The city will have to pay another $100,000.00 plus to remove asbestos at the King's Inn site because thieves broke in, stole all the copper piping, and ripped the asbestos apart and into the air.
My question is this. Once the city seized the property and decided to demolish it, why did they not remove all the copper and scrap metal carefully and sell it? Metals, particularly copper, are selling at a high price now. (Copper is averaging $3.00 per pound.) Once sold, the money should have been placed in the general fund to aid taxpayers.
Instead, the city did nothing and thieves broke in and stole the copper. Worse, the taxpayers not only lost the money from a potential sale of the copper, but also the damage caused when the asbestos was torn and thrown about will cost the city over one hundred thousand dollars. When the city seizes property, it must be maintained. In fact, there is usually a line in the budget for maintenance of city properties.
I believe the city dropped the ball and the taxpayers are footing the bill. I hope in the future the city will be more careful.
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9 comments:
And why would this suprise anyone?
Well this is where reducing the size of government can be a problem. It's hard to expect more from something that we also want to cut in size especially when we think that something should be concerned with, among other things, the copper piping in a condemned motel.
Agree, the property should have been secured throughout. The fact that there was no security and no forethought is pretty typical.
My question is, weren't you on the council when the city seized the property or at least when the battle for the property was underway?
Did you bring up this issue at the time . . .
How do you know it was thieves per say? I see City employees going in the junk yard on weekends in their own vehicles.Someone with connections could of had permission to strip the copper.
11:52,
No, I was not on the Council at that time. The entire issue of whether the city should seize the property came up shortly after I left the Council.
two weeks ago I road down Broadway and all the doors were missing. that lasted at least through the weekend.
The longer that building stands, the more opportunities exist for illicit activities and general mayhem to take place there. Apparently no one is in charge. Is the city insured if some vagrant or trespasser gets hurt there? Is it insured if a fire destroys the building and damages nearby properties? The mayor and city council will be crying and pointing fingers if something terrible happens, but the question is, what are they doing now?
What's laughable is Saltzmann didn't know the building had copper piping until recently. Are you kidding me? A building that old is going to have plastic plumbing and he is the point man handing out code violations and doing inspections of buildings? We are so doomed.
The problem here is that with the retirement of Mathews from the police department, there is no security anywhere.
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