Iola officials will reach out to the owner of an old nursing home to see if the city can schedule a full inspection of the facility.
But short of getting approval, there’s not much that can or will be done to the old Iola Nursing Center building in the 1300 block of North Walnut Street, City Council members said Monday.
The Council heard from several neighbors who have complained about the building’s condition, citing broken windows, vagrants entering the facility on a regular basis and four-legged critters found on the property.
Becky Nilges and Scott Fehr, speaking on behalf of a group of about 20 residents, rattled off their concerns about the building, which has been vacant since the facility closed its doors in 2015.
“From time to time, they’ll remove an air-conditioning unit and cover holes with plywood,” Nilges said. “Other than that, nothing’s been done.”
Fehr, who lives across the street from the facility, showed photos of shards of broken glass and other debris in his yard.
“That’s what we drive by every day,” Nilges said. “We feel like we’ve been very patient with the owners of the property, and very patient with the city.”
Nilges asked the city for “a thorough and honest inspection of the interior and exterior and simply follow your own city codes.”
They found a sympathetic ear in Councilwoman Nancy Ford, who lives a few blocks north of the old nursing home.
She noted the city has condemned homes where the cost of repairs exceeds half of a home’s value.
With the building appraised at $16,000, “I can guarantee you it’s going to be more than 50 percent of the property,” she said. “We should have done something earlier when they left on a dime and removed their residents. They left medication, they left medical records. … It looked apocalyptic.”
The other Council members, while sympathetic, noted there’s only so much they could, or would, do.
That’s because when problems, such as broken windows are identified by city officers during previous drive-by inspections, the issues have been promptly fixed.
Councilman Carl Slaugh noted the issues while the building may meet the definition of “blighted” that does not make the building dangerous.
In short, the city must receive authorization from owner Shane Lamb to enter the property.
