Members of the Marshall County Unsafe Building Board were given an update on five new cases presented by County Building Inspector Chuck Garmon last week.
Dale and Zella Mangun Jr. own the property at 16710 18B Road in Culver. Garmon said this property has been on the list for a while and when he inspected it on January 10th there was a sheriff’s sale notice on the door. With some investigation, he was able to determine that the house was sold to someone from Illinois who purchased it sight unseen.
While the building inspector doesn’t know the intentions of the new owners, he did say that the home is repairable. One window is missing in the back of the home. His recommendation is the have the barn at the back of the property taken down.
The next home is 4454 West Shore Drive at Lake of the Woods. The property is owned by Robert and Martha Moynahan. Garmon said there is no electricity to the home, but the structure appears fine. He said someone at some point attempted to put plywood over the roof to cover some holes. The inside was described as cluttered with a lot of junk.
This is a lakefront property and Garmon noted that a couple of trees on the property are leaning over the neighbor’s back porch and that appears to be the only unsafe issue. He left a hang tag asking the property owner to contact him.
Amy Thieling owns the property at 12023 20B Road in Argos. A January 16th visit to the property found the yard severely overgrown yard and bushes but the home looks to have a fairly new roof on it. The broken windows have been boarded up from the inside and Garmon shut the open garage door. He does not believe this is an unsafe property.
The county is looking for the owner who has moved and will ask her to do some cleanup around the exterior of the home. It was noted that the electricity is active in the home.
The fourth home on the county’s unsafe list is 840 Center Street in Walkerton and the deeded owners are 840 Center Street Land Trust in Indianapolis.
Garmon said there is a for sale sign in the yard, but he hasn’t been able to contact anyone. He said there are holes in the house, and he wants to speak with the owners to determine their intentions. There are holes in the house that allow varmints in and a couple of windows have been broken out. The County Building Inspector said if the owner plans to keep the for sale sign in the yard until someone buys it he would push for a demo of it.
The final new case is 5390 King Road in Plymouth, a property owned by Bank of New York Mellon. Garmon said this property and home are scattered with debris and junk. There is no electricity in the home and broken windows are allowing weather into the structure.
The mortgage company makes the decisions, but the bank owns it in New Jersey. Garmon said if they would board up the windows and fix the overhang in the back of the structure, he doesn’t believe it would be an unsafe structure.
The three accessory structures on the property are in good shape but the struggle will be dealing with the bank and mortgage company. Garmon said he’s not sure they know the condition of the property.
