City caving in

A Creston city block is at risk of collapsing and, for almost two years, no one has been sure of how to address the situation.

Larry Williams, who owns and resides in a remodeled second floor apartment, 114 N. Maple St., said he approached the city almost two years ago with safety concerns about the adjacent building, 118 and 120 N. Maple St., which has been deteriorating for more than a decade.

The building in question, which once housed De Carlo’s Hobby Shop and at least four tenants, has not only caved in on itself, but is now affecting the neighbors.

At approximately 4 a.m. Tuesday, Williams said he awoke to a noise of his building shifting. When Williams and his companion Betty Lynam investigated the noise, they discovered an opening in the wall at the top of the main stairwell. By Thursday, a large section of the wall had caved in.

Williams said the neighboring building had been a problem since he moved in five years ago and it’s been going downhill ever since. Because of how it has been affecting his building, the idea of leasing out the first floor storefront is out of the question because he is afraid of people getting hurt.

“We could not get property insurance on this building. We have liability, but you can’t get anyone to insure it on account of that building,” he said.

Abated

The deed of the nuisance property shows the owners as David Simcoke of Creston and Linda Knowles O’Boyle, who has been deceased since 2010.

Creston Fire Chief Todd Jackson said he served Simcoke an abatement notice in January 2017. In that notice, Jackson had to specify if the building was inhabitable or not, which he said could not be, because of safety concerns.

“From the outside it didn’t look bad,” said Jackson.

However, the interior was another story.

“There were tarps up all over, no electrical run back there, no stairwell … they had a ladder to go up to the second floor,” said Jackson. “So I went up the ladder to a small landing, then there was a second ladder, and that’s when I stopped and said, ‘How much further do we have to go?’”

Jackson also said the tenants had rigged together an elaborate plumbing system made of hoses, PVC pipes, plastic, buckets and a baby pool, which was used to catch water that leaked from the roof.

Jackson said he only made it a few feet into the second floor and was very concerned.

“I had never been in a place like that before,” said Jackson.

After an inspection with the city administrator, mayor and building inspector present, he told Simcoke and the other residents that they needed to evacuate immediately and cited multiple deficiencies, such as a collapsing roof and a collapsed second story.

“They vacated at that point and tried to turn it over to the city,” said Jackson. “But at that time, we weren’t in a position to take the property.”

‘I was helping a friend’

Deed holder David Simcoke, who goes by Rebecca De Carlo, said he neither purchased the building nor wanted the building. He was simply “helping a friend.”

According to De Carlo, Linda Knowles O’Boyle, who held the deed before her 2010 death, added De Carlo to the deed without his knowledge and it wasn’t until her death that he made that discovery.

“I didn’t even know she put my name on it,” said De Carlo. “I was all she had and she was all I had at that time.”

De Carlo, who owned and operated his retail business on the first floor, said the rapid deterioration of the building is due to rooftop vandalism and a tornado, but he has been working diligently to make repairs for a decade.

“We’ve been working on this building for 10 years. At some point you run out of funds and the heart to give a [expletive],” said De Carlo.

De Carlo said the decline of business added to his inability to salvage the building and he attempted to give it to the city of Creston.

“They can take it over whenever they want. I’ve been waiting. I’ve tried to get them to take it over a year ago,” said De Carlo.

De Carlo said he would make the repairs if he had the means to do so, but he doesn’t.

“I’m not going to do anything about it because I can’t do anything about it,” said De Carlo.

What can be done

Creston City Administrator Mike Taylor said the city was hesitant to acquire the building because he doesn’t know the extent of the project they are dealing with, and the project would probably fall into the laps of the taxpayers, because it has become a public safety concern.

“We went to court on it,” said Taylor. “The gentleman has not a dime to his name. He had no insurance.”

Taylor said Williams has the legal right to go after De Carlo, but he’s not going to get anything out of it.

Taylor said when the city first explored the option of acquiring the building, a “ballpark they were given was $420,000.”

The building is contaminated with asbestos, which requires special handling and significantly increases the cost of removal, as the materials have to be removed, wrapped and transported to Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines.

Taylor is also concerned that the project would grow in cost.

“No one has been able to tell us what might happen to the other buildings. Are they going to have to be braced in the future or are they just going to have to come down?” asked Taylor. “Where’s it ever going to stop? I mean, is it going to take every one of those buildings down, all the way to the corner? We don’t have any idea.”

To date, Taylor has explored a number of grant and loan options and now that it is collapsing neighboring buildings, feels it might be time to bring it up again before city council. He hopes to have a structural engineer on the council’s agenda this November.

Taylor doesn’t like that it has come to this, but without intervention, the problem will become more dangerous and the project will become more expensive. At this point, he believes it could cost near $1 million.

“There are a lot of what ifs,” said Taylor.

‘It’s horrible’

Taylor and Jackson feel it is unfair the city has to step in.

“The city can only do so much. This is one property. I don’t think there is anything as severe as this. I just don’t know at what point the city discontinues maintaining streets and sewer systems and everything else and just starts tearing down old buildings uptown,” said Jackson.

Jackson said the price tag of removing a large commercial building rivals that of improving the street of a city block.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Jackson. “People can inhabit a structure for so many years and then say, ‘I’m done, here city, you take care of this.’ Then the city is stuck with a half million dollar price tag to tear these places down.”

Jackson said this situation is not unique to Creston.

“This is downtown USA. Not only Iowa, but across the country. But who’s going to take care of it?” asked Jackson.

Jackson said the building could be a risk if it remains untouched.

“Personally, I see it as imploding. I see it as it will crumple down into a pile,” said Jackson.

Jackson echoed Taylor’s thoughts and is concerned that the neighboring buildings will need to come down as well.

“It’s like, where do you stop? It’s almost a whole block that needs to be removed. It’s horrible. Now we take that from a half million dollar price tag to a $2 million price tag,” said Jackson.

As the city picks up pace to address the nuisance property, Williams and Lynam are disappointed by the fact they have to move and by the amount of money they have lost from purchasing and remodeling their building.

“It’s a bad deal,” said Williams.

Creston City Council meets 6 p.m. the first and third Tuesday of the month on the second floor of the restored depot, 116 W. Adams St.