Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com
Published - Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Village may finally knock down dilapidated home
A Bangor home may finally be razed after repairs and clean-up have failed to be completed.
An inspection report by Bangor village engineer Randy Sullivan has concluded that there has been minimal progress on a property at 1714 Commercial St. The property, which is adjacent to the VFW and owned by Robert Challet, has been the subject of legal proceedings between the village board and the county since last October.
At that time, the village board voted 6-1 to begin the official condemnation process. The 6-1 vote came despite the fact that Challet had retained an attorney who asked the board to reconsider condemnation because progress had been made.
 This property at 1714 Commercial St. in Bangor has been the subject of condemnation proceedings for much of this year and last year. Photo by Michael Martin |
Subsequently, the case went to La Crosse County Circuit Court, where a June 30 deadline was set to assess whether an adequate clean-up had been made. Sullivan recently made another inspection of the property and then passed his finding on to the lead attorney for the village, Rick Niemeier, who forwarded the report on to court authorities.
“Basically, there hasn’t been a lot of progress on it. There is still dilapidation as well as some safety issues,” Sullivan said.
The case is now in the hands of the circuit court. “The ruling will be made by Judge (Dale) Pasell,” said Dan Arndt of Arndt, Buswell and Thorn, the Sparta law firm that represents the village.
“(Pasell) now has the report saying that the situation has not improved, so he could rule that the property be razed. Of course any decision is at his discretion. He could extend the deadline or come up with some other creative solution, but I don’t think that’s likely at this point,” Arndt said.
As to how soon a resolution can be reached, Arndt said that depends on the actions of Challet and his attorney.
“If they dispute the findings of the building inspector then a hearing date would be set and we would have to go from there,” he said.
Challet was unable to be reached for comment for this story.
All stories copyright 2006 Coulee News and other attributed sources.