Once-unsightly lot’s future is bright
A site on Schirmeyer St. which had been an eyesore now has a brighter future while a home on W. Madison St. is once again being labeled a nuisance.
Builder Jerry Geimer’s $4,500 bid won him a lot at 710 Schirmeyer, the sale approved by the city’s board of works and safety at its recent meeting.
Geimer said he is going to combine it with two other lots he owns there and construct a pair of duplexes on the site.
He has already built a home in the area and sold it, city officials said.
The lot had been the site of a longtime dilapidated structure which the city condemned and took possession of, demolishing it last year, then putting the lot up for sale.
Appraisals of the property were done by McChesney Real Estate and Kruse Real Estate, with the city, by law, not allowed to sell the land for less than the average of the two appraisals.
Meanwhile, city Infrastructure Manager Josh Zimmerman told the city board that a home at 1620 W. Madison St., owned by Laurie Blythe, has once again become an eyesore.
He explained that some “significant progress” had been seen there after the owner attended a board of works meeting last year. Now, though, there has been “significant backward progress,” he added.
A check on the morning of the board meeting showed that nothing had changed. “So I guess the message hasn’t gotten through,” Zimmerman said.
Blythe had been told to attend the latest meeting but failed to do so.
The board decided to give Blythe two weeks to get a cleanup going and if there is no progress she will be fined $100 a day.
Building and Zoning Superintendent Curt Witte once again said that communication is the key when people are having problems such as this.
“If people will just keep lines of communications open, we will work with them,” he explained. He said his department is currently working with some building owners in order to prevent other nuisances.