Dangerous building not fully removed yet

WEST PARIS — Selectmen at their meeting December 13 discussed the status of a trailer at 69 Morse Hill Road that has been deemed a "dangerous building."

"They have torn it flat ... and have just thrown everything on the ground out there," said Selectman Wade Rainey, as well as in a dumpster that has been sitting on the property.

In November, the board of selectmen voted to have the uninhabited trailer removed from the property after town attorney Geoff Hole of Portland law firm Bernstein Shur issued a notice to the landowners.

White said for nearly a year he was told by the landowners, Erica Johnson and Richard Labay, Jr. that the building would be dismantled and removed from the property. Last Thursday, selectmen reported that, so far, the walls and other pieces of the mobile home have been removed from the frame.

White said he was advised by Hole that since the notice was served November 29, the owners have a 30-day period in which they can appeal it.

The 30 days are up on December 29, White said.

According to state law, if no appeal is filed, the town can have the building removed or abated and the expenses shall be paid by the landowner within 30 days of demand.

"I think we could still move in and clean it up, if it's not completely gone at the end of the 30 days," White said.

Rainey said in his opinion, even with the building demolished, the fact the pieces are in a pile on the property still creates "a hazard."

Under Maine state law, a dangerous building "is structurally unsafe; unstable; unsanitary; constitutes a fire hazard; is unsuitable or improper for the use or occupancy to which it is put; constitutes a hazard to health or safety because of inadequate maintenance, dilapidation, obsolescence or abandonment; or is otherwise dangerous to life or property."

Chairman Randy Jones said if the owners don't have the debris cleaned up by the end of the month, the town needs to seriously take action. "It's going to blow [around] everywhere and be a mess in the spring," he said.

Once the building is fully removed, the selectmen said they plan to place a lien against the property.