Diamond Run Mall billed for extra police services after responding to many complaints
RUTLAND TOWN VT Sept 3 2021— The town is billing the owners of the former Diamond Run Mall for the time police have spent responding to complaints at the property.
The Select Board voted 4-0 on Tuesday to send an invoice to BAI Rutland LLC for $2,520 for police responses between December 2019 and now. Select Board Chair Mary Ashcroft said a similar invoice had been sent to the mall previously for police presence prior to December 2019, and the bill was paid.
The board has been less than satisfied with the mall’s maintenance since it closed in 2019, but in recent weeks has become increasingly frustrated. On Tuesday, it heard from Ed Carr, of A to Z Real Estate, which manages the mall on behalf of BAI Rutland, which itself is a subsidiary of another company, Zamias Services Inc.
Carr said he and the property’s manager, Michael Sternberg, met with town officials, including Police Chief Ed Dumas and Fire Chief Chris Clark, on Thursday to look over the property and talk about ideas for keeping people out.
At a previous meeting, it was shown that there has been unwelcome activity in the mall, mainly vandalism and trespassing. Town officials claim there are signs of drug use and people living there, however, Carr said that when he and Sternberg were looking it over they found no signs of people living there nor drug use.
“We had a good talk, a good meeting, you guys brought a lot of good ideas,” Carr said. “Thursday, Michael and I spent a good deal of time last week before the meeting going through the property and going around the property. We went exterior and interior, identified places we needed to stiffen security-wise.”
Carr said he’s been pricing out the various security options discussed, from concrete barriers to security cameras, signs and live security patrols.
Representatives from Castleton University were also at the Tuesday meeting, attending remotely. President Jonathan Spiro was there, but Steven Wolf, director of Spartan Arena, did most of the speaking.
Spartan Arena is next to the mall, but separate, according to Spiro. It’s owned by Castleton University, but the land it sits on is owned by BAI. The college has been concerned about the mall, given its proximity to the arena.
“About the end of July it got extremely bad around here,” said Wolf. “The woods behind us were being filled with some homeless individuals. There was a lot of vandalism around the mall area. The roof is damaged pretty extensively, the skylights are smashed. We did a lot of cleanup ourselves just with fluorescent lights and things like that that were thrown onto the pavement. It got extremely bad for a period of time. We did have some individuals who did come through the area, and honestly they were pretty, in my opinion, pretty heavily into drugs.”
He said foot traffic there has fallen off over the last month, but many people are still coming up there in vehicles.
“I know that the police have been pretty much hourly monitoring the area and that has helped quite a bit,” he said.
There was talk between Dumas, Clark, Carr and the board about where and how concrete barriers might be placed to discourage people from driving around the mall while at the same time not blocking access by emergency vehicles should the need for them arise.
Ashcroft said the town has reviewed the mall’s Act 250 permit and found that it does require the owners to have live security there.
Selectman John Paul Faignant asked Carr when the board would have some answers about what would be done to secure the property. Carr said he would speak to his managers and have something in two or three weeks.
The board made it clear that it wants to see something sooner rather than later.
“You need to figure out a way to get this on your front burner,” said Faignant. “You recognize you’re in violation of the Act 250 permit, don’t you?”
Carr said he was now aware. “Well, now you know you’re in violation of the Act 250 permit so you tell your powers that be that we’re serious about getting this done and getting it done soon,” said Faignant. “There’s no reason for both of us to be paying a lot of lawyers when you can get your act together and implement some changes quicker. You can get back to us in two weeks, I would think.”
Carr said he would push for a two-week time-frame.
Select Board member Sharon Russell, who also runs the Open Door Mission, a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, said the mall owners have not lived up to their responsibilities.
“People that break into a mall that has no security are criminals and part of those criminals are you, the owners of the mall that don’t pony-up to your responsibility to take care of that mall,” she said. “It’s not fair to the people that are going up there, it’s not fair to the people of Rutland Town, and it’s not fair to our police.”
Selectman Don Chioffi said that live security needs to be in place there, and those people need the power to write tickets and make arrests.
Ashcroft thanked Carr for attending the meeting, noting that the board views him as a messenger. She expressed disappointment that people not more directly connected to the mall’s owners were not present.
rutlandherald.com
