Staff writer Jackie Majerus reported:
Mayor Art Ward said the demolition of the historic home on Main Street last week was “highly unusual.”
Ward, who served seven consecutive terms as a city councilor before taking the oath as mayor on Monday, said he didn’t learn of the demolition, which took place Friday, until the next day.
“I was not aware of it,” said Ward on Saturday, “until this morning.”
Ward said the city-sanctioned teardown of Ken Karl’s house was the first time in 14 years of public service, Ward said, that the city had a building demolished that he didn’t know about in advance.
That made for a situation that Ward called “highly unusual.”
“I’m somewhat surprised that the building came down like that and word didn’t get out,” said Ward.
On Friday about 2:30 or 3 p.m., Ward said, he was in the mayor’s office, talking with outgoing Mayor William Stortz. He said Stortz never said anything about the demolition going on.
“He didn’t mention it,” said Ward.
City Councilor Frank Nicastro said he first heard about the demolition on Friday, while it was in progress.
Ward said he was aware of the situation with Karl, but didn’t know of plans to demolish the house.
“The city has been trying to work in conjunction with Mr. Karl,” said Ward. “There’s been very little progress.”
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
7 comments:
It couldn't have happened without someone authorizing it from the council or the Mayor's office.
Actually, I'm wondering if it had to have City Council approval before being demolished.
Stortz had no authorization to remove this house.
He was by far the worst Mayor in the City of Bristol. The absolute worst, and I sincerely hope that his regin of terror is over for the citizens of Bristol.
"Reign of terror" - I don't know who you are (thank god) but you are without question certifiable. Please move out of Bristol ASAP.
Only time will tell whether or not the now former Mayor Stortz was the worst mayor ever. I was never a big fan and he was clearly never a people person, but "reign of terror?" The man did what he thought was best and if anything he was the one terrorized. Whether you agree with his politics or not bricks through the man's windows at home are uncalled for. That's terrorism. Unless of course you are one of the city employees surfing porno sites. Then you should be concerned that you may lose your job for wasting taxpayer’s money on such nonsense. Hopefully our new Mayor Ward will continue the level of enforcement that Mayor Stortz began. We'll see.
The only one who could authorize razing of a building is the building inspector. The mayor or the council would not be able to do that. It was also condemned and Ken Karl admitted he ignored the letter. JUst goes to show you he never intended on doing anything with the place anyway.
If stortz got involved with the process more than he should have, you would have accussed him of micro-managing.
Word around city hall is that he kept of most department heads hair, including the building department.
But he did support him when necessary.
Strange that more answers haven't been reported.
Keep in mind that the original agreement, under Nicastro, was weak, maybe flawed, and the city did not have much to go on except condemnation for public safety purposes.
If the agreement was better thought out (shades of the mall purchase), maybe the city would have had more control over what was happening.
HOpefully we will learn in time.
Once a building is deemed a public hazard and condemned, it has to be
sealed up to prevent the possibility of injury or demolished. It's basically a matter of keeping trespassers out and limiting city liability No one on the city counsel need be notified or permission granted from city hall. That is why you have a building official working under the guidelines of state statues. Mr. Karl was given adequate notice and opportunity, and he choose to ignore and squander it.
Now we know from a new article that Stortz put a gag order on Morin.
Typical Stortz.
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