FeedsDeadline passes for Butler building
The deadline has apparently passed for the old Jamison Block building in the City of Wayne.
City inspectors entered the facility, owned by Grizel Butler and her husband, Floyd Andrews, earlier this week to prepare for the eventual demolition of the blue-boarded building.
City Engineer Ramzi El-Gharib said the consultants were inside Monday, trying to determine what kind of hazardous materials—-like asbestos—existed inside and how the city should go about abating the materials.
“(They) were done yesterday,” El-Gharib said. “Now I just have to wait for the report. It’ll probably be returned next week.”
The building, located next to the Village Pub and the Historic Wayne Theater, has been vacant for years. City officials cited it through the dangerous and blighted building ordinance, an enforcement tool that allows them to pressure landlords into cleaning up or tearing down long vacant buildings that pose a safety risk to the community.
The building owners had proposed a redevelopment project for the site, but eventually lost their case at Wayne County Circuit Court. A 28-day appeal period expired at the end of July and City Attorney Dick Clark filed for and received an administrative search warrant to allow inspectors inside the next day.
El-Gharib said the condition of the building inside was deplorable.
“There was a lot of water damage in there,” he said. “The floor was sagging and rotting from all the moisture. There were a couple of places where my foot just sank into the hardwood floor.
“There’s no way that building can be refurbished,” he added.
He said any asbestos would be removed first and the demolition would take place after that. He guessed the actual tear down wouldn’t take place until later this month.
Peter McInerney, community development director for the City of Wayne, said the empty spot where the building has long stood would be eminently noticeable.
“There’s vacancies all the time in malls, but they’re camouflaged,” he said. “In a downtown, it’s like your front tooth is out.”
El-Gharib said the empty site would still be an improvement over the old building. It could help attract development to the Historic Theater site, too, he added.
“It’s going to look a lot better than it does now,” he said.
Under the dangerous building ordinance, the city has the authority to demolish a structure that has gone through the citation and appeal process if the property owners don’t come up with a plan to fix it up and put the cost of demolition on the owner’s tax rolls. The property owner keeps the land, though.
“It’s still private property but the blight will be gone,” he said of the Butler building. “I’ve been here for six years and it’s been nothing but a topic of discussion.”
