During the March 26 meeting of the Knox Board of Works meeting, Director of Building, Planning and Code Compliance Lonnie Boley updated the board on a few properties with code violations.
The first being the property at 109 McGill Street.
“Chief Dulin and myself went out to 109 McGill Street for compliance check from last month,” Boley said. He passed pictures to the board members that showed what the condition of the property was like two days from prior to the meeting. He then passed out photos that the property owner had given Boley minutes prior to the meeting. “She must have went out there yesterday and cleaned it up.”
“But if you notice on those pictures that appears to be someone living in that shed and I have written up an order to vacate that shed that’s dated for today if the board approves that,” he said.
Board Member Jim Collins made the comment that the photos that the property owner differ as far as their point of view.
“She mentioned at the last meeting to give her two more weeks and I waited almost four whole weeks to take those pictures,” Boley said.
“Well, it looks like she has done some stuff,” Collins said after studying the photos. He asked what the next step would be.
“We could assess any amount of fine at this point, it’s already been in the newspaper. It’s already been notified; the invoices have already been made up. It was ready to go last month,” Boley said.
“She thinks she’s got it done, but this obviously shows that it’s not unless something mysteriously happened in the last two days, but I can just tell by looking at the angles of these pictures that they don’t show the same angles you do,” said Collins.
The property already had a $2,500 fine looming over it, but during last month’s meeting, the board had voted to grant the homeowner more time to get the property back into compliance.
When asked what his recommendation would be, Boley said that he would recommend assessing $1,000 and hold the remaining $1,500 of that original $2,500 fine until next month to see if the property is in compliance.
After some discussion, the board voted to issue the $1,000 fine and hold the remaining $1,500 until next meeting.
There was a public hearing for 307 W. Bender Street.
“I had a report from the police department. They were in there attempting to serve a warrant. It was out of state and unsafe property on Erica Howard,” Boley said. “A consent for inspection was sent to her in a jail to give the city consent to inspect the property. She did sign it. And with that there was multiple pictures on that.”
Boley said that Howard is still incarcerated but has named a power of attorney for her point of contact. He stated that they are putting the property up for sale. With the order to vacate still in effect, Boley said that as long as they contact him or the police, then they can clean up the property during 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. On Feb. 25, Boley had sent an email to NIPSCO requesting that the electric be turned off due to the water heater leaking during the inspection. The executor had asked Boley to have NIPSCO turn the power back on and Boley told the board that the power would be turned back on when he felt secure that the “house wouldn’t burn down.”
There was no one in attendance to speak on behalf of the property so the public hearing was closed. The board made a motion to table the matter until another time.
