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McCook Gazette

City condemns four properties

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Lorri Sughroue

The city is cracking down on dilapidated houses and the McCook City Council Monday night accepted the McCook Health Board's recommendation to condemn three properties as unsafe and uninhabitable.

The owners of the vacant properties have been notified and now have five days to improve conditions, according to City Manager Kurt Fritsch. If the property is not improved by then, the city will go in and clean up the property, which may require demolition.

The city has $42,500 in the budget for demolition, with $17,000 of that carried forward from last year's budget.

Properties identified as unsafe or nuisance properties were those at 1306 West 12, owned by Bernard and Kathryn Weaver, 301 E. Second, owned by Alejandro and Rachel Blancas and 206 W. Seventh, owned by Terry Jessen of Scottsbluff.

All of the properties were inspected in November and owners have been repeatedly contacted to improve conditions to no avail, said Ike Brown, McCook City Police Chief and member of the Property Resolution Team. The PRT was formed in 2008 to investigate complaints from city staff and the public about severely neglected properties in the city.

Two other residences were also inspected, Brown said, at 511 E. Sixth and 1312 West 12. Both property owners have responded to requests from the PRT to clean up the residences and the residences were not recommended for nuisance abatement.

A woman who said she is a potential renter for the condemned property at 1306 W. 12 told the McCook City Council Monday night that she would like some time to clean up the property and believes the residence is suitable for living.

Brown and Fritsch disagreed. Brown said insect and rodent infestation were evident during the inspection in November and conditions inside the house required him to wear a mask. Fritsch told the council that the interior of the house was not safe and property owners have been contacted since spring to improve conditions and have not done so.

Fritsch also said he has been in contact with McCook public housing officials to provide a residence for the woman.

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  • The property at 301 East second is loaded with asbestos. How is the city going to dispose of this legally without breaking the budget on this house alone?

    -- Posted by Meshedup on Wed, Jan 21, 2009, at 9:27 PM

  • Took 25 years to get the property at 511 East 6th to comply. Why do they now want the run-down places upgraded?? Why don't they let them go like the one on east 6th street. Something isn't right here. The other property(s) are dealt with now. The other one was let go and nothing done to it for a long time. But, splash on some paint and it is OK and in compliance???

    No one else could get away with this. Don't really care if they cleaned it up. The city overlooked it for a long time while it was in dis-repair and let it go with just a coat of paint. I ask the city council who makes these decisions, "Why does this happen??", "Is someone playing favorites???"

    -- Posted by edbru on Sat, Jan 24, 2009, at 1:03 PM
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