By DAVE SCHULTZ
Three houses on Lancaster St. drew the attention of the Bluffton Board of Works Tuesday afternoon, and it wan’t the kind of attention the people responsible for the residences would have requested.
All three of the structures had come up for discussion before, with repair or demolish orders being filed against two of them and a third being cited under the city’s nuisance ordinance for excessive junk.
The residence at 427 W. Lancaster St. has been before the Board of Works most recently, and resident Kurt Shorey came before the board to plead his case. Shorey says he’s been working very hard to clean up the property, but “it’s taking a lot more time than I thought it would.”
He said he hoped to have the property cleaned up within 30 days.
The three members of the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety were skeptical. Scott Mentzer wanted to know if Shorey knew what would be required of him to bring the property up to city standards.
Shorey said he would soon have items put into his back yard and behind a fence, but the board members said that wouldn’t be enough. Roger Thornton called the collection of junk “rodent-inviting,” and said whether it was behind a fence or not, it would need to be cleaned up.
Thornton moved that Shorey be required to clean up the property even as the city looked to hire a company to clean up the site. If Shorey is at or near compliance, then the city could call off its own mitigation efforts.
Mentzer and Mayor John Whicker agreed with Thornton’s motion. A copy of the city’s nuisance order was provided to Shorey.
The property at 827 W. Lancaster St. took up a plurality of the board’s time Tuesday. Cesar Flores, a California resident who purchased the property last August, was present Tuesday after the city sent him a notice of demolition dated May 9.
Flores said he wanted to repair the house but he couldn’t provide particulars — particularly when it came to a timetable for repairs.
Flores said he wants to install a roof and windows, but Mentzer was skeptical. “We don’t have a plan here to fix it,” he said. “We have to have some kind of confidence it’s going to be done.”
The board agreed to table any action on the property for a week. At that time, Flores is to present a detailed plan to rehabilitate the house or the board would probably go ahead and order its demolition.
The third house on the street, at 901 W. Lancaster, is owned by Danny Howell. It is also under a repair or demolish order, but no one with an interest in the property was present to discuss the matter with the board.
Whicker, Thornton, and Mentzer voted 3-0 to order the structure’s demolition.
daves@news-banner.com
