The Village of Walden board held two lengthy hearings last Tuesday, October 1 addressing two unsafe and dilapidated properties on Main Street. The mayor and trustees spoke with the respective property owners in hopes that they remedy their buildings’ conditions, whether by refurbishment or demolition.

The board opened the meeting with a hearing for an unsafe building on 76-80 West Main Street. Robert Wallner, the village’s building inspector, described the property as extremely decayed, emphasizing its poor foundation, water leak, and rodent sightings. Wallner spoke with the owner last August but did not hear back from him since.

“I did meet with (Owner Andrew) Concolino regarding this same situation and at that time, he had indicated that he was possibly looking at restoring the building to some extent,” Wallner said. “I asked him to give me a deadline and have an engineer give us a definitive plan. That was last August and to date, I haven’t received anything.”

Concolino explained that he bought the building some years ago and wanted to transform it into an auction gallery. He and his real estate agent began renovating the property in 2020 but halted progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the building to further deteriorate. Concolino hoped to sell the property but has not found a buyer.

“I’m a curator, art appraiser, and auctioneer. I work in Kingston all the way down to Manhattan. I travel around the world to catalog stuff,” Concolino said. “I wanted to put a gallery space in there for myself and conduct auctions out of the building.”

“I have the property listed, I’ve been trying to sell it since the beginning of August. I’m not happy with the situation right now, and I know I’ve let the property get worse,” he continued. “We demoed and gutted it, and we were going to start jacking it up and putting a foundation underneath it, but life got in the way and COVID happened.”

Concolino asserted that he would do whatever is needed to bring the property up to building code standards. He was unsure about the building’s future but he considered demolishing it completely, selling it to someone else, or developing a new structure in place of the old one.

“I am able and willing to do the steps necessary to knock this building down, level the property, get my feedback together, maybe sell it, plan to build a new structure there,” Concolino said. “My real estate agent has shown it to a few people, and I showed it to the neighbor who owns the building with the smoke shop, he was interested. Other than that, there were a few people that contacted me via my phone trying to make an offer.”

Ramos requested that Concolino return to the board on October 15 after meeting three criteria: work with Wallner to secure the building from public access, clean up the site’s debris, and submit a carefully thought-out plan to the board and Wallner. Concolino agreed to comply with these orders.

“I want to see a systematic plan starting with your contractor coming up, giving a quote on what needs to be done and how it’s going to be done, and coordinating with the building inspector to obtain permits for demolishing the building. You must also provide the board with a scope of work on what you plan on doing,” said Ramos. “You’re going to forward your plans to the building inspector and village board, and we’re going to hold you to those days.”

The board followed up this hearing with another one addressing an unsafe building on 60 Main Street. Wallner stressed that the property’s rear yard is a major eyesore, overgrown with grass and weeds with sharp metal pieces hanging from the building. Despite sending several violations, he did not receive a response from the owner.

“The back part of the structure has been an ongoing issue with property maintenance. The grass and weeds grow up and there’s been a monthly violation sent out to remind the property owner to clear the particular lot. In addition to that, the back of the building appears extremely unkept and decayed; there’s sharp metal hanging off the back of it,” Wallner said. “Since this is in the center of our village, I’d like to see some effort made in cleaning this project up.”

Sandro Tortora, the owner, explained that personal and financial issues prevented him from utilizing the space. He assured the board that he already took some steps to secure the site, including locking up and gutting the building. As of now, Tortora is looking for an investor to buy and refurbish the property.

“In the last few years, I had some family issues and severe health issues to take care of. Financial strains did not allow me to do anything with it. But I always try to do diligence and try to make it at least safe, we don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Tortora said. “We have a partial demolition on the ground floor, it’s all gutted out. The structure is really sound, we got 30-inch stone walls and balloon framing all the way out, and everything is solid. We’re just waiting for an investor to refurbish it.”

The board requested that Tortora allow Wallner and the village engineer to inspect the property’s interior and exterior, clean up the rear yard, and attend the village’s October 15 meeting with a remediation plan. Tortora agreed to these terms.