COURTS: Hedges yields to inspectors in housing matter

By Rick Pfeiffer, Niagara Gazette
rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com
September 21, 2009 07:55 pm

NIAGARA FALLS, NY – A Falls woman accused of running an illegal bed and breakfast at her Fourth Street home has been given 45 days to correct multiple housing code violations on her property.

An attorney for Eva Hedges told City Court Judge Robert Merino on Monday that his client is prepared to make the changes and has already begun some of them.

“We went to the (Falls) Zoning Board last week and they would not allow the variances for the improvements,” attorney George V.C. Muscato said. “She is in the process of bringing the fence down to the appropriate height and the other things we have to do.”

City Building Inspector Robert Ingrasci told Merino that Hedges need to lower the fence around her property and remove “structures” that he described as “three sheds and a tent over an above-ground swimming pool.”

Following Monday’s hearing in City Housing Court, Ingrasci accompanied Muscato and Hedges to her home to review what needed to be removed from the property.

Muscato initially appeared uncertain over whether the work could be completed in 45 days. Merino told the lawyer more delays in resolving the more than year old case could become costly.

“The city has been asking for restitution for the time (inspectors) spend on these matters,” Merino said. “If they request restitution for the hours Mr. Ingrasci is putting in, I’ll entertain it. So the (meter) is running as far as the city is concerned.”

In asking for a final hearing on the matter in November, Muscato said, “We’ve have done everything we’ve been asked to do, but I want to make sure (Hedges) is in compliance.”

The November hearing date is also expected to resolve a complaint by city inspectors that Hedges was operating a bed and breakfast out of her home without the proper permits. Muscato and Hedges have both denied that charge.

“We deny she ever operated a bed and breakfast,” Muscato has said.

Attention was drawn to Hedges’ home after a 12-year-old Bronx girl, who was staying there as part of a Polish children’s camp, slipped into the Niagara River gorge on a field trip and drowned. That incident remains under investigation by the Niagara County District Attorney’s office.

DA Michael Violante maintains he is “still deciding” whether or not to bring charges against Hedges, 62, and her son, Timothy, 23, who was leading the field trip of more than 20 children to the Niagara Gorge.

Magdalena Lubowska slipped off a rock as she dipped her feet into the river. She was swept away into the gorge and drowned.

Lubowska’s parents have said they will sue Hedges and others in connection with their daughter’s death. While a notice of claim has been filed in the matter, no lawsuit has yet been brought to court.