The Fayette City Council during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20, discussed the latest engineering report concerning four deteriorating buildings on the west side of the downtown square. The council expects to hold a hearing before its Nov. 17 meeting for the owner of those buildings, Dan Ruether of Columbia.

The city in November of 2019 hired Klingner & Associates, an engineering and architecture firm in Columbia, to evaluate the buildings. A report from the firm showed that significant repairs needed to be made. The city gave Mr. Ruether a time period in which to make such repairs, but it appeared that little, if anything, had been done.

“It looks like some stuff was done, but not to the fullest extent that was asked for,” observed East Ward Alderman Jeremy Dawson. 

Fayette’s attorney, Nathan Nicholaus came to the same conclusion. He stated that not enough had been done to bring the buildings into compliance. “The buildings are still unsafe,” he said.

By law, the city must give Mr. Ruether notice of no fewer than 20 days, making the council’s Nov. 17 meeting the likely date for the hearing. 

Fayette recently set a hearing date of Nov. 3 for the owner of a dilapidated building on N. Main St. No reply has yet been received from the owner, who reportedly lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Fayette hired Klingner & Associates to return in September of this year to re-inspect all four buildings owned by Mr. Ruether. The firm’s latest report, dated Oct. 19, 2020, detailed the lack of adequate repairs made to the buildings.

“The vast majority of the repair recommendations from the previous report were not completed,” the report states.

The latest report, prepared by Wesley P. Hamilton, a structural engineer at the firm, pointed to seven specific areas of concern including spalling bricks, an exterior wall crack, deteriorated exterior wooden stairs, sagging roof framing, and unsafe handrails. In addition, the report stated that none of the recommendations for the building located at 116 N. Main Street were completed, the condition of which remains a serious threat to its neighboring building to the south. 

“The continued exposure to the elements has caused the floor to collapse into the crawl space, to the point where it was unsafe to enter the building. Lack of addressing the issues with this building are beginning to affect the 114 building,” the report stated.

Klingner previously recommended that the north section of the building at 114 N. Church St. should be properly protected from moisture exposure.

“Continuing to neglect repairs to 116 will likely result in further structural damage to 114 which could lead to that building collapsing or needing to be proactively removed as well,” wrote Mr. Hamilton in the latest report.

The building at 116 N. Main St., was heavily damaged when the roof collapsed in 2013 due to heavy snowfall. A slanted roof was installed and was said to be temporary, although seven years later it remains.

The report added that the observations and recommendations were limited to what was visible at the time of the evaluation and that other issues could exist.

Despite the deteriorated state of the block, Mr. Hamilton concluded that the majority of the buildings are in a state in which it is possible to address the structural deficiencies and greatly increase their lifespans. “Continuing to neglect structural repairs will likely result (in) each of the buildings becoming unsafe to occupy,” he wrote.

The buildings have been in states of disrepair for years. Their conditions came to the city’s attention in February 2019 when bricks from the top of the Bell Block building’s south side fell to the sidewalk below. The city closed off the sidewalk to pedestrians until repairs were completed, which lasted nearly a year. 

Mr. Ruether told the city at the time the loose bricks had fallen, that he would make the repairs when the weather became warmer. But spring and summer came and went with continued neglect. The sidewalk remained closed while the city waited for the repairs to be made. Since then, businesses that formerly existed on the west side have relocated to other areas of downtown, leaving most of the Bell Block’s street-level storefronts vacant. For some time only the laundromat, which is owned by Mr. Ruether, remained. More recently, the Petrichor Store has opened up shop in one of the three empty storefronts. However, the business had to close on at least one occasion due to an apparent water leak from an upstairs apartment.

In a presentation only two weeks ago, Jim Thompson, who helps fund programs for struggling rural towns in Iowa, explained to Fayette Main Street, Central Methodist University, the CID board, and the City of Fayette, that the issue of deteriorated downtown buildings is causing economic harm to Fayette.

“These buildings are worth saving,” he said. 

Mr. Thompson said the buildings on the west side of the square are undergoing “demolition by neglect.”

“No amount of historic preservation is going to work if a property owner does not care about their building,” he said. “Some of those buildings have great bones,” he said. “They deserve more than what they’re getting.”