Webster’s plan to shame absentee owners draws attention

A strategy in Webster to draw attention to absentee owners of derelict housing got a boost from the media coverage it has received recently.

The plan to display the contact information for the owners of neglected properties on large wooden signs grew out of a Jan. 3 discussion among selectmen, Board of Health members, and the town building inspector, according to Town Manager John McAuliffe. Selectman Mark Dowgiewicz proposed the idea.

“I think [the selectmen’s] perspective was to really put a spotlight on the owner,” McAuliffe said. “My perspective was that I liked the idea of some of these landlords or owners getting a fraction of the calls that we get. Maybe they’d get a sense of just how much trouble it brings to the neighborhood when a property is run down and no one is taking care of it.

“The idea is to get these people to the table, and find out what their plan is.”

As of mid-January, town officials were still working out the policy’s details, but one bank sent a crew to board up one of the properties the same day that newspapers and television stations began reporting on the plan, McAuliffe said.

He said landlords were already required to post contact information on the interior of their buildings.

“We’re essentially taking what is supposed to be on the interior and blowing it up to the size of a sheet of plywood,” he said.

In addition to coverage from local newspapers and television stations, the policy was featured during a segment of the national Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends.”