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Council member shows progress on roof repairs to vacant property

Keith Vandervort
Posted 9/2/20

ELY – City Council members received good news this week on the progress of maintenance of a private property parcel owned by one of its own members. Council member Paul Kess and his wife, …

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Council member shows progress on roof repairs to vacant property

Posted

ELY – City Council members received good news this week on the progress of maintenance of a private property parcel owned by one of its own members.
Council member Paul Kess and his wife, Laurie, own an abandoned house at 106 E. Harvey Street that has steadily deteriorated over several years to the point where it was deemed a threat to public health and safety. An inspection conducted last September found that the condition of the two-story dwelling failed to meet the minimum requirements of city and state building codes.
Following a blistering report last month by the city’s building official on the lack of progress made to the dwelling despite a series of deadlines imposed to repair and improve the condition of the property, council members, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, gave Kess a 30-day window to begin improvements and show some progress on mitigating the blight.
At a council meeting last month Kess appeared disinterested in addressing the issue
“It doesn’t matter to me whether I comment on this or not,” he said. Ignoring that public forum to respond to the issue, Kess later charged that a local media representative did not give him a chance to “tell my side of the story.”
He told fellow council members in August that he “contacted well over a dozen roofing contractors” this year to begin work on the two-story structure. “The coronavirus slowed everything down,” he said, “It is difficult to promise a drop-dead date on someone else’s labor.”
With the heat turned up and perhaps realizing the gravity of the issue, Kess recently hired a roofing contractor and work on the house began last weekend.
Shingles are going on and the roof repairs are being made, according to Ely Building Official Doug Whitney as he described a series of photographs to the council Tuesday night.
“The biggest problem was the roof,” he said. “That was the issue that prompted the latest complaint. The contractor started Saturday and it looks like it could be completed by next week.”
Mayor Chuck Novak confirmed that Whitney was recommending that no action on the blight issue was currently needed and looked to quickly move on with the meeting agenda.
Kess finally spoke publicly on the issue.
“Over the years I have put substantial time and money into that house. It doesn’t show because it was new water and electrical service, a new chimney and all the preparation for it and different (interior) things. I hope that the council appreciates the time and commitment and the continuing time I’m putting into what I consider a historic house.”
Based on an earlier report from Whitney, the council adopted a resolution on Nov. 5, 2019, ordering several steps of remediation. While some of the blight conditions were corrected by a Jan. 1, 2020, deadline, another deadline passed last month for roof repairs.
Whitney described additional blight conditions that have surfaced this summer. Whitney said that the windows that were falling out last year were boarded over, but other windows on the dwelling are in disrepair. And loose siding on the house still exists.

Other business
In other action the council:
• Approved recommendations from the Cemetery Committee to update rules and regulations for the Ely Cemetery to include that all foundations and slabs for monuments must be approved by the city, all burials must be approved, only human remains are to be buried, and no stakes for ceremonial tents are to be installed on blacktop surfaces in the cemetery.
• Approved a recommendation from the Heritage Preservation Commission that the Community Center be put back on the market for sale with posting only in local media. Council member Angela Campbell, who had previously submitted an offer to purchase the property, abstained from voting on the issue.
• Approved a recommendation from the Sanitation Committee to accept proposals from both G-Men Environmental Services and Northern Routes Roll-Off for commercial waste disposal contracts.
• Approved city liquor license rebates from 2019, totaling about $16,000, and the purchase of a first responder vehicle, for about $38,000, under the federal CARES Act funding program.
• Rejected bids totaling almost $200,000 for the proposed pocket park on Chapman Street and will adjust the scope of the project.
• Approved mortgage satisfactions for Ryan and Michale Callen and Mary Lobe.
• Appointed Angela Campbell to the Planning and Zoning Committee.
• Approved the transfer of an off sale liquor license from Sara Burge to Joseph Hiller, the new owner of Wildlife Liquor.
• Accepted a report and presentation from Bradley Peterson of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities.