ALOC NEWS
| August 1 , 2001 | Associated
Landlords of the Cumberland Area ALOC Phone (301) 759-0530 P.O. Box 1867 |
Vol. 7, Issue 8 |
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City Registration The City of Cumberland will start to charge penalties for rental property owners who have not renewed their registration, which was due July 1st. If you have not registered yet make it quick, as the code enforcement folks are ready to start taking action Other City Items Jeff Hutter, ALOC President along with Councilman Ed Hedrick (also an ALOC member) recently attended a Blighted Property Committee meeting at City Hall. This group consists of various City personnel and other appointees who try to clean up run down properties. In many cases this involves the City purchasing properties at minimal prices and then paying a demolition contractor to raze the property. Due to the legal problems involved this is frequently not a quick or cheap process. The Star Program under the leadership of Leontyne Peck has a number of programs that may benefit property owners. Some of the plans include tax credits for improvements as well as grants for the façade program. Contact Leontyne at 301-759-6446 if you would like more information Upcoming Speakers At our meeting in September we will have Bob Rider from the Cumberland Water Department as our guest speaker. Bob will update us with information on new developments with the Water Department. We understand that a lot of improvements are in progress at the Lake Gordon filtration plant and he will bring us up to speed. By the time of this meeting we will have fluoridated water, which will certainly generate some questions. At our October meeting we will have Paula James from the Health Dept. as well as some folks from the Lead Coalition to bring us up to date about the Lead Paint Program In
November we will have Chief Bobby Dick in attendance to fill
us in on Cumberland Police matters.
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Newspaper Article about the Police In July a nice little article was published about the Cumberland Police stepping up efforts to have more foot patrols and neighborhood involvement. One particular paragraph bothered us and we quote " The department, Morley said, will also target landlords who appear to be indifferent concerning the conduct of their tenants. "Landlords are responsible for the action of the people they rent to and they will be charged with any violations of the city's nuisance ordinance," he said. Needless to say this set off all kind of alarms and a call was quickly made to Chief Bobby Dick who assured us this was taken out of context and the Police Dept. will not charge landlords unless there are extenuating circumstances. We will discuss this at our next meeting. Carey Walker becomes new ALOC V.P. ALOC has a new Vice President with Carey Walker stepping up to the plate to take over for Rose Selby. Carey is employed by the Board of Education and is working at the Fort Hill Library. He also is a lead inspector performing visual and dust tests.
Kweisi Mfume, NAACP President is expected to announce a plan to sue the lead paint industry as well as cities and states that fail to abide by federal and state regulations. We are not sure where Maryland will fit into this battle. The NAACP's action occurs as rising concern over lead paint poisoning has sparked lawsuits against some of the country's best-known paint companies, including Dutch Boy and Sherwin-Williams. Naturally
this makes Ruth Ann Norton, director of the Coalition to End
Childhood Lead Poisoning very happy!
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Maryland Property
Owners Notes
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Alfred Singer from Baltimore has joined the Lead Committee with the AASPO based in Washington with the hopes of making changes to the federal lead regulations and perhaps in the underlying 1992 lead law if necessary. This group will be addressing federal issues only and any ideas for these changes should be forwarded to Alfred in Baltimore. In Adrian Ohio they have imposed a $ 25 registration fee along with a $ 40 per unit inspection fee. Our friends in Frostburg should find this familiar. The fees will bring in $ 200,000 per year to the City of Adrian and it is viewed as a revenue-raising scheme! In Pennsylvania the legislature is considering the legalization of conservation easements. This would allow third party whacko environmental groups to go to court to stop a use of property which may be prohibited by the easement. We have to sometimes wonder what country we live in! A number of court case are somewhat encouraging with the Supreme Court overturning a Rhode Island supreme court decision, saying that a developer's property value was affected by the state environmental agency's ruling not to allow building on a salt marsh. They have also agreed to consider whether 450 Lake Tahoe landowners deserve compensation for a temporary moratorium on land development. Maybe there is some hope? A 13-year
battle with the City of Clovis, California may soon reach a
conclusion for the Gallands, who own a trailer court in Clovis.
They have been fighting a long battle regarding rent control
and the matter has bounced all over California courts with the
Gallands winning a million dollar judgment. Unfortunately the
California Supreme Court has sent it back to the local courts.
There are hopes this will end up in front of the US Supreme
Court
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Leases and other Documents The Leases and other forms have been upgraded to reflect Law changes made in recent years and are available now.ALOC has
available leases, rental applications and tenant checklists
for sale, at cost, to members. The cost for each item is as
follows: These forms are kept at Jeff Hutter's office, TWR Comm. at 117-119 Valley Street. Any paid member can stop by and pick up whatever they need, however we ask that you call first with your order so that the forms can be ready and waiting for you. Please
call at least 24 hours in advance as these are made to order. |
ALOC
Officers
J. Jeffrey Hutter President Carey
Walker Vice President J. Jeffrey Hutter Treasurer Board of Directors
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Thought
for the Month
For myself, I am an optimist --- it does not seem to be much use being anything else. An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last. Tyranny,
external or internal, is our foe whatever trappings or disguises
it wears, Dogs
look up to you, cats look down on you. Give me a pig. Sir Winston S. Churchill |
