Thursday, March 22, 2012

Homeowner fined for unnecessary sidewalk repair

 
From the Queens Courier:

Biagi, a 62-year-old retired mechanic, told The Courier he was warned in 2004 by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to replace approximately 68-square-feet of sidewalk on his property — defective from two trees that the city recently removed, he said. Although Biagi said he had every plan to cooperate with the agency, he first requested for more information about the broken slabs. He said he did not hear back from them.

Then, city workers came out of the woodwork in 2009, he said, replacing nearly the entire sidewalk surrounding Biagi’s corner home — including close to 800-square-feet of pavement instead of the originally estimated 68.

The total cost the city billed to Biagi: $2,240.69.

Biagi said what angers him most is the fact that the DDC allegedly attached the expenses to his mortgage and took the remaining balance out of his real estate taxes.

5 comments:

Roger said...

Many people on our block got one of these sidewalk repair notices earlier this year. One person has replaced their sidewalk - others are waiting to see what happens. Our sidewalk has a square with a crack in it, but they want us to replace all the squares but one.

Alen said...

was it so hard to fix the sidewalk in the first place? last year i saw workers fixing a lot of sidewalks in brooklyn

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know who the contractor was - that was a fundraiser for someone's bro-in-law if ever there was one.

Joe said...

$2,200 to dig up, haul and replace for 800-square-foot sidewalk is pretty cheap.

Whats wrong with these people ? Sidewalk repair is easy, the hardest part is mixing the concrete and cleaning up.
I just did 3,600 Sq feet of lawn with 3 inches topsoil +level and seed muself--talk about hard work--

Anonymous said...

How "macho" of you Joe.
Do you want a medal or a brewskie?