SUMMONSES ISSUED OVER RUN-DOWN HOUSES; CITY BRINGS ACTIONS FOR ALLEGEDLY FAILING TO MEET DEADLINES

The city of Cape Girardeau is taking two property owners to court for failing to meet deadlines for making their properties habitable.

In separate actions, the city attorney issued summonses Monday to Charles Garmon of Cairo, Ill., for a property at 136 S. Henderson and Dennis Singleton of 628 Olive St. for a property at 603 Walnut.

The city condemned both houses in 1995 in an effort to get the owners to make them livable, but neither has complied, said Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator for the city.

Neither is occupied. Neither owner could be reached for comment.

The house at 603 Walnut with blue painted siding sits on a visibly cracked foundation with plywood covering its front picture window. Slanted electrical boxes sit open on the house's front wall. Rotted boards support the overhang of the roof.

The freshly painted front has a shiny new doorknob and lock. Two windows on its west side look brand new.

Plants grow out of the gutters over the front porch of the house at 136 S. Henderson. Black garbage bags line the insides of all its windows. Otherwise, it looks intact.

Williams said that house sustained major interior damage from a fire in 1995. Both houses have serious problems with their electrical wiring, plumbing and heating, Williams said.

The owners have made some effort to repair them, but not enough to bring them up to standard, he said.

Williams said it is not unusual for the city to condemn a home. What is unusual is that the property owner will take so long to comply with an order to bring their houses up to code or tear them down once the city issues them summonses.

Both men, if convicted of violating the city's dangerous-buildings ordinance, face fines of from $30 to $500 a day for each day the building is in violation, according to the city code. In addition, the judge could order the city to tear the houses down and bill the owners.

The city enforces the dangerous buildings ordinance "to remove blight from the neighborhood," Williams said.

The ordinance lists 12 specific criteria for being in violation, 11 of which would mean the house is structurally unsound, a fire hazard, or dangerously unsanitary. The other one says a house is in violation if it is "so dilapidated, decayed, unsafe, unsanitary, or which so utterly fail to provide the amenities essential to decent living that they are unfit for human habitation, or are likely to cause sickness or disease..."