City cracks down on dilapidated buildings

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

After years of frustration, Van Wert city officials, led by Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur, are putting legal pressure on owners to clean up neglected properties.

The mayor, along with City Engineering Supervisor Bill Lawson, City Law Director John Hatcher, and Van Wert City Council’s Health-Safety-Service Committee, led by First Ward Councilman John Marshall, have increased efforts to enforce city ordinances related to junk vehicles, dilapidated buildings, and overgrown weeds.

The mayor has said it is imperative to local economic development efforts, as well as the health and safety of local residents, to clean up substandard properties in the city. Some of the problems come from dealing with out-of-town owners of a number of city properties.

“Many of these people just don’t care, because they don’t live here and don’t have to see what the properties look like,” Mayor Mazur said.

In addition to reviewing current city legislation dealing with neglected properties, city officials are working harder to bring out-of-town building owners to justice.

More and more building owners are being taken to court and fined to make them accountable for properties that are not up to city standards.

A number of exceptionally dilapidated and unsafe properties are also being reviewed for possible condemnation and subsequent demolition as funds become available for that purpose.

In the past month or so, several properties have been cited into Van Wert Municipal Court for violations of city ordinances dealing with code violations.

In addition, the owners of four properties were recently fined in connection with code violations. Fines of $250 were levied on those owners, with $225 suspended if they correct problems such as removing a refrigerator from one backyard, and general cleanup of the properties. Another property owner pleaded not guilty, with a trial eventually being set in that case if no agreement is reached beforehand.

This week, a commercial property owner was also cited into Municipal Court for neglecting a property it owns in Van Wert.

Speedway Superamerica LLC, based in Findlay, is being cited for code violations at a former service station building located at 840 W. Main St. (with part of the property bounded by Sibley Street).

Hatcher filed an affidavit charging the company with failing to maintain the building, which is now in an unsafe condition, with the roof caving in, windows broken, and peeling and cracking paint.

Mayor Mazur said city officials have tried for some time to get Speedway to clean up the property, with no success, adding that a court action was the next step in the process.

The mayor said more action is likely against other property owners who have neglected and dilapidated buildings, if action isn’t taken soon to clean up those properties.