Bourbon Town Attorney, Alex Hoover updated members of the Bourbon Town Council on several unsafe buildings.
He said letters were sent to Delbert Schetzel and Dale Jackson for the property at 408 East Liberty Street, to Chris Konkle for 201 Quad Street, and to M.C. Investments or Clifford and Jane McVickers of Culver for the property 122 North Main Street in Bourbon. The attorney said he filed petitions for abatement at the addresses with the initial hearing before Judge Palmer in Circuit Court yet this month.
The attorney said Mr. Schetzel had contacted him and said he was still working inside but he has refused to allow Chuck DeWitt from the town’s building department to visit the site.
Council member Les McFarland asked about the properties of Karen Holm’s. Hoover said she has hired another new attorney and they haven’t been able to coordinate a date for DeWitt to look at the progress. The Town of Bourbon has been dealing with these properties for a few years and continues to have issues on a regular basis.
Councilman Terry Clemens asked, “When do we get to a point that we just settle these things?”
McFarland said it has become a pattern of history. She gets an attorney, and he delays action to allow him to get up to speed then the next thing the town knows is she has another attorney.
Attorney Hoover said they can’t determine if she is in violation because they haven’t been allowed to conduct an inspection yet. He said she has signed a settlement with the town, so it is tentatively already settled and is enforceable. He said they need to be allowed to go out and see if she is in compliance and if she isn’t the town can file an action with the Circuit Court. Hoover said he anticipates getting a date to see the properties in the next two to three weeks and report back to the Bourbon Town Council at their next meeting with additional information.
Town Clerk Kim Berger asked Attorney Hoover a question from the Board of Zoning Appeals. They wondered if the Suzanne Afolabi hearing that was put on hold in March was ever handled.
Mr. Hoover said he believed Afolabi was continuing to work on being compliant with the home that was to be up and running last month. He said they could continue but there are some legal issues with the town’s ordinance that would be problematic if he tries to push the issue. He recommended reaching out to Afolabi’s attorney and seeing if the town can check on her progress.
Hoover clarified the two legal issues, one being, that there are two places in the town’s ordinance about the membership of the Board of Zoning Appeals that are at odds with each other, and the second issue is a conflict issue.
