Elkhart residents are reminded of a fire last July every time they walk by the rubble at 612 S. Main St. Soon, they could be reminded by their taxes.
The city may be on the hook for $100,000 in cleanup costs due to the two buildings that are on either side of the rubble, according to the Elkhart Truth.
That’s because engineers are unsure of each building’s structural integrity. There’s concern that vibrations caused by machines cleaning up the rubble may crumble the outer walls of the Hardy’s Bar and AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist buildings that face the rubble.
The extra care that would be necessary to both clean up the rubble and preserve the other buildings means cleanup costs could be shot-up from about $40,000 to upwards of $100,000.
And the city is on the hook because the owner, Jim Wagner, can’t afford to cleanup his building’s mess himself, nor did he have insurance on the building when it burned.
Wagner could come up with the money to pay for the clean-up costs. If he can’t, the City of Elkhart could foreclose on the property, leaving taxpayers with the clean-up bill.
1 comment
Who owns a building and has no insurance on it? Sounds fishy to me! Why would the city get involved? None of their business. Hardy’s Bar and AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist should be the ones that deal with the current owner and get it taken care of.