The Fayette City Council voted to take further action with regard to four buildings on the west side of the downtown courthouse square. The council voted to accept a bid from Klingner & Associates, P.C., an engineering firm from Columbia, for $2,000 to re-inspect the buildings.

The firm initially inspected the buildings Oct. 9, and on Nov. 21, 2019, provided the city with a report with recommendations of necessary repairs. The purpose of the re-evaluation is to observe the status of those repairs.

The buildings have been an eyesore of the Fayette square for years. The buildings have been in states of disrepair for years but 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. The owner of all of these buildings, Dan Ruether of Columbia, told the city at the time the loose bricks had fallen, that he would make the repairs when the weather became warmer. Spring and summer came and went without any repairs. The sidewalk remained closed for nearly a year while the city waited for the repairs to be made. Since then, businesses have relocated leaving most of the 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.

The city gave Mr. Ruether a time limit to make necessary improvements included in the report from Klingner & Associates. But it wasn’t until about a week before a hearing scheduled for Jan. 21 of this year between the city and Mr. Ruether was to occur when repairs had been made.

The Bell Block was erected in 1883. It hosts four street-level storefronts with second-story apartments. It is one of three buildings owned by Mr. Ruether on that block. As recently as February 2013, the second story of another building owned by Mr. Ruether on that same block collapsed. While the rubble was removed, only a pitched, wooden roof remains of the top story of the formerly all-brick structure. It is known as the R.C. Clark building and was built in 1887. The two storefronts on the first floor remain empty.

The slanted roof was said to be temporary, but more than seven years later it remains an eyesore on the square.

The city does not expect the report to show that all of the repairs to the buildings have been made. “Those two buildings on the end, they’re no better, and probably a little worse than they were,” said Danny Dougherty, Fayette’s Director of Public Works and the city’s building inspector. “I haven’t seen anything going on there.”

Nathan Nicholaus, the city’s attorney, told the council that the next step will be to give Mr. Ruether notice and schedule a hearing. “These buildings are not just ugly, they’re dangerous,” he said. “The engineer was very clear in his report that left untended, these buildings will collapse.”

Mike Dimond, Executive Director for Fayette Main Street, Inc., which occupies a building on the same block as those owned by Mr. Ruether, said that the state of the buildings makes economic development in the downtown area very difficult. “I don’t think the council has a choice.”

Main Street spearheaded an effort to establish the Historic Downtown Fayette Commercial Community Improvement District (CID) which will be funded by a one-cent sales tax. One of the projects the CID board could vote to fund would be engineering reports on downtown buildings. East Ward Alderman Jeremy Dawson inquired to Mr. Dimond as to whether the CID would provide the city funding to help pay the cost of the engineering reports. The city spent $4,400 on the initial inspection, while the cost for re-inspection is $2,000.

Ultimately, Dimond explained, the approval of such an expense would be up to the CID board, of which Southwest Ward Alderman is the Chairman. “We’re all partners in this,” he said.

The council voted 5-0 to move on the bid from Klingler & Associates, to re-inspect the buildings. Mr. Dawson abstained.

With regard to other abandoned properties, Mr. Nicholaus suggested, as other cities have done, to require owners of such properties to register them. The city could then impose a fee of up to $200 every six months. “It makes it so that it costs (owners) just to keep that abandoned property,” he said. And those fees could go toward the salary of a dedicated building inspector. 

Apparently such an ordinance already exists on Fayette’s books, but it hasn’t been enforced. Nicholaus said he would review the ordinance so the city can act on it.

The city council meets at 6 p.m. every first and third Tuesday at the Keller Building in Fayette. Meetings are open and the public is invited.