LAKE MILTON, Ohio - A long-standing vacant home in Lake Milton has become the focus of growing concern among neighbors who say it poses a serious public health and safety risk.

A house on Laurel Avenue has sat empty and without utilities for years. Nearby residents say the neglected property is now heavily infested with rats and other animals, and those rodents are spreading into surrounding, occupied homes.

Neighbor, Michael Purnell said the situation has gone on for far too long.

"I was sitting on a couch...and I heard a noise under the couch, and so I looked and a rat, a big rat, ran across, ran out from under my couch and across and into our kitchen," Purnell said. 

According to Purnell, people on the block have filed repeated complaints with village officials and the property owner over the years, but nothing has been done to address the conditions.

21 News contacted both parties but had not received a response by the time this article was published.
 

Frustrated by what he describes as a lack of enforcement, Purnell said he has taken his concerns to county and state officials and plans to continue pushing for action until the problem is addressed.

"I'm just going to keep climbing up the ladder because our village council just seems so impotent. They just don't care," Purnell said.