Town Sets Hearing to Decide Fate of North Babylon Home

Babylon town officials have set public hearings for two homes - including one in North Babylon - to determine if they should be declared a public nuisance and boarded up.

Newsday reports that the Town of Babylon will hold a public hearing on Tuesday evening on two homes, 86 Columbia St. in West Babylon and 1224 August Road in North Babylon, where at least two arrests have taken place in the last year.

In 1994, the town passed a public nuisance law in effort to combat crack houses allowing town officials to hold a public hearing to determine whether a house is a public nuisance if two or more arrests are made in a year. Arrests can include drugs, prostitution, and gang offenses. 

The arrests made at both the West Babylon and North Babylon homes were drug-related offenses, according to Supervisor Richard Schaffer, who helped draft the nuisance law. 

If either home is declared a nuisance, town officials can have the property cleaned and boarded up, then bill the owner. 

Read more on Newsday [subscription required].