WESTBROOK – A house on Main Street, charred a year ago in a fire, needs to come down, according to Westbrook city councilors.

On Monday, the City Council unanimously agreed that the building at 689 Main St. is structurally unsafe and a danger to the neighboring buildings, and must be taken down.

“We consider the council’s action an option of last result,” said City Administrator Jerre Bryant. “We don’t want to step in to private-property issues unless there is a compelling reason to do so. That’s why we worked repeatedly to get this resolved privately as it should be. This month will be a year [since the fire]. That condition existed for 12 months now. If we erred in any place, we erred being very respectful of property rights. The hope is when we start a process like this that someone will step forward. I don’t think we can wait any longer.”

On Wednesday morning, property owner Dwayne St. Ours said he had already spoken with the city and planned to take the building down himself, as soon as his bank comes through with the funds to raze the structure.

“We’re ripping it down ourselves. I have bids out now and we’re going to take care of it ourselves. The town won’t need to get involved,” said St. Ours.

During the City Council meeting, Bryant said the city had worked with St. Ours, and his bank and insurance company to address the problems, but so far no improvement had been made.

According to an email exchange on Tuesday between Natalie Burns, legal counsel for Westbrook, and Bill Baker, the assistant city administrator for business and community relations, City National Bank, the mortgage holder on the property has “received the insurance proceeds and is entering into a demolition agreement with Mr. St. Ours, who will be responsible for hiring the demolition contractor.”

The demolition will take place within 45 days. If the demolition were completed before July 1, a scheduled public hearing on the order to raze the building would be canceled.

The apartment building, which has sat vacant since a child playing with a lighter started a fire on June 26, 2012, has been boarded up by the city in recent months.

Burns said if the city ends up razing the building, it would be able to recoup costs by issuing a special tax to St. Ours, collected in the same manner as property taxes.

“This is a last resort thing we do in this community,” said City Councilor John O’Hara about the council proceedings. “Property rights are very delicate at this time. We don’t mind taking the extra step to get it down, clearly that one was a very difficult one to sit in languish as long as it did.”

The former apartment building at 689 Main St. in Westbrook has been deemed dangerous by the city and is headed toward demolition after sitting vacant for nearly a year since a fire charred the insides.
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