By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Blight Prevention Board recently gave the owners of a property in one of Long Island Sound’s priciest neighborhoods 30 days’ warning to clean up a pile of lumber and other loose debris before being fined.

Officials said it was the second time the owners 35 Owenoke Park had been before the board.

Piles of junk can be found in most every neighborhood in every town in Connecticut, and beyond. But Westport might be among the towns with more stringent rules and enforcement.

The property, according to town records, is valued at $4 million. Records state is owned by 35 Owenoke Park LLC and co-owned by Lucy Prager. (A search of the Connecticut Secretary of State’s website showed no results for a 35 Owenoke Park LLC.)

Members of the Prager family have owned the property since 1965, records state.

Lucy Prager attended Thursday’s blight board meeting.

“I’m not the person that should be here,” she said.

“Who should be?” board Chairman Joseph Strickland asked.

“The co-owner, my brother,” Prager said.

“He left me a message, he said he will not be joining the meeting,” Building Assistant Michelle Onofrio said. “He said that he’s taking care of the property, and that he doesn’t want to come before the board.”

Many neighborhood properties have been in flux. Multimillion-dollar homes, including one just seven years old, are being torn down there to make way for new construction.

“I haven’t seen the property in person, but it looks to me like the level of debris is less than it was in 2020 …” Prager said. “A blue plastic and some wood that needs to be cleaned up.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Strickland said, adding that a neighbor or neighbors had signed blight complaints.

Strickland said the materials appeared suitable for disposable at the local transfer station. He told Prager it would be “a terrifically simple solution, to have someone haul it away.”

She seemed willing, but when asked about the previous complaint, hinted at family complications. She asked the board to notify her brother that the two of them should hire someone to fix the issues.

Permission was asked to walk the property, and Prager said her brother is a renter, and that she couldn’t grant that.

Strickland said time-stamped photos of the entire property would then be required to determine compliance.

Thane Grauel, executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.