KINGSTON, N.Y. -- Dawn Jordan lives near a vacant house at 62 Van Buren Street in Kingston. Last week, she and other residents told us roaches from that house started spreading to their homes.
Since then, Jordan said she’s tried different remedies, and is now seeing less of the roaches.
Now, the city is working with professional exterminators to make sure the problem goes away for good. Crews from Pestmaster Services visited the infested house on Tuesday.
“We have glue boards around the outside of the house trapping them, so as we treat, as they spread out, it’s trapping them so they can’t go into the houses,” said Pestmaster Services Owner Paul Alley.
Officials said Pestmaster Services will also be doing work to fight the roach problem that was caused in the neighborhood.
"The streets, the areas outside of people's homes and the outside of their homes,” said Common Council Member Nina Dawson.
But if they want exterminators to do any work inside their homes, owners and landlords will have to pay. Jordan said that, while she's grateful to the city for stepping in, she thinks the owner of 62 Van Buren should be the one paying to clean up neighboring houses.
"I think he should compensate all of us -- the landlords, the homeowners, the ones who are out here spending their money to keep them from coming into their properties,” she said.
She added that she doubts this will be an easy fix.
“I’m just thinking about the aftermath and don’t know what’s going to happen after they’re done," Jordan said. "Because you can’t get them all. You just can’t get them all.”