By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The rear of an aging two-story building in Williston’s old business district, Block 12, collapsed this week leaving city government with a pile of rubble, an unstable building, and no fast way to fix the problem.
City Manager Terry Bovaird said property owner Michael Pesso told the city verbally to do whatever it needed to do with the property but hasn’t provided a written, notarized statement to that effect and isn’t cooperating.
“He has verbally told us whatever you do is up to you all, I won’t do anything against you if you tear it down but that’s not good enough for us,” Bovaird said. “If we had a document signed and notarized, we could but he is simply refusing to work with the city.”
The city has roped off the rear of the building with yellow tape to keep people away from the crumbled remains of the structure in the parking area of Block 12. It has also roped off the sidewalk in front of the building and blocked off one lane of traffic on North Main Street to prevent vehicles from being hit by falling debris if there is a collapse. The Florida Department of Transportation has blocked off the outside lane of traffic on U.S. 27 up to North Main St. for the same reason.
Bovaird said the rear of the building may have collapsed during Hurricane Idalia on Wednesday. The city has no legal authority at this point to tear down the structure because it stands on private property and the owner hasn’t given the city a written, notarized statement authorizing the razing of the dilapidated structure.
“The big issue right now is Mr. Pesso isn’t working with the city in getting it cleared. He has made it very clear he is not working with the city. He’s refusing to sign any documents allowing us to do it and basically, he’s too sick to do it or is not going to do it and basically, that doesn’t leave us with a lot of options,” Bovaird said.
One option the city is working on is asking the Florida Department of Health to intervene and condemn the building for health and safety reasons.
“The State of Florida does have the ability to condemn a building in order to protect the interests of the public and that’s what we’re working on now,” Bovaird said. “But what their authority encompasses, how long it takes, what their processes are on that – I expect there will be a full briefing by staff and myself at Tuesday’s council meeting as to what that process looks like.”
Bovaird said using the health department as a way to condemn the property and remove a threat to the public’s safety could be a way to speed up the process a bit.
“We already have a letter from our engineers that the building is unstable. The building inspectors have looked at it and said it’s unstable. With those few things if we can also get the state health department involved, that’s where we are now,” Bovaird said.
The city manager said the property is under code enforcement at this point but that’s about the extent of the city’s authority. Code enforcement fines often build up over time until the city takes the matter to court and obtains a judgment, often takes ownership of the building, and does whatever is in the public interest to dispose of the property. But the city isn’t to the point where that process can be used for the collapsed building. There needs to be a more immediate solution to protect public safety.
“The city doesn’t have the authority right now to go in and raze the building ourselves and make the building safe and find a way to charge the cost back to the owner and put a lien on the property,” Bovaird added. “There is no process for that. We’re working on one. It’s a piece of private property. There are a lot of issues going on with the property next door to it. There are businesses in there. We recommended they don’t conduct business in there because of the structural integrity of the building.”
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Enterprise Reporting September 1, 2023; Posted September 2, 2023
