Residents raise concerns over faulty fences but no law enforces maintenance

QUEENSBURY The sections of fence have fallen in one by one over several months, another large piece hanging and ready to fall just feet from Whippoorwill Road any day.

Numerous young children gather near the fence every weekday to catch a school bus, some playing around it as they walk to and from the bus stop. Yet town officials have taken no action.

Residents of the neighborhood are concerned, and others in town are concerned about the condition of other fences.

Local businesswoman Denise Buher, owner of Orthopedic & Spine Physical Therapy at the corner of Bay and Blind Rock roads, has watched as a fence that separates her building from a neighboring apartment complex has fallen apart, with numerous slats broken and paint peeling.

Buher said her efforts to get the owner, Schermerhorn Real Estate Holdings, to repair the fence have failed. So she took her concerns to town officials, but was told they couldnt mandate repairs or even a new coat of paint.

Queensbury town code generally does not require owners of fences to maintain them in any way.

Craig Brown, the towns zoning administrator, said town code used to include requirements for fence maintenance, but that section of the law was taken out in about 2002. He said the difficulty in enforcing the code in a town with more than 13,000 parcels of property likely played a part in removing it.

It was probably an administrative nightmare to make sure people were painting their fences, Brown said.

The fence at the corner of Whippoorwill Road and Mountainview Lane has been in a state of disrepair for years, according to neighbors. One neighbor said she was not aware of any complaints to the town about it, but pointed out the home sits at the corner of a busy road and the collapsed fence is plainly visible.

Brown said he doesnt know whether a fence that poses safety concerns could be addressed under town law, but he pointed out any children playing on or around the fence would be trespassing.

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Residents raise concerns over faulty fences but no law enforces maintenance