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Camouflage may be fooling you. Perhaps that’s why no one has yet bought Herkimer’s 328 Pleasant Avenue. Just across the street from it lurks Al Murray’s house at 329 Pleasant Avenue, with its frontal array of plastic junk toys and wheeled play vehicles. This well-crafted eyesore gives rise to the belief that Al’s house is infested with screeching toddlers, a no-go zone for anyone looking for a well priced home on a peaceful village street.
Don’t be fooled. As far as we know–we’re just across the street from it–zero children live at Al’s house. Al wants you to believe that Herkimer’s Pleasant Avenue is a crappy street in a run down neighborhood. He has a mound of rubbish in his rear yard that can be seen from space. (He’s rejected at least one cash offer of $100 to allow others to remove it for him. 
)
And perhaps Herkimer Pleasant Avenue was a crappy street in a run down neighborhood for many of the 5 years Al’s lived here. But times have changed. Curtis Cool, aka Curtis Dolan, is gone, as are many other thuggish denizens of the dark. Our Pleasant Avenue neighbor, long-time Police Chief Joseph Malone, has retired in the teeth of an ethics investigation. Village codes are being enforced, and police and fire officers respond promptly and appropriately to calls. Herkimer county’s 911 center no longer tries to shunt calls to police and fire numbers not subject to New York state monitoring.
Especially good news is that three-time Herkimer County district attorney and retired Herkimer Supreme Court Justice Mike Daley is running for DA in November’s election. Judge Daley has a track record of being tough on crime rather than ignoring it, unlike our current District Attorney, Jeffrey Carpenter. Carpenter’s dangerous, self-serving policy of ignoring crime to keep the crime stats low has only made Herkimer even less safe.
End of Pleasant Avenue’s Empire of Dirt?
331 Pleasant Avenue sold recently and is being fixed up after years of neglect and use as drug dealing den. 331 was the center of Pleasant Avenue’s Empire of Dirt, anchored on the right by the 333 Pleasant Avenue, occupied by the colorful Douglas and Joyce Barton, and on the left by Al’s 329 Pleasant Avenue. If 328 is sold rather than rented by Harriett Tangorra to another viscous thug, the mid-Pleasant Avenue balance shifts to the law abiding. Sell or not, we and our cameras will be watching.
