I have been keeping an eye on the deterioration of a few empty properties and vacant buildings in the Kings Highway area for a few years now. The deplorable state of these properties has been a major annoyance to me as I travel through this area all the time.
The former I. Brown furniture building, the adjacent former “spa” structures and the old car dealership have been a source of continual blight for years. Zoning issues and a downed economy have played a big role in keeping these properties from being redeveloped. But I’ve felt all along that those were not good excuses to just let them fall into serious disrepair. 
On the Blight Commission radar for some time too, the properties have been threatened with fines and liens as ways to get the owners to clean up the messes – which is allowed under the blight ordinance enacted several years ago.
So imagine my surprise when I watched a workman, on an unusually warm winter day, recently toiling on the I. Brown property cleaning up the excessive brush and debris, taking down old fences and covering up graffiti. His work has transformed the ugliness, as evidenced by the photograph included with this entry.
The old car dealership, while still vacant and boarded up in parts, gets a considerable amount of attention from the property owner as the area is cleaned regularly. As for the two old houses near the old furniture store, well, that’s another story. They still are ugly and still something needs to be done with them.
Nonetheless, the progress on the furniture building is a welcomed sight. Thank you to whomever helped to make this happen.
UPDATE: Our first selectman, Mike Tetreau, said he asked Building Official Jim Gilleran to make the cleanup “a priority.” Gilleran gave the property owner plenty of notice, then started levying daily fines. “Jim is doing his best to get owners to clean up their property first but if needed we will fine them if they don’t take action on their own,” he said in an e-mail.
