Silver Lake Council Questions Safety of School Building
Posted
Craig Brosman-
SILVER LAKE – After last month’s Silver Lake Town Council meeting, the council decided they needed to look deeper into the condition of the old Silver Lake school building.
At a special meeting of the Silver Lake Town Council Friday at 6 p.m., the council, along with a few citizens, discussed the safety hazards that the building poses to the community.
Silver Lake Partners LLC, the owner of the building, was invited to the meeting but did not attend.
Silver Lake Town Council member Chad Miner noticed that many of the windows at the old school were broken.
“I went over there Friday afternoon,” Miner said. “The windows had been boarded up, but I am not sure how well they were covered.”
After discussing the matter, the council agreed that there was very little they could do about the property as outlined in the city ordinances.
“We do not own the property,” said Phil Shalley. “We are very limited in what we can do, since the town does not own the property.”
Miner agreed with Shalley’s outlook on the property.
“Right now we need to take a closer look at how well the windows were boarded up,” Miner said. “We also need to stop mowing the lawn for the owner of the building. City employees have been mowing the lawn since the owner has not done so.”
“The town should not be doing things for the building and the property that the owner can do,” Miner said. “It is not the town’s responsibility to maintain the property.”
At this point the town will continue to look at the property and make sure that the property meets all of the codes for the lawn maintenance and unsafe building ordinances.
“This really has to do with health and safety,” Miner said. “The school is in a residential area.”
Some of the residents brought up the fact that the school has a lot of bats and they were concerned over the fact that the building was full of them.
Council member Gale Owens said that even when the building was in use there were a lot of bats in the building.
After the meeting the council agreed that the town needs to continue to monitor the health and safety concerns of the building, as well as the building staying within code for the city ordinances.
