The Hamlet Zoning Board has given the owners of 503 South Starke Street 30 days to either demolish the house or sell it. The structure has been cited for unsafe building violations, but town officials say it still hasn’t been brought into compliance.
During a hearing at Wednesday’s meeting, owner Rachelle Foust said that they’ve been making progress, but her husband’s health issues and now the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it hard to get the work done quickly. “We’ve put a roof on there,” she said. “We have turned around, we’ve got the bathroom where it’s almost done, the back room where it’s almost done. We put in the pipe work to go to the town. I only have so much money to work with.”
Board President Dave Kesvormas said that while he wants to be flexible with the owners, he was concerned that the required repairs may be a little too much for them. “I’m willing to work, but I mean, it’s kind of like I almost feel like, personally, I’m being taken advantage of – or your bad luck gets in the way or Bob’s bad luck’s in the way, you know. I’ve got other properties in town that we’ve really got to address, and it really doesn’t give me any traction to deal with them, when I’ve allowed this to go on,” Kesvormas said.
In the end, the board decided to modify the demolition order to give the owners the option to sell the property, to possibly recoup some of their money. But Foust said she’d been hesitant to sell, since the offers so far have been less than what they originally paid. Board Member Brian Earnest abstained from the board’s decision.
If the owners fail to comply with the order, the town council may impose a fine of up to $5,000 and pursue legal action to cover the cost of the structure’s removal.
