Frozen lines heat up safety issue

One of the places in town that froze in the last storm was the senior center north of town hall on Big Horn Avenue. Public Works Director Cory Allison reported at Monday night’s meeting that to lay a meter pit and thaw the line will cost the town approximately $3000.

Herein lies the problem with investing any money into that area, according to Councilman Owen Mathews: “There is a lot of concern about that building so to put anything into it is, I think, a waste of the town’s money.”

All of the old buildings between town hall and the post office, including the center, are in a condition warranting condemnation with notable disintegration of the structural integrity. A decision to make such an investment, according to the council, is not practical.

This situation, in fact, brings to the fore two distinct problems the town has tabled for the past few years.

The first is the center in its current location. The town owns the edifice and is well aware that the structure is not sound.

As the building’s integrity becomes ever more compromised, the seniors have been repeatedly offered the option of moving to the MTC cafeteria. “They didn’t take us up on it,” said Mayor Dick Claar.

This offer is open now without obligation until the renovation of their purchased building on South Big Horn is completed.

The realization of this option is ever becoming more a necessity as the current structure proves ever more unsafe and the town considers condemning these storefronts.

“Several years ago,” said Councilman Owen Mathews, “when they were losing the senior meals, we did some exploring of that building because they wanted to put $70,000 in to the kitchen and at that time you could see out from under it.”

This question of safety and condemnation is the other issue. According to Allison, the building to the north of the council chambers “is leaning clear over, it’s got the gas meter pried over.”

Claar advocated moving the seniors from the third storefront for safety, “Then we can condemn all three of those.”

To actually condemn the structures, though, involves a legal process beginning with adopting the Uniform Act, cataloguing the proof of structural failure and ascertaining expert opinion from a building inspector among other points.

The council has chosen to precede the process by taking pictures of the buildings and sending a letter of simple request written by town attorney Jim Peck to First National Bank in Gillette, who owns the storefronts immediately south of the town-owned center. The letter will make the bank aware of the condition of the property and the need to have the property razed.

“I think we need to move forward with it, that building’s only getting worse. It’s only a matter of time before it comes through our building, it is actively moving,” advised Mathews.

At this point, the governing body is willing to negotiate with the bank on the disposal of the waste if First National will clean the site themselves. Peck suggested that the bank may be willing to simply deed the buildings to the town, “Just to get rid of them because, right now, they are a liability.”