JEFFERSON, La. — Contractors boarded up the old Brother’s Food Mart at Jefferson Highway and Dodge Avenue in Old Jefferson.
Someone broke all the store windows Saturday night and ransacked the building.
It’s just the latest is a series of problems there since the business suddenly closed about 5 months ago.
Paris Langford lives next door to the abandoned store.
“It’s a scary situation,” Langford said. “The store when the owners left, they left all the food in it and alcohol, over the counter drugs and the smell coming from the store with all the windows broken out from all the rotten food it horrible.”
Jefferson Parish District 2 Councilman, Deano Bonano, says whoever was running the store simply walked away leaving the freezers, refrigerators and shelves stocked with food and other merchandise.
“Immediately, we started having problems with vagrants going in there and stealing stuff,” Bonano said. “As you can imagine with no electricity, the food started to deteriorate fast, especially in this heat and the smell was just unbelievable.”
Langford says the store has become a haven for crime. She also has health concerns.
“There are rats climbing on my back fence. On the side of the store that you can’t see, there’s bags of garbage and food that has been rotting back there for months.”
According to Bonano, Jefferson Parish now intends to sue the owners of the building in an attempt to get cleanup crews inside to finally clear out the contents of the abandoned convenience store.
“I need a court order, so I can send some special crews in here, probably in hazmat suits and masks to clean out this store to alleviate the health hazard to the neighborhood.” Bonano said.
JP code enforcement has performed 25 inspections at the store and cited the property seven times.
The JPSO is now making routine checks of the property.
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