Rockland officials: About 7,000 building violations in Spring Valley in first year of takeover

Rockland County was put in charge of buildings and codes in Spring Valley in the wake of the fatal fire at Evergreen Court Home for Adults.

News 12 Staff

Feb 14, 2023, 10:49 PM

Updated 603 days ago

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For the past year, Rockland County has overseen buildings and codes in Spring Valley – a change made in the wake of the Evergreen Court Home for Adults fire that claimed the life of a resident and firefighter Jared Lloyd.
Lloyd was also an employee of Altice, News 12's parent company.
On Tuesday, county officials shared their findings from the first of their two-year stint in charge. They say they logged about 7,000 violations among 844 buildings in the village.
"I cannot tell you how we've dodged countless bullets,” said Rockland County Executive Ed Day. “If this doesn't change at the local level, it's only a matter of time before we see another tragedy like the Evergreen Court fire."
TEAM 12 INVESTIGATES: Playing with Fire
Ed Markunas, Rockland’s building and codes director, invited News 12’s Ben Nandy to a war-room devoted to keeping track of Spring Valley inspections and permits. He says they established an entirely new system for dealing with violations.
"We created everything from the administrative court, from hearings to all new internal processes to issuing violation notices – while facing challenge after challenge," he said.
Day says Spring Valley's building safety problem won't be fully fixed unless residents vote out officials who are allowing the problem to continue.
News 12 asked Spring Valley Mayor Alan Simon about Day’s comments. He declined to comment until he could speak with his attorneys.
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