Flossmoor Neighbor Frustrated By Eyesore Next Door

Nina Cooper takes pride in making sure her home in the 700 block of Elm Street in Flossmoor is properly maintained.

She took advantage of Wednesday's spring temperatures to work on her flower beds—but she did so in the shadow of her latest frustration: the house next door.

"It's horrible, isn't it?" Cooper asked with a sigh as she gestured toward the home at 749 Elm Street.

The dilapidated house, vacant since it was foreclosed on, has been the subject of recent village meetings. At a meeting earlier this month, Bob Shahwam, who Cooper says bought the house after its foreclosure, reportedly told officials he would have the the exterior of the home cleaned up by the end of March.

But looking at the dumpster full of debris, the crumbling walls and broken pieces of the building, Cooper is skeptical.

"This dumpster has just been sitting here," she said. "[Shahwam] has not had it removed. It will be a couple of weeks this Friday or Saturday."

Cooper has lived in her home since 1990, in the quiet Flossmoor Hills subdvision. She said the house at 749 has been in bad shape since fall 2010. She began going to meetings about the problem in the spring of last year.

"It's my understanding that it's been a very long process," she said, referring to the the task of getting Shahwam to clean up the propery.

Mayor Paul Braun told the Daily Southtown that the owner has accrued code violation fines of $5,000 to $8,000 in the past year.

Cooper just hopes that if the owner doesn't make good on repairs, village officials can "push to get the property demolished."

She knows a vacant lot wouldn't necessarily be great for property values, but "I'd rather have an empty lot with grass kept clean and mowed than this," she said. "The owner can sell the land or choose to build a home on it. What hurts right now is this house sitting here in its current condition."