Progress with Beatrice building owners, on downtown inspections

BEATRICE – Three years into an ordinance requiring inspections of downtown adjoining buildings, the City of Beatrice Community Development Officer says progress is being made.

Rob Mierau told city officials that about 92 of the 118 buildings have undergone an inspection to this point. "It's been more positive than I would have thought, to be honest with you, going into it with the number of buildings we've looked at. I kind of expected to see worse conditions overall, but generally speaking, it's been pretty positive. The buildings are in pretty good shape. We pretty well see a similar thing in just about every building ..specifically with the limestone foundations and the mortar, with the foundations wearing away with the moisture."

Mierau says the goal has been to give property owners the opportunity to address immediate needs, mostly in the interior of the buildings. The exteriors, Mierau says, are largely in good shape, aside from some recent storm damage in December.

"We want them to have the opportunity. The building's not going to fall down today, nothing along those lines. We want them to have the opportunity to get these things maintained, on their own. Like I've told many property owners, if we come back in two to four years, and things have changed tremendously, we'll have to do the notice and orders and force the issue a little bit more."

The Community Development Officer expects there will be a few warrants written to correct problems with some buildings. The report given by Mierau to the Mayor and City Council Monday night was requested by Councilman Ted Fairbanks…who wants to see the process expedited…to prevent falling behind on the project.

"What I want you to tell us, is what you need from us. Do you need more money, do you need more manpower, do you need up to improve the city code? I just want you to tell us what you need...because there's not a single person who sits on the council who's not concerned about this."

Mierau says mixing the work with other duties of the department is always an issue, but staggering the inspections and focusing on those buildings with greater problems is one approach…..rather than re-inspecting each building every four years.

"There's not a lot of outright repairs that need to be made, fortunately. We are trying to avoid the repair status....you know, spend the fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars to so some repointing now, whatever it may be, rather than the twenty five thousand to replace this wall if it falls down. We're trying to get people to understand that. This maintenance is not really that difficult to do, and it's really affordable, in my opinion...compared with what the alternative is."

Mierau says whether more staff is added is a policy issue for elected officials. He says there are times the department could use more staff, but times where the workload is not as busy.  He said about the only way to speed up the process would be to dedicate someone solely to the inspections.

Mierau says his department is getting good response from building owners registering their properties. He told city officials, “we’re focusing on maintenance….we don’t want to tear your building down…..that’s not anybody’s goal.”