4E, Order to Remove Hazardous Building & Contents

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. . . ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL - JUNE 26, 2006 4 decided to put o'n a totally new roof. I set out to find carpenters. I hired two carpenters after receiving an excellent reference for them from the Perkins Restaurant Manager. I then went to the Arden Hills Village office, requested and received a building permit to put on a new roof The carpenters then went to the Village office, requested, and received instructions to put on the roof exactly to the Village requirements. The carpenters spent 3 days putting on the new root: and a 4t11 day working on tIle outside of the building. There were no openings, no loose boards, - the building is not sagging, or leaning, even though 4 days were spent on the building, the building inspector did not come out in' all that time, and when I called the Village office for inspection, the inspector came out, but would not go up to look at the roof. He wrote a letter saying that he did not have a way to get on the roof, and he then mailed a new listing of complaints against me that were false. I paid $2,000.00 to the carpenter for their work, which was totally satisfactory to my son and myself. Not until all of the work was completed on the building was I told that the building was unsafe and had to be taken down. It makes no sense to say that the building is unsafe. The carpenters weighed a total of 450 lbs., and spent 3 days on the roof: The neighbor on the south side came to us twice, to assure us that he had not com.plained about the building. I called Lowell Anderson on the north side, and he said "absolutely not" to n1Y qllestion of whether he had a complaint against the building. He then wrote and mailed a letter to Mayor Aplikowski, expressing his feelings of what the Village was doing to me~ Mrs~ Aplikowski can show you that letter~ My husband has passed away; I'm alone, in poor health, and bedridden mllch of the time. My son Marlin lives 50 miles away, and in the short time that he can be here, he is trying to empty our building. I have said over and over again that when we sell the property, the first thing the new owners will do is to take down the storage building to make way for their new home. There is absolutely no sense in taking that building away from nle~ There are so many people staying in touch with me about this. I'm in close contact with a well kn.own building inspector from Minneapolis, and with an attorney recommended to me. Mrs. Martin Stenberg Mr. Filla stated in 2004 the City filed a citation in Criminal Court, which took an inordinate amount of time to resolve. He noted Mrs. Stenberg had pled guilty to tile charges with conditions, but failed to sign the conditions and was therefore appearing before the judge again in the near future. He stated he did not believe the City could have done anything else to work with the property owner. He indicated this had been a six-year process and the property has n.ot been cleaned up during. this time period. Mayor Aplikowski stated she had looked at the property about a year ago and had requested Mrs. Stenberg remove the. fence, which she had refused to do. She stated she had also offered to remove all of Mrs. Stenberg's personal property and take it to her, which she also refused. She believed this was an unsafe condition and she did not understand why Mrs. Stenberg was so resistant to accepting help.