaning it is listed in the Township’s Master Plan as being of special architectural and historical importance. Although some cosmetic improvements have been made, the house is said to be in very bad condition on the inside.

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The Battle of the Sampler Inn Revisited — When a revered landmark went bad, neighbors took action

Posted in Blogfinger News, Charles Layton, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on March 19, 2012| 19 Comments »

People lined up all down the block for The Sampler Inn’s cafeteria food and convivial atmosphere. Photo courtesy Historical Society of Ocean Grove

By Charles Layton  @Blogfinger

By the time the Township demolished it in 2009, The Sampler Inn had stood at 28 Main Avenue for approximately 90 years. It was one of Ocean Grove’s most beloved institutions. As you can see from the photo above, people used to flock to its cafeteria for a traditional fare that included whipped sweet potatoes, creamed spinach, macaroni and cheese, lamb chops, ham with raisin sauce, a rich array of desserts and, at breakfast, among other things, a generous selection of hot cereals.

But the years took their toll. When The Sampler’s absentee owners filed for bankruptcy in 2006, the place had become a first-class public nuisance — boarded up, empty and gutted on the inside, unmaintained, with a caving-in roof and other structural atrocities. Teenagers broke into the place in summer to prowl and explore. Vagrants camped there in winter, sometimes drinking, sometimes warming themselves before sterno stoves.

Jeff Dean, who lived on Heck Avenue just behind The Sampler, said if the place had ever caught fire “the whole neighborhood would have been gone.” Another neighbor, Danny Beaman, said, “I remember being in bed and hearing noises and getting out of bed and running to see if The Sampler was on fire.” Some of the people living closest to The Sampler were disabled or elderly; they’d have had a tough time escaping from a raging inferno. “The Sampler was two feet from my mother’s house,” said Lisa Noll. (Her mother was in her early 80s, and a man living in the same house was in his 90s.)

The neighbors, especially those on Heck in the second block from the beach, fought for years against the menace that The Sampler had become. It was a battle to defend their properties, their peace of mind and, as they saw it, their very lives. But it was also a battle for the common good of Ocean Grove, alerting people in this town, and some people in government, to take derelict buildings more seriously.

One recent evening some of those Heck Avenue neighbors got together over refreshments in Beaman’s living room and relived their experiences. Theirs is a story that needs to be recorded and remembered. Lessons can be learned about the power of aroused and well-organized citizens.

Some (but by no means all) of the veterans of the Sampler campaign. Front, l. to r.: Kirsten Beneke, Sue Beneke, Danny Beaman, Carmen Rivera and Lisa Noll. Standing: Jay Shapiro, Gloria Wigert and Jeff Dean. Photo by Mary Walton

Some had fond memories. Although Sue Beneke, who lived right next door to The Sampler, endured years of anxiety and inconvenience, even she considered the place “a beautiful institution.” Her daughter, Kirsten, recalled how, as a child, she would go to the side door of the kitchen every morning and get a muffin for breakfast. Another Heck resident, Carmen Rivera, volunteered to teach English to a young girl from Poland who worked at The Sampler. Relations were usually neighborly, and when a problem arose people tended to seek constructive solutions. Beneke said some of the college kids who worked in the kitchen used to play a radio very loud at 5 o’clock in the morning. “So I bought them all radio head sets, and they actually used them,” she said.

Still, even before the place became a total wreck, there were problems, many associated with the kitchen, which faced Heck Avenue. One problem was rodents.

Beaman: “I used to watch from my front porch. There was a hole in the back wall where the cats would line up and wait for the mice to run out. It was amusing; they would wait in line patiently for the next mouse to come out, and then they would go chasing after it.”

Noise and truck pollution were less amusing. At a certain point, the neighbors said, large trucks started arriving at 5 a.m. to deliver goods to the kitchen. They would leave their engines running, filling the street with foul-smelling exhaust.

Then there was the leaking garbage — “dumpster juice” and “dumpster puddles” they called it. The odor drove people inside. “I just remember one summer day all of us had to go inside our houses because the garbage was leaking out of the dumpster,” Jay Shapiro said. “It was bad.”

Sue Beneke recalled “big canisters of fat” in back of the kitchen. “We tried to build a fence around the back of the kitchen, that would hide the fat vats and the dumpsters and everything,” Beneke said. “We drew the design. And then I went over there to the owners and said, ‘All the neighbors will even pay for it. We’ll pay for this beautiful Victorian fence for the kitchen, take the loading dock down.’ We were even going to make it like a French bistro. But they would not let us do it.”

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE: click here.

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Koplitz in Default on Park View Inn Court Agreement. Township Gives Him 15 More Days or it’s Back to Court

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on March 12, 2012| 42 Comments »

By Charles Layton

Marshall Koplitz is in trouble again.

He appears to have defaulted on terms of a consent order that binds him to rehab the notoriously run-down Park View Inn.

Neptune Township has now declared him in default on the consent order, which was issued by Municipal Judge Robin Wernik on July 28 of last year. The consent order came after years of bitter haggling and months of delays by Koplitz in the face of a previous court order.

Under terms of the July 28 consent order, Koplitz had agreed to a specific plan to revive the boarded-up and long-dilapidated building at 23 Seaview Avenue as a functioning hotel with 31 guest rooms, a commercial kitchen and a dining room/banquet hall.

The renovation was to be done in five distinct phases, with a deadline for each phase. Failure to meet any one of the deadlines subjects Koplitz and his company, 23 Seaview Holdings, LLC, of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, to a minimum fine of $35,000 plus the possibility of additional fines and penalties.

Under the second phase of the agreement, Koplitz was to have submitted complete floor plans and elevations for approval by Township authorities and the Historic Preservation Commission.

In a letter to Koplitz’ lawyer, dated March 8, Township Attorney Gene Anthony said that “notice of default is hereby given.”

According to the consent order, once a notice of default occurs Koplitz receives an additional 15 days to “cure” the default — in other words, to live up to the terms of the consent agreement. If Koplitz does not, Anthony said he will file a motion asking the court to impose the prescribed penalty.

We sent an email to Koplitz’ lawyer seeking comment, but have received no response.

For our original story on the consent order, go here.

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Run-Down Buildings: Learning From Past Experience — An Editorial

Posted in Blogfinger News, Charles Layton, Editorial, tagged , on March 3, 2012| 9 Comments »

This building at 17 Spray Avenue had been cited as unsafe as far back as the 1980s. On September 2, 2008, it burned. Coaster photo

By Charles Layton

We’ve had some lively conversation on this website in recent days about the need (or lack of need) to take action when properties in Ocean Grove are abandoned or neglected by their owners and fall into disrepair.

Some people think it’s our duty as citizens to call attention to such problem properties. Others disagree; that kind of vigilance, they say, amounts to harassment of those who can’t always afford to keep their homes in pristine condition.

However, the fact is that an empty building in disrepair is more than just an eyesore or a drag on local property values. In Ocean Grove, especially, it can be an urgent danger.

Let’s look at some history. In 2008, a spectacular fire destroyed an old storage building at 17 Spray Avenue. That fire severely scorched and peeled the siding on a home directly across the street and also did minor damage to another nearby home. The Coaster quoted Mayor Randy Bishop, who lives nearby, as saying that the fire “could have been a tremendous disaster.” Other neighbors agreed. It was lucky, they said, that the wind blew the flames and embers back toward Wesley Lake instead of the other way, toward the town.

That fire shouldn’t have happened. The public record shows that Neptune Township tolerated what it knew to be dangerous conditions at 17 Spray for many years before the building finally went up in flames.

A Township inspection in 1988 found “a large pile of lumber and other combustible debris” on the grounds. The owner, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, was cited, and the dangerous condition was abated. However, the abatement was temporary. The building continued to deteriorate. In 1999 a Township inspection found, among other problems, cracked masonry walls, roof tiles falling onto the sidewalk and trash and debris all over the yard.

In the ensuing years numerous summonses were issued. Fines were threatened but not imposed. In fact, the Township backed off. At one point the Township had threatened to take the owner to court, but in 2005 all summonses were dismissed, and all fines were forgiven.

In February of 2008, the Township inspected the building again, found it to be “unsound” and “unsafe” and ordered the CMA to either demolish it or correct the unsafe conditions. Parts of the roof were collapsing and parts of the building were open to the weather, according to a Township citation, “causing interior deterioration of structural elements.”

But negotiations resulted in further delays until finally, on the night of September 2, 2008, fire destroyed the whole thing.

To some Ocean Grovers, the lesson was that tolerating a persisting dangerous condition is not a virtue.

Here is another piece of history. When The Sampler Inn at 28 Main Avenue, closed and neglected, fell into serious disrepair, neighbors on Heck Avenue took action. They organized and fought to have the problems corrected. Township inspections showed that the building was in terrible condition and could easily catch fire. Bill Doolittle, Neptune’s director of code and construction, said his greatest fear was a “fire storming” effect, in which “fire jumps from one building to the next to the next” across Ocean Grove.

And so, in 2009, despite strenuous resistance by the owners, the Township had the building demolished.

If the Spray Avenue fire taught us the danger of complacency, the Sampler experience proved that if citizens and neighbors organize and fight –and if they persist — it’s possible to resolve such problems. (A corollary lesson is that the government acts more forcefully if it is prodded and pushed by citizens.)

The above examples, along with others, have led many Ocean Grovers — and some Township officials — to the firm belief that citizens must act as watchmen. When a problem arises, they must make it known. And when an owner tries to minimize the problem, it’s unwise just to take him at his word. (The lawyer for The Sample Inn, at a public hearing, characterized the problems there as “aesthetic” in nature.)

The issue is not harassment of well-meaning owners who can’t afford to paint their homes as often as we might like. And a group of citizens petitioning for redress of a problem is not akin to a “lynch mob,” as some have suggested. Portraying it as such evades the point, which is that a derelict building is better dealt with before the problem becomes truly dire.

There is a sweet spot between petty harassment of our neighbors and the kind of indulgence that led to the Spray Avenue fire. As we argue individual cases, let’s do so in that reasonable context.

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24 McClintock Owner Pledges to Fix Violations in One Week. — “We still have a potential fire hazard,” neighbor says.

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on February 16, 2012| 3 Comments »

By Charles Layton

On Thursday, under legal pressure, the owner of one of Ocean Grove’s worst derelict houses agreed in court to correct all outstanding maintenance violations — except for painting — within one week. The court gave him a longer deadline, 90 days, to get the painting done.

The agreement did not address whatever problems may exist in the interior of the unoccupied house at 24 McClintock Street, although those problems may be extensive. Asked about those problems, the owner’s attorney, Jennifer Krimko said, “We don’t know yet what we’re going to do for the future. All we know is we’re going to be compliant with the agreement.”

Neighbors petitioned the Township about 24 McClintock last June, saying the place was an eyesore and that they feared a fire might break out and spread to other homes. Later that month, owner Jason Richelson of Brooklyn, NY, entered into a court agreement in which he paid a $1,000 fine and promised to correct all maintenance violations within six months. That deadline expired the last week of December, with no repairs having been made.

On Thursday, the Township’s attorney, Gene Anthony, told Municipal Court Judge Robin Wernik that progress had been made in recent days, but “I still feel he’s in violation.” After Richelson admitted to Wernik that he had violated his June agreement, she accepted a new plea agreement under which Richelson was fined an additional $500, he promised to have the house painted within 90 days, and he promised to have all other required maintenance work to the house’s exterior completed within one week. Krimko said the longer deadline for painting was necessary because of the weather.

About two weeks ago, with a new court date having been scheduled, maintenance work was finally begun on the home, including the repair of windows and the front porch. Krimko said Thursday that Richelson has also received the Historic Preservation Commission’s permission to repaint the house in the same existing shade of light blue.

Lynn Merry, who collected 29 names of concerned neighbors on a petition last spring, was in the courtroom during the hearing. She said she viewed the plea agreement as “positive progress, assuming he follows through with the outside repairs.” However, she said, “As I see it, we still have a potential fire hazard back there. It remains an abandoned house. A new coat of paint will not make me feel any safer.”

The original list of maintenance violations cited by Neptune Code Enforcement included broken windows, rotted porch posts and other structural members, broken shingles, damaged eaves, door and window frames in disrepair, loose and rotting materials on exterior walls, and problems with gutters and downspouts.

Even if all the cited problems are corrected, the future of 24 McClintock remains in doubt. No Township official has ever inspected the building’s interior, and since the house has stood unoccupied and in disrepair for years, its interior problems are thought to be serious. An ad for the property on the real estate site Zillow.com contains this caveat for potential buyers: “Only builders should consider [buying this property] because it needs to be rebuilt completely.” Local builder/realtor Jack Green, who used to be the agent for this property, told us: “The whole house is gutted on the inside. It’s just two-by-fours.”

There is a sign on the front of the house that reads “For Sale By Owner” and gives a New York City phone number.

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Koplitz Agrees to Install Fire Alarm at Park View Inn — “Should be operational by the end of the week”

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on February 15, 2012| 3 Comments »

By Charles Layton

After refusing for 17 months to install a fire alarm system in his boarded-up hotel, the Park View Inn, Marshall Koplitz has finally agreed, under considerable legal pressure, to do so.

Neighbors living near the 23 Seaview Avenue property had complained for years that it was a fire hazard. In August of 2010, the Ocean Grove fire inspector discovered that the building’s automatic fire alarm system had been removed. When Koplitz refused orders to replace the missing alarm system, the Board of Fire Commissioners issued violations, began levying fines of $1,000 per day and, last September, took their case to Superior Court.

On Wednesday, Koplitz’ lawyer informed the Township that he would install the alarm system.

In a letter dated February 14, the lawyer, Michelle Lebovitz Lamar, informed Township Attorney Gene Anthony that Koplitz had arranged to have electric service reintroduced into the building, and that once that is done “The automatic fire alarm system should be operational by the end of the week.” That letter was in response to an inquiry from Anthony at the request of Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn.

In arguments last February before the County Construction Board of Appeals, Koplitz’ attorney had argued that the building was not in danger of catching fire because the interior had been gutted and debris cleared from the floors. The Board of Appeals disagreed, stating in its written opinion that the building was “extremely susceptible to the rapid spread of fire” which would be “a significant threat of harm to neighboring structures and occupants.”

When Koplitz still refused to install the alarm system, the Fire Commissioners appealed in Superior Court. Meanwhile, the Commissioners continued to levy fines of $1,000 per day for every day Koplitz remained out of compliance. At that rate, by Blogfinger’s unofficial count, those accumulated fines would total $265,000 as of Wednesday of this week.

There was no immediate word from the Fire Commissioners as to whether they intend to ask the Superior Court to order Koplitz to pay any or all of those outstanding fines.

“This is good news,” said Ted Bell, when informed about the letter to Anthony. Bell was one of the area residents who collected 33 signatures on a petition in July, 2010, urging the Township to take action against Koplitz. “Where will the alarm monitoring system be located? The Ocean Grove firemen and the Neptune construction officials should have some input on this — it should be monitored 24 hours per day, seven days a week.”

For more on the alarm system issue, go here.

Marshall Koplitz at HPC meeting, December 13, 2011. Photo by Charles Layton

Koplitz and his brother and business associate, Elliott Koplitz, have allowed the Park View to deteriorate for many years. However, since July 28 they have been under a Municipal Court plea agreement with the Township to restore the building as a 31-room hotel. The Historic Preservation Commission has approved plans for the restoration. For background on that issue, go here and also here and here.

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