Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Code Enforcement Committee met Feb. 11.

Here is the agenda provided by the committee:

1. Call to Order

2. Roll Call

3. Public Comment

4. Mark Ekhoff/Clean Energy Design Group

5. Eric Brandt Report

a) 123 W Walnut St. (DMV)

b) O’Reilly Auto Parts

c) Gas Depot

d) 114 E Cherry St. (Conger building)

e) 425 E Walnut St-(Posada)

f) 413 N Kay St- Bertrand

g) Mitigation Grant-DNR

h) 314 N 3rd St

i) 200 W Park Ave

j) Other

6. Bill Stanley Report

a) 327 W Park Ave (large water bill outstanding)

7. Attorney Cainkar

a) 309 W Victory St.: Found that the Iroquois County Trustee purchased the 2017 taxes and paid the 2018 taxes for the property. This makes doing a deal with Mr. Tiffany a no go unless he gets his taxes worked out first. He said he is going to contact the County to see if he can redeem the taxes. Attorney Cainkar also talked to the County Trustee to see how quickly they will acquire title to the property and was advised no sooner than April of 2021. Therefore, Attorney Cainkar is counting on Mr. Tiffany to do what needs to be done to give the City a clean title. So Attorney Cainkar is filing an amended complaint to name the County Trustee and proceed with the demolition case. The matter is before the court on March 10th, 2020.

b) 326 W Victory St.: City Council approved purchase from Iroquois County Trustee, waiting on County to approve and send deed

c) 119 E Ash St.: City approved purchase from Iroquois County Trustee, waiting on County to approve and send deed.

d) 125 South Brown: Notice of demolition have been sent out. Need to go through the Office of the State Guardian. Need to wait 15 days before filing complaint. Attorney Cainkar was going to try to get this property as “abandoned property” but there is neither 2 years of delinquent real estate taxes nor water bills.

e) 305 N Kay St: Homeowner appeared in Court on January 28th, 2020 and is supposed to schedule and inspection of the interior with Mr. Brandt. Once that gets done, Attorney Cainkar will know the next step. The matter is scheduled for a status hearing on March 10th, 2020

f) 510 E Walnut St: January 28th, 2020 the court declared the property abandoned. Pursuant to statue, Attorney Cainkar sent out noticed of order to the interested parties (and published as well) allowing them 30 days to demolish the property or otherwise prove they did not intend to abandon the property. The matter is back in court on March 10th. Assuming nobody file anything, Attorney Cainkar will have a motion on file for the court to execute a judicial deed conveying the property to the City on that date. Basically, the City could be owner of the property on March 10th, 2020

8. Adjournment

http://www.watsekacity.org/files/9515/8109/5825/code_enforcement_agenda.pdf