by Geoff Fox
Hancock town attorney Ed Kuczynski and Town Manager Mike Faith recently held a conference with Kenneth Apple and Jordan Butts in District Court regarding the conditions of their dilapidated properties on Main Street and High Street in Hancock. Both property owners have been notified that they must either fix or tear down the buildings because of their condition.
Kuczynski told town officials last week that Butts has said he will start to clean up his High Street property immediately. Butts sent both Faith and Kuczynski pictures of a full dumpster at the property.
“Apparently he started doing that,” Kuczynski said.
Butts had been cited for unsafe structure and junk and debris in the yard, Faith added.
Butts agreed to provide plans from a structural engineer within 60 days that can be utilized to rebuild the structure.
Kuczynski said Butts also claims he wants to repair and rehabilitate the property to use as a rental.
photos by Geoff Fox
If he continues to move forward in repairs, the town would continue the case. If he fails to comply, citations will be issued again.
“In these types of cases, it’s generally more productive than if you just go ahead to trial,” Kuczynski said. “If you go to trial, court would have found that they violated the ordinance.”
Kuczynski said Greg Cartrette, who is the county’s Director of Permits and Inspections, is ready to help with any testimony and any information about code violations needed.
The attorney said the court would probably also issue fines around $1,000 and issued an order of abatement.
“We still have those remedies available, so if there’s noncompliance on what they’ve agreed to do, or what he’s agreed to do, then we’ll bring it back for a final adjudication and at that point, there’ll be a formal order of abatement and we’ll take it from there,” Kuczynski said.
Kuczynski said there was a similar discussion with Apple.
Apple indicated he had presented a report from a structural engineer a few years ago that addressed the problem.
Kuczynski said Apple had interpreted the most recent letter the town sent that the town would demolish the building.
“I made it very clear to him that the town was not going to tear the building down on the town’s dime, that the last thing the town wanted to do was spend a couple hundred thousand dollars to tear his building down, and that he was responsible for it and the letter was not to be interpreted that way,” Kuczynski said. “It was meant to do to get him to do something with the building.”
Apple apparently said he’d provide engineer documents in terms of what action would be taken, Kuczynski said.
Faith said Apple had applied for building permits, he just didn’t follow through. He also told Kuczynski he had received an email from Apple’s contractor saying they were in Hancock a year ago doing excavation work on the building.
Kuczynski said Apple indicated at their conference he’s waiting for the engineer and would move forward with whatever he said to fix the hole in the back of the building.
Kuczynski noted Apple was also wanting to repair the building and put it “back in service” instead of tearing it down as he had made money from it in the past.
“It wasn’t necessarily a delicate conversation,” Kuczynski said. “I wasn’t outwardly rude, but I wasn’t also forgiving.”
Kuczynski reiterated the town hasn’t lost the ability to issue citations if they need for municipal infractions to get them into compliance.
If that fails, the town can follow up with what they started.
Faith said he’d contact Cartrette every two weeks to come to Hancock and document what progress, if any, is being made on the two properties and use that to apply more pressure.
“I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll get somewhere productive,” Kuczynski said.
