LEWISTON — City officials fined 12 downtown landlords $210 each and put 10 others on notice for trash violations in the past week.
“It’s something we’ve done before, but we’ve been a bit more aggressive of late,” said Gil Arsenault, director of planning and code enforcement. “It’s a balancing act. We are dropping other things to do this. We’re just making this the priority for now.”
City officials have been pushing downtown cleanup efforts in the wake of three damaging fires, April 29, May 3 and May 6.
The city opened the landfill to landlords and residents, allowing them to bring in tons of trash and garbage that had been left in downtown apartments.
Arsenault said the goal now is to keep the city clean.
Property owners were fined for leaving trash curbside. City rules allow residents to leave their trash curbside beginning at 6 p.m. the day before scheduled collections. Arsenault said the property owners who were fined had trash out days early or trash that was never meant to be collected by the city.
Code enforcement officers also identified 10 properties that have litter, old furniture or other refuse in their yards or around their property.
“The way the ordinance is crafted, we have given you an order to comply and clean it up,” Arsenault said. “If you don’t, we can go ahead and issue a full citation. We don’t even care if it’s contained in bags. If you have bags of trash in the yard and things like mattresses that won’t blow away, we still don’t want it there.”
Lewiston trash violations
Civil fines ($210)
106 Bartlett St.
138 Bartlett St.
170 Bartlett St.
247 Bates St.
74 Birch St.
182 Blake St.
10 College St.
85 Horton St.
466 Main St.
115 Pierce St.
179 Pine St.
182 Pine St.
Notice of violation (no fine)
122 Bartlett St.
68 Birch St.
54 Blake St.
56 Blake St.
74 College St.
129 Pierce St.
92 Pine St.
33 Sabattus St.
116 Sabattus St.
104 Wood St.
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