Lake Street Property Owner Nailed for Unpaid Fines

The house at 234 Lake St. is one of owed the city that will be passed on to the county to be added to the property tax bill.

The city fined owner Brenda Richards $409 for non payment of the water and sewer utility bill for that property. The fees were delinquent as of February 2010.

Bridget Susel, acting head of , said the city has been working for nearly a year to secure court-ordered control of the property to demolish it through the Neighborhood Stabilization Grant program she administers.

The city was assigned control of 234 Lake St. on Oct. 28.

"Since that time, I have been working on the tasks needed for demolition. The property contained friable asbestos – duct wrap, some floor tiles, transite exterior siding – which needed to be removed prior to the structure being razed," Susel explained.

The asbestos remediation was completed in mid-December and the house will be demolished in the next two to four weeks.

Susel said the costs associated with the needed asbestos remediation were $8,111 and the cost of the pending demolition is $9,445.00.

"The costs will be certified over to the county to be assigned as tax liens on the parcel when the city puts through its second list of unpaid fines/fees at the end of 2012," she said.

Kasha Legeza contributed to this story.