Hearing officer Thomas Earhart placed a demolition order for the property at 731 W. Market St., Warsaw, at a code hearing on Tuesday, July 25. InkFreeNews photo by Brianna Pitts.

By Brianna Pitts
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — A demolition order has been placed on a Warsaw property.

After dealing with the property, located at 731 W. Market St., on and off since 2018, Hearing Officer Thomas Earhart officially placed a demolition order on the property during a July 25 code hearing. This was at the recommendations of Building Officer Rob Hurford and Code Enforcement Inspector Dana Hewitt.

Hewitt and Hurford acquired an inspection warrant to enter the property on Thursday, June 22. During this inspection, they discovered 11 interior code violations of both the city and state as well as six exterior code violations. Following this, they deemed it an unsafe property and posted a notice, telling the tenant to vacate the premises by Friday, July 7. The tenant has ignored this notice and is still living there.

The property’s owner, Judith Brown, has an eviction hearing scheduled through the Kosciusko County courts on Friday, Aug. 4. Brown assured Earhart she is not going to sell the building to the current tenant, and had another potential buyer, Ben Haab. However, Hewitt and Hurford both voiced their dissatisfaction with this action, expressing it is not enough at this point, both recommending a demolition order.

Hurford asked how much Brown thought the property was worth at this point, to which she responded $30,000. Hurford disagreed, saying he thought the price was a little high considering someone would have to invest $50,000 to $70,000 to bring the property up to code.

Earhart deemed the property unsafe and ordered the property to be demolished, unless a purchase of the property occurs.

Other business addressed at the code hearing included the Wise property at 707 E. Center St., Warsaw. Owner John Wise claims to have solicited several contractors for the project of removing concrete steps in front of the house. However, he said he was turned away by many who said it was too small a project. There was one man who said he would do it at the end of July, but he has not shown up yet, according to Wise. Earhart told Wise he needs to have that project done by the Aug. 29 hearing, or else fines will incur.

Another property brought forward at the hearing was an update for 1340 Gable Drive, Warsaw. Hurford said he was finally able to get in contact with the USDA about the property and they have started the process of foreclosing the house. The USDA came to the property and mowed, put a tarp over the roof and boarded up the broken window to ensure it was secure.

Properties requiring progress before the next code hearing include:

• Little Crow Lofts, which has received only one bid for its renovation project. The property owners were encouraged by Earhart to continue seeking more potential contractors.
• Shafer Rentals, which has made progress on both properties at 1376 S. Wassau St. and 1017 E. Fort Wayne St. Earhart told the owner, Sherri Makinson, to continue the renovations.
• A property at 3521 Lake City Drive, with its owners devising an efficient plan to renovate the house. Raj Patel said they have divided the house up into five sections and will complete them one at a time. The first section is almost ready for the drywall step, which satisfied Hurford when he performed a walk-through the morning of Tuesday, July 25. This project has a timeline to be finished by the end of December.