City Council - Special Meeting

Uh, get a roll call and determine a quorum, please. Miss Angela T, District A here. Mr. Henry Dodie, District B, here. Mr. James Green, District C. Mr. Derry Green, District D. Mr. Howard Lock, District E. Here, three are present. We have a quication, please. Councilman, would you please lead us? Well, John,

heavenly father, again, we come, we come giving thanks and praise to you for being God and all that you do. Father, we pray that you bless this meeting and touch our hearts, able us to do the things that should be done for the city of Bash. Bless the city of Bash and all the people within it, these other blessings we ask in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank God. Stand. Salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Comments as they relate to the items on the agenda, please. I don't care if y'all have any questions, but she can discuss about you. You're going to get a presentation, right? Sorry. You're doing a presentation? No. Okay. So, Miss D is over there at Sto. Correct. So, anybody got any questions for Miss D? I mean, do y'all have pictures? I know I've seen them. Yeah, you got some

I don't have any pictures. If you want me to, I can run around. I think it's pretty um obvious to anybody that drives down the road. I I did see the building on side of Capital One all the bricks. That's correct. It's um I'm I'm assuming that last storm that um made all those bricks fall. And if I give it to you real quick, this is going to be Do you know the name of the property owner's name?

Okay, so for the record, this is uh the listed owner of the property is uh Althia uh who is uh appears to be registered. We've uh sent Miss Althia is the sister-in-law to the individual was convicted for for burning this building.

Oh, this building was purchased back in 200 late 2020 by them shortly thereafter the fire suit uh where uh Miss Althia actually filed a claim for it in federal court on the insurance. They denied it. This person who was uh convicted of burning the building uh received a 12-year hard labor sentence. I believe actually made parole this time if I was last informed while I talked to check the DA's office regarding this. This is the property considered 113 and 115 South Franklin Street. Uh it was notice was posted on the property. notice was sent to the register that address and notice is also text messaged to the phone number for the listed address owner on there of the notice because this is a great public emergency noting the fact of the records. We do have a building inspector report that says that this this building does need to be uh condemned as a dangerous or dilapidated building is a great public concern. We received all those things which are required prior to us following filing these things. Uh the notice was filed in the mortgage records for this property uh signed by the mayor declaring that on today's date at this time in the council room there would be a hearing to show cause why it should not be condemned or otherwise destroyed with relation to it at this time. It's it's it's an open and obvious it's we have bricks falling into it. We've had uh numerous complaints. I mean if you're on social media you see it. Uh it's it's it's very dangerous at this point. The owner of this building has been notified of this. They have received the notices they're required. Uh they're not appearing here tonight. It would just be my request to the council that we issue that an order be issued that this matter be ordered condemned effective immediately and that uh the city be a be allowed to take any all necessary action to either a destroy it or b repair it or do anything in between that rely ordinances. Legally,

what can we do? Legally, we can do anything between repair it, condemn it, do whatever. The way down. Yeah. The ultimate the ultimate goal is is that our ordinance is law both of it. And so, as long as we condemn it and we can uh you know, ideally underneath the ordinance, you can give them time to rectify it themselves. These people have not responded to anything. How how much time have we given them and how much time do they have left in order to They don't have any time left if you vote tonight to make it effective. It'd be effective uh tomorrow morning. How long has it been like that? Since 2020.

Okay. Uh I'm sorry I didn't get your name yet. My name is Dubs. Okay. And you represent this? Yes, I'm the president of this district. Okay. Um question. Um is any of that property bleeding over into the uh other properties that are right there adjacent to it? It's our understanding that um because of the condition of the property, there's been uh rodent problems in um in to the Capital One building. I believe they've had to to do several maintenance um issu had several maintenance issues

um as far as um wiring rodents traveling over there to into their building. The um opposing the the building on the other side I believe was owned by Mr. Ron um Israel. I believe he may have sold it. I'm not 100%. He was also having issues with um uh um along the same lines as rodents getting into his building. Um the walls um I don't know if you are familiar but all the way around downtown these these buildings were separated by um brick walls. And so that's that's it. And when one of the buildings are in disrepair, it immediately starts affecting the buildings on the other side as far as that um th those walls being uh and and especially now since the roof has completely caved in before this pri um this storm believe there was still portions of the roof portions of that second storm. Now it is it's gone and so the whole integrity of both buildings on both sides are now um in danger because of this collapse.

One example been following on other builders. Do they share the same wall or they got two separate walls? It's a brick wall. They share a wall just like on the other side, you know, over here um on the side by the um post office that that connecting wall. It's the same issue, but that's the it's the same issue. They share a connect that that brick wall. So, the only thing that we could do is maybe take down the front and the top. We can't take down the wall, right? No. Okay. Let me let Councilman do finish.

Okay. I'm sorry. You're fine. Uh, one of the other reasons why I asked is if we're going to condemn it and looking at tearing it down, um, is there is there any word or have we talked to the uh, again, I'm assuming we have had conversation with the, uh, with the other owners at least, Mr. Ron? Yes. uh they're not looking to make any kind of claim against again if we if we assume the liability of condemning and again I'm for it but we don't we don't assume any liability of that building before the condemning of it or the process of condemning of it we're extended our state statute that's the Mr. stage also next door on the be next door to okay

okay lock I'm just trying to see how far down would we have that then because we can't if we go any further we can't mess with the capital bank wall and the other wall so you going to have to have somebody expanded. It'll be the the two sides all the way down to flat, the back and the front. Definitely front. Yeah, it'll be an empty spot. The wall will stay the same on both sides. Okay. So, you still have some integrity of the wall still there. Yes. Revelation. Got it. M.

Yes. Question. Um the process would we have to bid this out? Oh, good question.

Depends on the scope of the work. I think what this is this gives us the right to do initially is just initially go in and anything that's loose or going to fall we can immediately sh that up and then from there we take a process that would further deal with it come from a part of the building. We just can't take any process right now. One of the things is is that we went in there right now we're not able to do it because it's private property owners. It's not been condemned at this point. So, at this point, we could after if we were to vote to do condemn this building and and have destroyed take any methods necessary, we'd be able to immediately go in the next day. Sure, if anything from falling onto the sidewalk, from there, we could build a bigger game plan. It's not that we have to immediately go in and just destroy. We can do things in between to remedy the great public danger that's existing and then roll forward from there with a better developed game plan.

Okay. And then and I know this building is not part of what we're talking about today, but you know, my concern has been the eyesore that East Side School has been. I know it's something totally different, but we took the same steps with East Side School. So, my thing is with that, I I mean, and I know we'll have to probably address this at the next meeting. All I asked to do was tarp that building so we could just get rid of the eyesore. I'm tired of seeing just like this is on Facebook. I'm tired of seeing everybody coming back to Bastra and that's the first thing everybody take pictures of and talk about is that eyesore. So we we going to handle this, but I want to handle that eyesore.

The problem with tarpon that building is is not structurally sound for us to be able to have anybody up there to tarp. And we don't have have the money and and we have a we have our code ordinance on on environmental ordinances that do gutification. You can only you can only tarp them for a temporary purpose if assuming we can get on top of that building and target the structural interior. Well, you I mean and I know it's all kind of processes to doing that. Um you don't have to actually you could put machines on each side or but you're only allowed underneath our code to be able to tarp a thing for a temporary purpose. I have to look I don't think it's longer than a month that you're allowed to have a tarp up there. That's one of the things that's in there.

Hold on council. You can hold it. Let me call for Councilman Green. Yeah. Um is a primary primary motion special trying to question it personally. Yeah. That that said, I want to know this is this is about condemning, right? This is this is the condemn is a dangerous building and it's very public emergency. Yeah. So we ain't talking about this is another page what y what what other council talk we talking about this is the primary stage of condemning right attorney correct that's all we're doing tonight so we can start taking further steps okay

all right uh is there anybody on behalf of 113 or 115 m street present at the hearing today not south Right. South Franklin present today.

Seeing that there is none. Is there anybody present who wishes to speak on behalf of 113 or 115 South Franklin Street? That point your hearing is closed. Uh the matter is before the council. It would need a majority vote of the governing authority to move forward with condemning it. My ask of the council is that you vote to declare this a great public emergency. You vote to have it condemned and the city to be able to take any and all action necessary immediately to uh destroy and or repair it if they can. But will we have to come back and vote if we need to if you get to a bid process you vote that.

So do we need to do we need to include demolish in this vote? That's what condemn and and and you can when you condemn it, you can demolish it or do anything you want. Yes, that is in here. So, the vote would be to declare it a great public emergency, declare it a dangerous building and authorize immediate demolition andor repair as this as the city is allowed uh underneath the thing immediately. That's what I'd ask.

I have one other question, Mr. Mayor. Um if um once we do uh start the condemning process and again you say the uh demolition part of it is automatic automatically gift into the process. Uh again uh how soon how soon after tonight how soon is it that maybe we can uh get somebody to go in and look at it? That's something that administration. It's not for me. Is there is there a time frame? There's not an automatic time frame. No, the time is what you said on the order. Okay. Do it as soon as possible. Right. Right.

Let's go ahead and not let's just go ahead and give it time as soon as possible. I I can't give you a time, but as soon as we can, we do. As soon as we can. I'll make a motion that we cond

yes Mr. Henry Dodie District B. Yes. Mr. James Green, District C. Present. Yes. Okay. Green District D and Mr. Howard Lock District E. Yes. All right. Carries 41. We will uh get the order to the mayor to have him sign. It'll be registered in the clerk court's office. Once it's registered there, uh we'll have everything acted and ready. We'll mail it out to them.

And is there uh I guess mayor can call for a motion to journ. I have one other question real quick if you don't mind. Real quick. Uh Mr. Jones, u now that we've done this right and mayor's going to, you know, get to work on it and all that. Right. Is there is there any recourse for the owner to show up tomorrow or next week? Would they have any claim on keeping uh keeping that uh keep that building alive? So, in order to keep that building alive, the owner would have to come in. They'd have to perform the demolition themselves and then to keep us from doing it. It doesn't give us ownership of the building. Right. Right.

But they'd have to come in do it themselves and at that point they would have to perform the work themselves prior to us performing it. And I ask I'm not planning for anybody to come in but things have happened and want to already know what the process is. There is there's there's it's like it's almost like a rebate process. It's built in. If you do it before, you have to pay us. You have to pay us for the cost of anything we've done up to then and then you can come back and you can do it that way. Okay. All right. Could I get a motion join this meeting? I'll make a motion. Second. Second.