West Street Property Owner Nailed for Unpaid Fees

The house at 603 West 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 Gary Wagner $9,445 for violating the city's property maintenance code and the residential code of Ohio. The fees were delinquent as of February 2011.

Bridget Susel, acting head of , said the violation was that the structure was not safe and decent housing – and it met the definition of blight under the Ohio Revised Code,

“It was structurally unsound, a safety hazard and not fit for human habitation,” she explained.

The city got court-ordered control of the property solely for the purpose of demolition.

“The reason we did it that way is because then the costs associated with demolition could be assigned as a lien to the property owner," Susel said.

The house was demolished in late 2010/early 2011. The parcel it sat on remains empty.

Kasha Legeza contributed to this story.