Middle Township Initiates Rapid Response to Property Maintenance Complaints

COURT HOUSE – In response to ongoing challenges with property maintenance issues, Middle Township announced it will form a Code Enforcement Rapid Response Team. Middle Township Mayor Tim Donohue said, like many residents, he has grown weary of the slow progress in addressing chronic offenders and longstanding eyesores. Donohue said a new approach and greater sense of urgency are needed.
“Enough is enough,” Donohue said. “Township Committee has beefed up the enforcement mechanisms in our property maintenance ordinance, as well as provided a quicker path to demolishing derelict properties. We need to put those new mechanisms to work for their intended purpose. Our current approach has lacked effectiveness. We will be bringing on additional staff and targeting problem areas seven days a week until we get these issues resolved and our neighborhoods cleaned up.”
The new staff will work out of the Township’s Public Works Department, under the oversight of Deputy Mayor Dan Lockwood. Code Enforcement officials will now systematically patrol problem areas in the Township, issuing summonses on the spot. Patrols will be conducted in a truck so that violations such as illegally dumped items can be remedied immediately. 
“We need to take a more proactive approach,” Lockwood said. “These situations shouldn’t get to the point where residents have to make multiple phone calls and start writing letters to elected officials. We are going to attack these problem areas aggressively and we won’t leave these neighborhoods until the work is done.”
Patrols will initially focus on areas where the Township has received that greatest amount of resident complaints. Eventually, patrols will be conducted township-wide in a cyclical manner.
Residents wishing to report a code violation may call Middle Township’s Code Enforcement Office at (609) 465-8868.