Elgin code chief shares tales of home repairs gone awry

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Updated: January 23, 2012 4:11AM

ELGIN — Some of the slapdash plumbing and electrical repairs the city of Elgin’s code enforcement personnel sees each year would make most licensed home repair professionals cringe.

In a presentation for the Elgin Community Network on Tuesday at Gail Borden Public Library, code enforcement manager Vince Cuchetto shared photos — mostly from the city of Elgin, but some he found on the Internet — that show exactly what kind of sloppy repairs they find each year as part of their code enforcement jobs.

He has photos of electrical outlets next to showers, electrical panels in bathrooms, unlicensed apartments in basements, a second-floor stairway going down directly outside a sliding glass door, Styrofoam junction boxes for electrical equipment — even live electrical outlets screwed into the side of a tree.

Those are some of the more obvious code problems found in Elgin, Cuchetto said, while admitting that Elgin officials don’t get to prevent these bad repairs or remodels if residents don’t get the proper permits before doing the work.

While the eight city inspectors also are expected to drive around their areas and look for code violations, the city asks residents to call, too, so problems can be addressed quickly, he said.

Not all of the enforcement issues are indoors, he said — there are many problems they can see while just driving by.

He had a photo of a couch sitting on a front porch, a deck that took up most of a backyard, and a functional garage door — sans garage — sitting behind a fence. Cars parking on the grass also is a violation, he noted, as he showed several photos of homes cited for that offense.

For some of the 50 people who attended the session, the talk was a way to ask about some of the problems they’d seen in their own neighborhoods. For others, it was a chance to ask about the violation notices they’d received.

Krissy Palermo said she moved into a house on Spring Street 2½ years ago — a foreclosed house that had been empty for three years. Even before she’d left California to move to Elgin, she said, she had received a code violation notice from the city of Elgin. Then another package was sent to her old California address that included seven pages of violations — even before she’d gotten very far on rehabbing the Italianate-style home.

She requested a time frame from code enforcement to get the work done — work she’d been planning anyway — but was denied, Palermo said.

Cuchetto himself threatened her with court if she didn’t get the house painted, she added, and she still receives violation letters for her garbage totes being visible from the street. The house is on a corner lot, she noted, and unless she fits the totes into the small one-car garage, she continues to get cited.

But, she added, the apartment unit across the street continually has its garbage totes where they can be seen, she said.

After the session, Cuchetto spoke with Palermo and others who said they had questions about how and why codes were enforced in the city.

While admitting it was a tough crowd Tuesday at the library, Cuchetto said he likes giving the informational talks in Elgin. “I like to speak in generalities. If someone has something specific, we should have that conversation in my office” at city hall, he said.

Still, he added, the eight inspectors — soon expected to be seven due to a pending retirement and once, when fully staffed, 14 — are very busy.

“Call,” Cuchetto said. “I can’t do my job if I don’t have all of the information.”