The board of health voted unanimously to authorize the city housing department to move forward with filing charges through the court to order the repair or demolition of a nuisance property at 957 East Third Street in its May meeting. Housing Inspectors Jarrod Richter and Rich Snyder said that one of the building’s walls was heaving out and was at risk of collapsing, and that there were several holes in the siding. (Photo by Morgan Ahart)

SALEM–The health department will be filing charges against the owner of a nuisance property on East Third Street.

During the board of Health’s May meeting Housing Inspectors Jarrod Richter and Rich Snyder said that the former Saint John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church located at 957 East Third Street had structural issues which needed to be addressed. Richter said that the building, which was built in 1909 and replaced the original church which was built in 1887 and at one time served as barracks for the Salvation Army, already had “serious code violations” and “was falling down” when City Auditor Sal Salvino was still the Housing Inspector, and that following his inspections, the prior owner had sold the property.

“[Salvino’s] actions caused the owner then to sell it at auction to get rid of it because he couldn’t fix it. It was to be sold with the new owner notified that these issues needed fixed. Nothing’s been done,” said Richter.

Richter said that the new property owner has not responded to their attempts to contact them and that action needed to be taken to address the building, noting that while it would be unfortunate if it must be demolished because it could be repaired, but that it posed a danger to adjacent homes.

“He got a certified letter, I sent him everything, nothing comes back, its radio silence. The building is going to fall down. If you’re looking at it from the front, the left wall is bowed out towards the neighbors. If he doesn’t do something soon, we won’t be knocking it down, It will be on the ground,” said Richter. “I gave him thirty days to give us a plan to repair or demolish and have received absolutely nothing, and I would like to take it to court to knock it down, or hopefully he would fix it, but we can’t fix it for him. If we don’t do something, it’s going to be on the neighbor’s house.”

The board agreed that the property’s current state was unsafe and voted unanimously to move forward with filing charges through the court to order the property to be demolished or repaired. Health Commissioner Kayla Crowl said Wednesday that the charges were still being drafted but should be filed by the end of the week.

Other housing matters discussed included a new approach to dividing work between Richter and Snyder. Crowl said that to prevent any potential duplicity of enforcement activities now that the department’s backlogged inspections are fully caught up, Snyder and Richter would each handle enforcement in two of the city’s wards. Crowl also said that this shift would help them to develop a rapport with property owners and tenants within their designated wards.

The health board will meet next 2 p.m. June 18.