A group of Avalon residents has decided they are tired of waiting for the slow wheels of governemnt to reach several nuisance properties, and hope to work with the borough on a clean-up effort.

The size of the group complaining about two abandoned properties on Fisk Avenue has grown, so that a dozen or so borough residents appealed to Avalon Council at its meeting Tuesday for help in addressing the problems once and for all.

At issue are vacant properties that neighbors say have deteriorated to the point that they present safety hazards, overgrown with weeds and trees and harboring everything from families of raccoons to rats to teenagers.

Avalon Borough has obtained a grant through the Quaker Valley Council of Governments to demolish the property at the corner of Fisk and California. Borough manager Harry Dilmore told residents that he had hoped the work would be done by the end of August, but paperwrk continues to delay the project.

Residents were not happy about the delay.

“I feel like you guys are telling me something just to shut me up, said Linda Hudgins, who lives next door to another vacant property that is not scheduled for demolition, but which features a dying tree that is threatening her home. What’s more, Hudgins said, a crop of apples from a tree on the property is supplying a steady diet for rats that recently have invaded the neighborhood.

As for that property, Dilmore said that the owner failed to appear for a recent district court hearing, and the borough is hoping to lien the property for the $4,000 in fines due the borough for code violations as well as the cost of having someone cut down the problem tree.

Dilmore said that the public works department has cleared weeds at the property this summer.

Hudgins said that not only was the weeding done two months ago, but two of the workers threw apples at the house, breaking windows and making it easier for wildlife to enter the upper floor of the home.

Residents asked that the borough clean up the properties, but council member Dave Dixon had another suggestion.

“Maybe the neighborhood should step up and help itself,” he told residents.

It was an idea that they embraced, and borough officials promised to support through some officials volunteering to help with a clean-up of the properties, and the borough possibly obtaining a dumpster to hold the refuse collected.