Still, the nasty view from Charlie Jannetty's window has not changed.

Jannetty, 55, of 49 Cossett St., has seen some improvement in his North End neighborhood, but he isn't about to celebrate.

Next to his home stands a 117-year-old, abandoned two-family house at 43 Cossett St. that features a huge mound of trash chucked in the driveway.

"I built a stockade fence in the back 20 years ago and cleaned the backyard at 43 Cossett," Jannetty said. "Twenty years later, it is worse than before."

The abandoned Cossett Street house was among the first properties in the Walnut-Orange-Walsh neighborhood visited in May by health inspectors as part of the city's blight crackdown. A citation gave the property's owner, Horace Andrews of Oak Lane, Prospect, five days to remove the debris.

Six months have passed and nothing has changed because unbeknownst to the health inspectors Andrews died in February 2004. Though he died several years ago, Andrews is still listed as the property owner.

Jannetty remembers when his Walnut-Orange-Walsh section of the city was a beautiful neighborhood where homeowners took pride in their properties.

"But now, there is always trash," Jannetty said. "People driving by say this is the perfect place to (dump). I guess it's better than going to the dump because you don't have to pay."

Up the street from Jannetty is an abandoned house on Walnut Street that has debris in the front yard. That house also was among properties cited for trash violations by the health department. Next door to abandoned house is a city-owned lot with brush at least five feet high.

Around the corner, on Dikeman Street, directly across from Walsh Magnet School, is a vacant lot outfitted with a couch and several mattresses.

A few blocks away on Albert Place, Stephanie Sanchez and her neighbors are waiting for the owner of a vacant house in the 20 block on Albert Place to clean up a huge pile of garbage.

"It's like a landfill," Sanchez said. "My neighbors and I have been after the city to get the owner to clean it up. No one should have to live next to something like that. I won't even let my kids in the back to play. It is disgusting."

It's not the only problem: Up to 150 abandoned buildings still trouble the city and illegal dumping continues.

A consistent effort to require homeowners to remove the city-provided blue trash bins from sidewalks , even days after collection, is lacking. In some cases, the trash bins have not moved this year.

Besides the known dumping areas, people continue to find dark places off the beaten track to dump debris, such as a pile left beneath a "no dumping sign" off Chapel Street in Waterville. The heap of trash first observed two months ago has not been removed, and is now covered in leaves and snow.

About 100 feet from that illegal dumping is a pile of debris in the rear of an old bar at the corner of Chapel and Thomaston Avenue. After the Republican-American pointed to both sites as areas that need improving, the city police sergeant in charge of enforcement, Dan Lauer, called to have the debris that was not frozen to the ground removed.

Spring cleaning

Despite these setbacks, city leaders have kept faith with a pledge made at a well-publicized "blight summit" in April to crack down on violations of quality-of-life laws. Enforcement is up and the city Health Department has become a surprise leader in the offensive.

The push to get owners to rid their properties of debris and litter has resulted in nearly 600 notices of violation issued by the department.

The notices require compliance within five days or legal action can be pursued. William Campbell, health director, has pushed to arrest people who do not comply to emphasize the city's intent to hold owners accountable.

Health inspectors have had a considerable impact on the north side of the city. There, they visited thousands of properties, said Chief Sanitarian Paul Vitarelli. Notices have prompted owners to make a serious and sustained effort to rid their properties of debris.

The inspectors make unannounced revisits to make sure owners who received notices continue to keep up their properties. Those who faulter get another notice.

The inspectors are now combing the South End. They have been somewhat limited by snowy weather, Vitarelli said, but it won't keep inspectors from reporting obvious violations such as the debris at the former site of a rental company on South Main Street.

The Waterbury Police Department's Community Relations Dvision has also played a visible role in the city's fight against blight. The division conducted unannounced litter stings on Wolcott Street restaurant that netted four litterbugs $219 tickets each for tossing garbage on the ground. An additional five people earned $219 litter tickets for indiscriminately dumping their cigarette butts. In the coming months, more litter stings will be conducted, officials said.

Dumping in known "chronic dumping" sites has not eased up, said Sgt. Lauer. He has sites checked periodically to have blight crews remove debris before it piles up. When they linger, such sites send an unfortunate signal to would-be dumpers that here is an ideal spot to leave trash.

Lauer has invested the proceeds of some of the blight fines to buy a video camera. Although the city isn't saying publicly where the camera has been placed, there has not been one incident of graffiti or vandalism in that location since the camera went up. That might be because the camera flashes an automated message warning violators they are under surveillance.

In the coming weeks, the city will erect additional signs warning dumpers and other vandals that they are being watched, said Lauer. He is searching for grant money to purchase more cameras.

Since spring, according to Lauer, 2,814 bags of litter have been hand-picked; 93,995 pounds of bulky waste has been removed, and 127 tires picked up. Lauer's officers investigated more than 760 blight-related complaints and issued 242 summonses that landed property owners in Housing Court.

In addition, the city's motorized vacuum cleaners sucked up 857 100-gallon bags of litter downtown and from neighborhood streets in the Willow/Plaza, Brooklyn, WOW, Bunker Hill and East End neighborhoods.

Abandoned buildings

Blighted buildings still dot neighborhoods around the city. Of Waterbury's roughly 150 abandoned houses, only seven were demolished this year. Of that number, houses at 151 Locust St. and 64 Walnut St. were knocked down following fires, and a partial demolition took place at the 222 Bradley Ave. housing complex after a fire.

Properties at 1032 Bank, 186 Willow and 244 Walnut were demolished through Waterbury Development Corporation's eminent domain program, and the rubble that littered 777 South Main St. for several years was removed after the old factory was condemned by the health department.

For houses knocked down through eminent domain, the lots now belong to the city. The other houses that were demolished are still privately owned. In those cases, a lien for the cost of the demolition was placed on the property, and the owner has to maintain the vacant lot.

The total cost to demolish all seven properties was $351,256.

Pending demolitions at 110 Cherry St. and 17 Brewster St. are expected to cost $87,000, and will leave about $123,000 available for future demolitions.

A dilapidated house at 63 High St., condemned by the health department, is expected to be the next to fall.

Much of the city's war on blight is guided by the Waterbury Development Corporation. Michael Gilmore of the WDC said his agency has secured a $294,000 federal grant to demolish abandoned residential and industrial buildings.

Some of the abandoned properties are in foreclosure and the city hopes they will be bought by responsible owners once third-party tax liens are settled.

Continuing problems

Despite the stepped-up efforts, big problems remain.

On South Leonard Street, trucks with the word "junk" spray-painted on them have not been removed from the old Brass City Fuel lot. Those same trucks were featured in an article in the Republican-American in April. It is a city violation to keep more than one unlicensed vehicle on private property.

Properties on Bronson Street, off Bishop Street, are still trashed eyesores. The upper end of River Street, off Washington Avenue, has tires and bags of garbage strewn along the sidewalk.

Restaurateur Marianne Barsi, who purchased and cleaned up several buildings in the 300 block on East Main Street, said a hubcap store next to her property is falling apart "and that certainly should fall under blight. Tires are stacked up behind the building, a good breeding place for rats," Barsi said.

The city's blight crew picks up discarded tires, but seems locked in an unending battle with dumpers who continue to leave worn out tires along city streets and road. Since January, police have towed 587 abandoned vehicles, but at least four rusting heaps remain in the woods off the 1400 block on North Main Street.

Going forward

Officials promise the battle against blight will not slow down, even through the winter.

Blight enforcement officer Joe Davino says his crew of two permanent workers and six temporary employees will keep working whenever the weather permits.

Davino expects to get more equipment for his crew and wants to add two more permanent employees.

"We have more equipment and will continue cutting brush so when spring comes we won't have overgrowth," Davino said.

Health department inspectors may have to halt Operation Clean Streets because snow hides debris, but once it melts, inspectors will be back.

Lauer said officials need help from residents to learn where trash violations exist.

While his division has focused mainly on illegal dumping and blighted properties, Lauer said the unkempt blue trash bins are a nagging problem that will be addressed by police.

"As we continue to get a greater handle on these [big]issues," he said, "we can re-focus some of our attention to other problems, such as trash cans being left out inappropriately. We do rely on citizens to call," Lauer said.

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