LONGVIEW — It’s an eyesore and a severe health hazard. And after more than a decade of disrepair, there is finally a plan to demolish it.
The home at 1308 22nd Ave. was originally built in the late 1920s, but fell into disrepair when its current owner, Bruce Cardwell, bought the house in 2008. It is now in such a state of disrepair that Longview Fire Marshall Jon Dunaway declared it “an imminent danger to public safety and health causing severe risk and/or death,” and said the “structure can go at any time.”
Cardwell has been unresponsive to numerous city complaints dating back to 2011, according to Longview Assistant Public Works Director Chris Collins. He was served five administrative orders, six warnings and a warrant for “failing to maintain a safe dwelling.”
During the Longview City Council meeting Thursday, Collins showed photos the public works department took of the house from the inside. A chunk of load-bearing wall hung from the attic, not attached to any part of the floor.
“That’s basically what the entire interior of the structure looks like: a collapsing shell,” said Collins.
The building, nestled between other century-old builds in Longview’s Old West Side neighborhood, is missing a significant portion of its roof and is “in the process of collapsing” according to Collins.
Collins said an asbestos analysis by Southwest Clean Air Agency couldn’t even be completed because the interior of the house was “unsafe for hazardous material analysis.”
The shelter poses a risk to neighbors and transient individuals who have used the house as shelter in the past, Collins said.
Collins said the city will place a lien on the property to pay back the demolition expenses, and if they aren’t paid back within a three-year period they will foreclose the house.
Neighbors try to help
Since the house is considered a nuisance by administrative officials, Collins said its demolition is something the council is within its jurisdictional right to pursue.
“The property owner has neglected this since 2011, has not touched it; the neighbors are cutting the grass, trying to make it look somewhat presentable from the outside,” Collins said. “They are done; they are fed up. They want it taken care of. It’s a danger to them and a nuisance to the community.”
City Council voted unanimously to award a bid to Vancouver-based 3 Kings Environmental Inc. to demolish the house, at a price tag of $77,138. Collins said this quote was including the demolition of the garage space, which public works eventually found to be in sound enough condition to not require demolition. Collins said the real cost of the demolition for just the main house would be around $50,000.
“For the past five years, we’ve been organized as neighbors, paying out of pocket, to keep this place clean,” said Dan Felton, a resident whose house neighbors the dilapidated home. He said this coalition of neighbors has hired landscapers to maintain the yard the best they can.
Felton said he entered the house multiple times because he thought he heard people living in it. He saw mold caking the inside of the building and a large hole in the floor opening up into the basement where he saw the carcasses of small animals that had fallen in and died.
“These pictures are pretty good, but it’s actually worse in person than what you see here,” Felton said.
City Councilmember Angie Wean addressed the neighbors present at the City Council meeting on Thursday in thanks for their proactivity in dealing with the public nuisance.
“Thank you each of you for your diligence, picking up all the branches and everything, and being an advocate for your block and your safety,” Wean said.
Bruce Holway, another resident in the Old West Side neighborhood, said he has seen other homes in the neighborhood that have fallen into disrepair, and that the city should put them on its radar for future potential demolitions.
“The taxes are paid current on this every year. It’s interesting that someone would pay taxes on this and not maintain the house,” Mayor Spencer Boudreau said.
