Penalties are piling up against the owners of a home that has been deemed uninhabitable by city officials.
No resolution was in sight, officials said earlier in September, for the ongoing saga related to a home at 45 East Boundary Street.
Property owners Jason Gillson and Mark Herman have to date failed to make repairs sought by city building official Doug Whitney, who has recommended the structure be demolished and removed.
“We have not had compliance, and we will now assess the backdated fees and penalties associated,” city attorney Kelly Klun said at a Sept. 16 council meeting.
Those fees and penalties total $15,800 and will be assessed against the property.
The property owners asked for more time during the summer, but to date, repairs have not been done.
“There’s been no effort to get a permit or follow the order,” said Harold Langowski, the city’s clerk-treasurer and operations director. “The property is secure, but all the repairs within the order require a licensed contractor and that has not been done. That’s why you have it on the agenda and that’s why fines are being assessed.”
Langowski said that “the current owner I believe has interest in selling it, but it hasn’t sold. Doug Whitney and I will work with the current owners to get the property sold if that’s their intent.”
City officials have wrestled with the issue for two years, starting when the home was set on fire in September 2023.
Since then, the city has struggled to get the property owners to complete a list of 16 improvements ordered last year.
All but three of the improvements were either not done or are partially done, according to a report submitted by Whitney. Another, the repair of broken doors and windows, was apparently done without a city building permit or inspections.
The home was declared uninhabitable by the city, and Whitney explained that damage came first via fire, which destroyed the electrical system and other parts of the home, and more recently, when water lines froze.
Whitney said some work was done last year without a permit. Permits were later obtained for mechanical and plumbing work, and that work either failed to be done or was done without inspections.
Currently, no one is allowed to live at the property and work must be completed during daytime hours.
