It's Fourth And Long For The End Zone
Council's Patience Ends; Further Demolition Delays Rejected
After a testy City Council officially vented its frustration over repeated delays, a specific demolition date has finally been set for abandoned motel buildings near the onetime End Zone Bar and Grill on Highway 61.
According to a contract between owners Alex and Zina Minich with the Blaine-based Griffin Contracting Company, the two-day demo will begin on Monday, October 9, more than two months after the dilapidated structures were declared a public nuisance by Hugo City Hall.
City Administrator Mike Ericson confirmed in a September 26 interview that the city has also contacted six area demolition firms to step in if the October 9 start does not occur.
That would be in keeping with a formal "abatement order" approved by the City Council September 18 after the Minichs requested, but were denied, another in a series of demolition delays.
"So this is good news," Ericson said of the Griffin contract and timetable. "From our point of view, anyway, it's finally all set to go."
City Hall's original nuisance declaration, issued July 19, had called for the Minichs to clean up garbage and debris, and repair broken doors and windows on the property by July 28.
But after the Minichs' request for a controlled-burn fire department training demolition was turned down, the Minichs said they would instead hire a contractor themselves to tear the buildings down.
The council then set a September 5 demolition deadline after the Minichs cited lengthy time horizons in obtaining required permits and finding a demolition contractor.
The council later extended the deadline to September 22 after the Minichs cited further delays - this time in obtaining the results of a required environmental assessment report.
The Minichs' son, Len Minich, however, said at the council's September 18 meeting that still another delay was likely, although he remained hopeful that the project could still be completed by "early" in the week of September 25-29.
"We're still a couple days behind," Minich said, adding that as of the council meeting, he had not yet signed a contract with the contractor with whom he had been working. The company also might have to change its work schedule in the wake of recent tornadoes in the area, Minich told the council.
"So staff obviously has become concerned about the Minichs' ability to complete the project by (September 22)," Community Development Director Bryan Bear said at the council meeting.
The council, however, was in no mood to postpone the demolition again.
"We need to get this done," said an obviously frustrated Council Member Mike Granger. "There are health hazards out there."
Added Mayor Fran Miron of the project, which involves two ramshackle abandoned motel buildings and an old house at 13897 Forest Blvd., "We need to move forward on this. And at our last meeting, I think we were fairly generous in our timetable."
The council then voted unanimously to issue the abatement order, which gave the city the option of hiring its own contractor for the project if the buildings were still standing on September 22.
If it had been invoked at that time, the abatement order likely would have meant much higher demolition costs that the Minichs would have been ordered to pay, noted City Attorney Dave Snyder.
"If it's necessary for the city to go ahead with this, we're not going to necessarily deal with economics; we'll just want to get the best contractor," Snyder told Len Minich at the council meeting.
Snyder also warned that under the abatement order, the Minichs would have been given no advance notice if the city had deemed it necessary to hire its own demolition contractor to finish the project.