Lincoln cleaning up blighted properties

LINCOLN – At least four more residents might face legal action similar to what Edwin Goodwin will endure next week if they don’t clear illegal junkyards from their properties, the town’s code enforcement supervisor said Thursday.

After a Lincoln District Court order in May 2006, the town will hold a public sale of Goodwin’s property at 475 Main St. on April 5, Town Manager Glenn Aho said. The sale proceeds will help pay $38,652.80 in total fines Goodwin accrued for having an illegal junkyard.

Goodwin has already been ordered to turn over a deed to his property at 477 Main St. to defray the fines, Aho said,

The town is pursuing at least four other properties that town officials believe violate the town’s anti-blight ordinance, Code Enforcement Supervisor Ruth Birtz said.

“I hope that people will see that we would really rather work with them and try to avoid going to court,” Birtz said Thursday. “We’d like [alleged violators] to clean up their properties faster, but most of them are making what I would call slow but steady progress.”

Birtz declined to identify property owners or alleged blighted properties, saying that she would not do so until town officials’ patience was exhausted. That will likely happen in August. No blighted property owners will be taken to court without Town Council approval, she said.

Enforcement efforts against Goodwin, who lives on Wilson Street, took about a decade to come to fruition, and even now, Goodwin denies having a blighted property or violating any town ordinance.

He replied with a typewritten addition to the town attorney’s March 21 letter informing him of the sale by writing,

“The Presentment above is dishonored. Edwin C. Goodwin has reserved all of his rights (including Redemption, Redress, Civil Disobedience) under the Uniform Commercial Code at UCC 1-207.4.”

“To this day, I don’t believe Mr. Goodwin recognizes the court’s authority and its decision because he only continues to argue his rights. Nevertheless, the court found him in violation of the Lincoln land use ordinance and he was assessed fines,” Aho said.