City commission addresses dilapidated properties

The owners of three “unsafe and dangerous” structures in Holton have been given a directive by the Holton City Commission: repair those structures or tear them down.

During the commission’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, commissioners approved three resolutions involving dilapidated properties within the city, with the intent of getting the owners of those properties to take action. The owners of all three properties were requested to appear at public hearings in February to outline their plans of action — or explain the lack thereof.

All three structures “provide a general blight upon the neighborhood and surrounding properties, and the structure is considered dangerous per City Code,” according to descriptions of each property provided to commissioners by Kerwin McKee, assistant city manager and codes enforcement officer. Commissioners were also provided with photos of each property.

“I think it’s good that we’re doing this,” Holton Mayor Robert Dieckmann said of the resolutions seeking action on properties owned in the city by Virginia L. Purvis, Mary Lou Benander and John D. Zibell.

Commissioners agreed with Dieckmann’s assessment, with both Erich Campbell and Tim Morris saying that the resolutions were “a step in the right direction” in cleaning up dilapidated properties in the city. Public notices on the resolutions appear inside this edition of The Holton Recorder.

The Purvis property, located in the 600 block of New York Avenue, is a garage with, according to the complaint against the property, a roof in dilapidated condition, some missing siding, dilapidated or missing windows, debris spread around the structure and overgrown vegetation, commissioners noted.

The second property, which lists Hoyt resident Benander as primary owner along with William and Lisa Simmons, is a residential structure located in the 700 block of New Jersey Avenue. The structure has had major fire damage, its roof has been removed and debris is spread around the yard, according to the complaint against the property.

Commissioners heard a comment from Holton resident Willy Wilson that this particular property would likely be kept intact despite the fire damage so that Holton firefighters could use it for practice. However, Campbell said that was unlikely due to EPA regulations on fire-damaged structures, and McKee added that liability issues would prevent its use by firefighters for practice as well.

The third property, located in the 1000 block of Kansas Avenue, lists John and Sarah Zibell as the primary owners. The complaint against the property stated that its foundation is in dilapidated condition, the basement has no door and is not secure, its front door is held shut with rope, debris is spread around the yard, the porch floor has been removed and never replaced and there is no water or sewer service to the property.

After hearing brief descriptions on each property from Holton City Manager Bret Bauer, along with notice that public hearings on all three properties would be held during the commission’s Feb. 16 meeting, commissioners approved each resolution unanimously. Following the public hearings, Bauer said, commissioners may take action on each property, whether such action involves the property owner or not.

Each property owner will have the opportunity to address the commission at that time with plans for repair or demolition of their properties in “a reasonable amount of time,” Bauer said. He also reminded commissioners that if the owner of a property does not pay for repair or demolition, the city can order demolition of the property and attach the cost of demolition to the owner’s property tax bill.

In other business on Monday, Bauer updated commissioners on a series of power outages and “blinks” that occurred over the weekend in the Holton area, due mainly to a damaged insulator somewhere between Westar Energy’s Circleville substation and Holton. The outages culminated early Sunday morning with a blackout over the area, and Holton’s city generators ran for “just under an hour” while Westar repaired the insulator.

The “blinks” on Saturday might have been indicated by “a loose connection to an insulator,” Bauer said, and high winds early Sunday “finished it off.” Westar personnel could not find the problem on Saturday afternoon, but had trouble finding it until the insulator blew out, he added.

Wilson asked commissioners about the “blinks,” noting that such instances have the potential to “fry” the circuit boards of modern electronic appliances, such as refrigerators and televisions. If that happens, and the city’s power distribution system could possibly be proven at fault, commissioners noted the owners of those “fried” appliances could file a claim against the city. 

Commissioners also:

* Approved minutes from their Dec. 7 meeting, as well as budget appropriations made since that meeting.

* Approved the final plat of Elk View Addition, a six-lot subdivision located east of P Road on West Sixth Street. BFD Inc. is developing the subdivision, which covers about 6.5 acres of land.

* Approved annual renewals of cereal malt beverage licenses for Your Place or Mine Catering, Off the Square Grill, Ron’s IGA, Holton Country Mart, K&N Pizza Hut, Haag Oil Company-Holton 66, both Casey’s General Store locations in Holton, Walmart, Trails Café and Catering and 7-Eleven.

* Approved renewal of a retail liquor sales license for Arcada Liquor.

* Scheduled the commission’s year-end meeting for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31.

* Were reminded by Bauer that their second meetings of the month for January and February were moved to Tuesdays due to the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday observance in January and Presidents Day in February. The commission regularly meets on the first and third Mondays of every month.

* Were informed by Campbell that he would resign his commission position at the end of January to accept the Kansas Second Judicial District magistrate judge’s position in Pottawatomie County.

* Heard a comment from Commissioner Dan Brenner reflecting on the commission’s actions of the past year, stating that he was “proud of our accomplishments” and grateful to the citizens of Holton “for trusting in us.”

* Heard a request from Dieckmann to hold a “pre-evaluation” meeting with Bauer in the future to discuss the city manager’s job performance.

* Met in executive session for 10 minutes to discuss non-elected personnel matters with Bauer, McKee and City Clerk Teresa Riley present. No action resulted from the session.

* Met in executive session for 10 minutes to discuss land acquisition with Bauer, McKee and Riley present. No action resulted from the session.

* Adjourned the meeting at 7:50 p.m.