Process to raze home moves along

By Dave Fidlin

Correspondent

There have a few snags along the way, but village officials recently emphasized the planned demolition of a severely deteriorated home is moving forward.

In early November, the Waterford Village Board ruled the home in question, located at 418 Fox Isle Park Drive, was beyond repair after years of not receiving maintenance and upkeep. Surrounding property owners implored the board to take swift action and have the home and accessory garage removed.

Initially, the village was going to go through the legal process and incur upfront demolition costs to have the structures removed. But a representative of the former resident’s estate said he would be willing to oversee the process with funds in the estate.

The village set a Dec. 31 deadline for the raze order, but officials have frequently extended the timeline since there has been a spirit of cooperation between an estate representative.

Giving an update to the Village Board on Feb. 8, Village Attorney Marcy Hasenstab acknowledged, “(The demolition) has hit a few snags. But they’re still moving forward on it. They’re going to be proceeding.”

Hasenstab, who has been in contact with a representative of the estate, said the family member has had difficulty accessing the funds to proceed with the demolition work.

“He wants to make sure he has all of his ducks in a row first,” Hasenstab said.

From a legal perspective, Hasenstab said the village could move forward and raze the property itself, but she continued to recommend the wait-and-see approach since it would save the village the trouble of an upfront cost.

In late October, the village’s building inspector, Martin Montoya, toured the property and compiled a lengthy list of code violations, which eventually led officials to issue the raze order.

In November, Village President Tom Roanhouse said he favored moving forward with the raze order and is optimistic it will lead to long-term viability on what has been a long-dormant property.

“By going ahead with (the raze order), we won’t have an eyesore, rodent-infested, stinky house,” Roanhouse said. “This is a riverfront property. I’m confident it will be sold at some point.”