Cleaning the Forks; Baer improving the look of Jay

AU SABLE FORKS | Codes officer Robbe Baer believes that in time the crowds of Lake Placid will begin to spill out through Wilmington Notch into the Town of Jay. He wants the hills and hamlets to be presentable when they do. When Baer took the job — it would be more accurate to say he had the job foisted upon him — he began to think about all the trashy and neglected properties and made it a mission to get them cleaned up. The ensuing process would be worthy of Hollywood. Baer has had people tell him how grateful they are, he's had rocks thrown at him, fallen through rotting stairs, been challenged to a fight, almost gotten the town laden with a heavy fine, and negotiated the reparation of a long-lost treasure. Through it all Baer doesn't blink, treating advances and setbacks as a matter-of-fact part of the job. "That would have been embarrassing," he does acknowledge of a plan to burn a derelict garage in downtown Au Sable Forks that ran afoul of the New York Department of Labor, which frowns on burning down old buildings before they have been tested for asbestos and lead paint, and fines those municipalities that do. Adirondack code offices tend to run on shoestrings, and while Baer has taken the requisite training, he said there isn't much precedent for what he's trying to accomplish. "I learn as I go," he said. And while the state is quick to block a course of action, requests to various state departments for help are often greeted with silence. People he contacts to discuss their properties tend to be pretty reticent as well. About the only person who really has snapped to attention was an absentee property owner from New York City. About the only thing Baer can figure is that code officers down there must wield a lot more authority than their Adirondack counterparts. Still, he's making progress. Of the 64 people he's contacted about code violations, 85 percent have complied or agreed to work with him. Those remaining are the "hardcore" cases, he said, the ones that require multiple calls, confrontations, and even detective work, when it's not clear who's responsible for the property. Not all violations are the result of people openly flouting the law. People become infirm, die, or move away. Under the law, Baer can have properties cleaned up by the town, and have a lien placed on their property in the amount of the bill. But he prefers to find ways in which he can help the property owner. "I may present you with a problem, but I also try to present a solution," he said. He has the card of someone who will come in and buy scrap metal; when an older landlord in poor health was unable to get rid of some problem tenants, Baer took care of it in exchange for an agreement to take down a blighted garage. But perhaps the strangest encounter was when Baer met with the owner of a decaying house in Jay, who was also a past owner of the storied Graves Mansion Au Sable Forks. The ex-owner had removed loads of valuable and artistic appointments for resale, including massive doors, chandeliers, and ornate vanities and sinks. For years, no one knew for sure whether this irreplaceable trove was still intact, or had scattered to the four winds. The inspection of the Jay house did not go well for Baer, who fell through some rotting basement stairs, landing in a bed of muck with rubble falling down all around him. But if nothing else it broke the ice, and talk turned to the cache of Graves Mansion fixtures — which the man eventually agreed to sell back to the current owner, who's in the process of restoring it. "How it all happened was really crazy — but it turned out to be a really big day for the town," Baer said.

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Cleaning the Forks; Baer improving the look of Jay

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