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. 1 9-25-96 To: City Council and Planning and Zoning Committees of Centerville. From: Donald Opp, owner of apartment building 7124 Progress Road. I once heard it said that "the world should be a better place because a man has lived." I believe Centerville is a better place because of my involvement in it. , Now I have heard a city official imply that I am only interested in the charge of the assessments as it applied to me. I was definite- ly concerned about what the assessments would cost me, but I was also interested and concerned about the cost to others and tried to help others such as Anita Underwood, to be able to express their views as well. I would like to share with you some background concerning the apartment building on Progress Road and how I have worked to improve it and thereby have benefited the city. I bought the old creamery in 1980. (To the best of my knowledge, the original building was built in the 1870s.) The city had decided to start condemnation proceedings before I purchased the building. The state fire marshal, Bob Imholte, contacted me after I signed the purchase agree- ment. I told him I wanted to know the intent of the city and his office regarding the building; if their intent was to condemn the building, I wanted to know this before I purchased it. Bob assured me that his office and the city were willing to work with the new owner. He felt it would be a benefit to the city to save on the cost of condemnation proceedings, including relocating the tenants of the building. But he informed me there would be a number of required repairs and improvements to prevent the condemnation. I later met with Bob, Gunnar Pederson (the building inspector), and the local fire chief. I received eleven single spaced typewritten pages of major improvements to be done. It included major wiring, and adding an additional exit. The fire chief told me he had told his firemen that if there was ever a fire in the building, to evacuate it and let it bum, because there was a large cement holding tank on second floor that could collapse and it would be too dangerous to go in to fight the fire. The yard looked like a junk yard and a dump ground. There were at least seven junk cars sitting around the building. Some were missing wheels, hoods, and engines. The downstairs halls were obstructed with auto parts, (engines etc.) piled 4 to 5 feet high, leaving only a 2 foot walk space. There were animal feces in every hallway and in some of the apartments. The Realtor showing the building couldn't stand the stench and went outside during the showing. No wonder my wife said, "Don, whatever you do, don't buy this place!" - There were fist fights between tenants because one of them was allegedly selling drugs to another tenant's children. One tenant was badly beaten and hospitalized. One dayI had repairs to make in an apartment when the tenant was at work, and found a bag from Knox behind the refrigerator. I assumed it was a bag of supplies I had left there before. When I opened the bag, I found it was full of marijuana.