The vacant lot at 603 E. Main St., Warsaw, owned by Associates Financial Services Co. has been donated to Habitat for Humanity.

The property has been for sale for two years and Century 21 has been unable to sell it. David Blackwell of Century 21 suggested donating it to Habitat for Humanity, to which AFSC agreed.

Habitat will pay the approximately $600 in back taxes in return for the donation, and The Salvation Army offered to build a house on it. "It's a done deal," said building inspector and assistant building commissioner Pam Kennedy. "I have never seen this in Warsaw before. Nobody's ever donated a lot."

In other business:

• John Call, owner of Glen Terrace Apartments on Walter Way, did not attend the hearing Monday as scheduled by the building department.

Glen Terrace Apartments were condemned June 21 by the city due to lack of fire separation between units.

Call submitted plans July 12 for a building permit for work to correct the fire separation violation. The plans called for two proposals: dry walling the ceilings and floor work on all five buildings.

The dry walling was approved by the committee, but the floor work was not. "Work on the floor is not according to present uniform building codes and is not acceptable," said building commissioner Gene Oliver. The plan submitted by Call would be acceptable if the broken concrete floors were replaced with plywood, Oliver said.

Hearing officer Larry Clifford affirmed an order of completion for each building, with a civil penalty of $1,000, to be postponed if the work is completed within 60 days.

• Michael Wright, owner of 704 W. Market St., has 15 code violations, nine interior and six exterior. Clifford ruled that three items must be completed by July 31: the water heater and electrical entrance need to be relocated, and a smoke detector installed.

Clifford was concerned about the possibility of a fire in the house. "You're on a saving-lives campaign," he told Wright.

The remaining violations, including tearing down the rear portion, are to be taken care of by Sept. 18. A civil penalty of $1,000 was imposed but postponed until Sept. 18 if the violations are fixed.

• Leonard Bloom, of 520 N. Grant St., said he made all repairs on the code violations of his property, which was inspected Friday. Clifford, however, is concerned about a dip in the roof. He ordered an inspection at 3 p.m. after the hearing Monday for the water heater and garage roof and imposed a civil penalty of $250 to be postponed until July 31.

• Pat Cook, of 505 Oldfather St., has been in violation of city code since April 25. She has five violations but said one is completed and is working on the other four.

Cook owns two lots and wants to demolish the building with violations and buy a modular house for the other property.

Clifford said she needs to discuss these plans with the planning department and, in the meantime, imposed a $500 civil penalty to be postponed until July 31 if the violations are corrected.

• Tom Buskirk, who owns the property at 427 S. Union St., was in complete compliance and fixed all his violations.

• Tim Bell, of 716 W. Center St., was inspected in November and took care of three of the six violations on his property. The other three were to be completed in 30 days. The building department hasn't heard from him since. Clifford imposed a civil penalty of $1,000, effective immediately. [[In-content Ad]]