The fate of the residence at 710 North St. will depend on a public hearing scheduled for Monday, Oct. 15 after Iola council members unanimously approved a motion to give its owners or other interested parties a chance to prove why the structure should not be condemned. The action comes at the request of Iola Municipal Court Judge Patti Boyd, who directed Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Hutton to begin the process of condemning the property.
“The code office has issued 34 code violations on this property since 2017,” Hutton told the council Monday evening. “It has continually gotten worse.” Some of the violations, according to Hutton, have stretched out over months. City Administrator Matt Rehder was succinct: “A good way to describe it is that this is the same violation 34 times.”
Hutton has served as code enforcement officer since 2017. In that span of time, “we’ve never had a property owner or property where we continually have to write up violations and citations,” said Hutton. “The court costs that have been piling up on this property, it just blows me away.”
City Clerk Roxanne Hutton confirmed the home is inhabited and has working utilities. “I plan on going to the judge this week,” furthered Gregg Hutton. Judge Boyd “gave me a court order to start this process, and I’m going to ask her for a court order to inspect the inside of the house. I have not actually physically been inside the house,” said Hutton.
Hutton’s inspection of the home’s interior, he said, will be key in his decision. Hutton noted he prefers avoiding demolition whenever possible, but if the inside of the home is beyond repair, Hutton’s hands are effectively tied. In fact, Hutton said, if conditions at the residence are unsanitary and unsafe, he may be forced to place placards prohibing occupancy. “I have done that to three homes since I’ve had this job,” Hutton told the Register. “I’m not the sanitary police. This only occurs when the conditions truly warrant it.”
At Monday’s meeting, council member Joelle Shallah asked if there has been any attempt to address any of the violations. “What’s the saying?” replied Hutton. “Two steps forward, five steps back.”
Owners of the property can address the code violations before the Oct. 15 public hearing, but the hearing has only two possible outcomes: either significant progress in cleaning up the property has been made, or Hutton will ask the city council to condemn the property.
