Owner of Collapsing Girardville property starts GoFundMe ; Building still stands
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SENTINEL PHOTO - 205 North Second Street in Girardville on January 16, 2017. Girardville borough officials closed the 200 Block of North Second Street as a precaution, due to the properties deteriorating condition.
GIRARDVILLE – The owner of a deteriorating property which prompted Girardville officials to close a road since January has started a GoFundMe to fund its demolition, citing financial difficulties.
In January, 205 North Second Street appeared to be nearing collapse, prompting Girardville officials to close a block of Second Street as a precaution to pedestrians and passing traffic.
This isn’t the first time a building’s condition has closed this road.
In August 2016, the property next door to 205 North Second Street, damaged by fire, neared collapse as well. That property, owned by Alediah Waleed Saleh, of Belmont, New York, has since been demolished.
However, 205 North Second Street, owned by Will Schultz of Ashland, is still standing.
Schultz says the situation with the next door building only further damaged his building.
“I went over to find that, when the building next door fell, it had taken the walls between his and mine with it! This damaged my building beyond repair. All my floors on that side went down with the wall” Schultz stated. “My building could not be insured because of the condition of his building next door. The owner of the building next door has since had his building torn down and that made mine worse to the point that the road is now closed out front!”
Schultz is now being fined $1,000 a day by Girardville borough as long as the building is left standing.
“I can’t afford to do anything and the fines keep mounting” Schultz said. “They say I have to take that up with the owner next door. He has since filed bankruptcy so I can’t go after him. To make matters worse, I have been laid off from my job the beginning of January. There is nothing I can do at this point and I am about to be put in jail if the building isn’t down in a month to 60 days.”
Schultz has since launched a GoFundMe page with a goal of $15,000 to help pay for the building’s demolition, and says that he’ll take it down himself if he has to.
“If I can’t have a company take it down, I am going to try do do it myself. I have no way to even get started doing that without money to rent dumpsters and get demo insurance. It will be risky for me since I am approaching retirement age and I have hernias and health issues. I only have my little part time job left and that just pays my food.”
According to a WBRE/WYOU report in February, as of February 2nd, Schultz owes over $70,000 to Girardville borough because of this situation.
The GoFundMe page can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/emergency-building-demolition
About Author
