Sauk City looks to raze eyesore, discusses garbage enclosures

The dilapidated building that sits at 502 Phillips Boulevard in Sauk City, just a thousand feet into the downtown area, will hopefully be coming down soon as the Village officially contacted the owner about a potential raze order. On September 6th, Sauk City’s residential building inspector Henry Netzinger conducted an external inspection of the property. Crucially for his inspection, the law dictates that if total repairs to bring the structure back to code exceed half the appraised value, a raze order can be issued. Without even going inside the structure, external repairs exceeded the 50 percent threshold. A raze order could be issued by the village. Netzinger meticulously documented what he estimated were nearly $55,000 in repairs needed, ranging from basic foundation work to a porch and doorway to an entirely new roof.  Netzinger noted that the owner, Mr. Kavanaugh, who does not live locally, “did agree the building needs to be razed but has no timeline and did state that he was opposed to any orders that I would give him, ‘as what can you do!’” Kavanaugh told Netzinger that the local fire department has refused his offer for an intentional burn, as the structure is too close to others. Netzinger’s report continues, “Understandably, he was not happy with the phone call but didn’t leave me with any hope that he would be doing anything with the house. My findings after looking over the building at 502 Phillips Blvd. is that it is unsafe to occupy as the roof has holes and is in bad condition, there is no secondary fire exit, the siding has let the weather degrade the structure integrity, windows would need replacing, and the foundation has holes in it, allowing rodents to shelter in the building.” The board instructed Village Administrator Heidi Koch to send a letter to the owner at their September 10th meeting. Also at that meeting a new business that’s planning to build in the business park, Third Car Garage, introduced their plans for a car show on October 12th that will be held near their property on Commerce Drive. The car show will feature 150 to 300 cars, with an entry fee for contestants that will go towards Sauk Prairie Sports Boosters. Entry for the general public is free. There will be a food truck and possibly a band. The board and Koch complimented the owner on his presentation and organization; he said he was working with an event planner. Donny Ballweg spoke to the board at the same meeting about the bleachers for the baseball field. He was blunt: “You’re sitting on a lawsuit waiting to happen.” The bleachers were in such bad shape that everyone at the meeting who know of them agreed they were “unsafe.” Ballweg said his organization had raised $103,000 of the $127,000 needed to replace them. He asked the board if the village was willing to pick up whatever little remainder there would be once the funding is done, if any. The board quickly agreed, with Village President Jim Anderson saying “Yes, we can do that.” Ballweg spoke about how Sauk City’s ballfield was described as “beautiful” and how many wished to play there. It was an asset, he said, to the village, and it was important to replace the bleachers. Everyone agreed. Finally, the board returned to a topic it had discussed at length before: the garbage enclosures in the parking area by the Chamber building and downtown, and their needed replacement. “They’re really bad,” said Koch. She reported that Chamber Director Tywana German had spoken with the surrounding business owners and “something needed to be done.” The Star News took a walk to inspect them last month and found two damaged enclosures littered with garbage, grease from the grease traps, and debris. Board Member Jeff Boll, who at previous meetings had been a firm opponent of spending any money whatsoever on the enclosure repairs, softened his stance but still said “I have a hard time swallowing $80,000 on this.” That $80,000 figure was the projected cost to replace the enclosures with one centralized cement brick structure. Boll did the math and said they “could get five chain link [fences] versus one cement block [enclosure],” seeming to imply that a less expensive product that would need to be replaced more often was preferable to a more expensive permanent solution. His sentiments did not hold true for the rest of the board and they instructed Koch to put out bids on a centralized cement block enclosure, expected to cost $50,000 or so, which will be paid by unused room tax revenues.