SOUTH PORTLAND – About 20 residents of Mildred Street in South Portland, a dead-end off Elm Street, have signed a petition requesting the City Council to take “corrective action” regarding what they say is a “nuisance property” at 35 Mildred St.

The council will hold a public hearing on the issue on Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m.

The petition circulated in the neighborhood in mid-May was started at about the same time that the code enforcement office declared the three-story, multi-tenant building, which is owned by former state Rep. Christopher Muse, “unfit for human habitation.”

Patricia Doucette, South Portland’s director of code enforcement, said, “We posted the property (as being) unfit (on May 12) because the house sewer line collapsed.” Under the posting, no one is allowed to live in the building “until further notice.”

Doucette said code enforcement office staff “observed several inches of water/sewage in the basement,” and section 12-42 of the city ordinances states that, “plumbing inadequacies are a defect that may cause a residential building to be declared unfit.”

Muse could not be reached before the Current’s deadline, and neighbors also did not return calls seeking comment.

According to the tax assessor’s records, the home at 35 Mildred St. was built in 1910 and was purchased in 1992 by Muse. The property, which includes the main building, a small, weed-choked yard and an attached shed or garage, is valued at $280,800, according to the city’s tax records, Doucette said Muse’s property is the only one in the city currently posted as being uninhabitable. She said in order to lift the ban on anyone being able to live there, Muse must first repair the sewer line.

That means the collapsed pipe must be dug up, replaced, properly hooked into the city line and inspected by city staff, Doucette said.

She said Muse was served notice of the issue on May 6 and was given 96 hours to fix the problem.

This week she said that so far, “no attempt to remedy the situation has been brought forth by the property owner.”

– Kate Irish Collins

Former state Rep. Chris Muse owns this multi-family building, located at 35 Mildred St. in South Portland.