WILDWOOD — The residents of Bennett Avenue are looking forward a peaceful end to their summer after another rowdy house bit the dust.
A neighbor told the Herald that she had been living with “two summers full of booze, partying, trash and police calls,” ever since the landlord of the property at 123 East Bennett Avenue began renting to large numbers of teenagers.
The landlord has remained absent from the property and the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said that when nearby residents would call with complains they were told to “call the police because he didn’t want to handle it.”
The neighbor said that on Aug. 23 it was the “last straw” for the problem property. City officials shut down the property, relocated the renters and boarded the doors. A municipal hearing is pending.
“Bennett Avenue is a peaceful residential area and a property like this has no place here,” the neighbor said and credited the city with handling the issue.
The city has been cracking down on dilapidated properties this summer over safety and aesthetics concerns with a revamped rowdy house ordinance. The ordinance targets the owners of the properties who rent to rowdy vacationers as a means to cut down noise and alcohol complaints.
The city also is prosecuting 33 unrelated animal houses in town, Mayor Ernie Troiano, Jr. said. Of those, four houses have been closed.
“These aren’t houses that have had a problem one night or two. These are properties where the police have been called 10, 15, 20 times,” he said.
Troiano largely attributes the issues to absentee landlords and underage binge drinking.
“It is out of control and the damage done to the properties is unbelievable,” Troiano said. “If these landlords can’t control their properties, we want them closed. We don’t want you here.”
The mayor, who spent the past three weekends closing down problem properties, said that he’s encouraged by the success of the strict rowdy house rules and neighbors endeavoring to return peace to their neighborhoods.
A problem property that was recently closed on Glenwood Avenue caused celebration for many neighbors.
“They were cheering and giving each other high-fives,” he said. “On lady said that she would take the ‘for sale’ sign down from her home after the problem property was closed. She loved living on that street but couldn’t stand the issues at that house. Now she is happy to stay.”
Troiano expects the issues at these animal houses to escalate with the end of the summer.
“These farewell parties could get out of control,” he said and added that the city would continue to enforce the rowdy house ordinance.
Troiano added that he credits vigilant neighbors in helping the city police the problem properties.
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