The area behind the building that housed Allison Tax Services remains taped off for safety reasons after the building next door collapsed on it, destroying the building. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

WELLSVILLE — Village council has put on hold the decision to demolish a Main Street building that collapsed Saturday.

During a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss and make a decision regarding the building at 447-449 Main St., which collapsed onto another business on Saturday, the council members, after a lot of discussion, decided to wait on making a decision on demolishing the building until further information can be obtained.

Mayor Bob Boley will be reaching out to Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson and to Dallis Dawson of Dawson and Associates to have an engineer’s input on how stable the structure is and if both halves of that building need to come down.

Cody Cole, fire safety inspector for Wellsville, said that the building has been an issue for some time, and it has been labeled a “do not enter building,” so even he cannot go inside to do an inspection. He noted the building has been condemnable for some time and both sides of the building would need torn down. The building at 449 Main St., the old Five and Dime store is owned by Angelo DiSena, Flint, Michigan. The building at 447 Main St. is owned by Rolled Sleeves, (James and Kristy Coulter), Wellsville.

The discussion centered around if the village should pay for and have the building demolished due to it being a safety risk or do nothing since they do not own the property and go after DiSena who has the property listed under the business of ADCD Lease LLC.

Boley said he tried to contact DiSena after the collapse and was unable to get hold of him, but DiSena did return his call on Monday and asked what Boley wanted him to do about the building and that he didn’t have the money to have it demolished and hung up on Boley.

Kristy Coulter said that DiSena has been to the building a couple of times, but it has been a while since he has been there.

James Coulter said that when he sold the building to DiSena, DiSena knew what he was buying since he checked out the building before purchasing it and he refused any warranties. He also said that DiSena is well funded and believes there are other recourses to getting the building demolished and doesn’t see any reason to rush it. He noted that he provided documentation to Village Solicitor Chris Weeda of DiSena having funds and that there is a $60,000 tax lien attached to the property. He also said that he thinks the village needs to have a legitimate plan and everyone needs to be on board with it.

Contractor Kevin Kerr of Kerr Construction who mobilized equipment to the building on Saturday said environmental tests were done on Sunday and he expects results from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week. He also noted that the material from the demolition would have to be live loaded because of a risk of asbestos due to the age of the building, which makes the demolition more expensive. He noted if the fire department won’t go into the building he wouldn’t put anyone in it abatement

Boley said the current estimate he has for the demolition is approximately $150,000 to $165,000 and the village does not have that. He noted that he can’t justify using tax payer money to pay for the building demolition.

Council Member Cindy Mick said she has a problem using tax payer money to pay for the demolition of a building for someone out of town.

Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah Yu said she would check into grants for demolition from the state, but the grants go to one seat in each county and for Columbiana, that is the Columbiana County land bank.

Fire Chief Barry Podwel strongly stated that the building needs to come down.

Weeda said it has to be done the legal way and that the village could pay for it and go after DiSena, but if he doesn’t have the funds then the village can’t recover the cost.

Allan Owens, whose business, Allison Tax Accounting, was destroyed when the building collapsed on his building, said in response to his building being totaled and would need to be torn down as well, that his insurance company told him that if Wellsville demolishes the building that collapsed that they take all the responsibility for that building from DiSena and that his building was not going to be torn down, and an engineer is coming in on Wednesday to look at it. He also said that this building hasn’t been a surprise to anyone for six years, which puts some of the responsibility on the village and that his insurance company could look to recover money from anyone they can get it from.

Weeda noted that there could be legal ramifications if the village has the buildings demolished or if the village knows the safety risks and doesn’t act and other property gets damaged or someone gets hurt.

There was also discussion on the high winds that are expected to sweep through the area over the next couple of days and what happens if that causes more damage

“We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” Boley said.

Kristy Coulter said her insurance company would also want an engineer to look at her building to see if it actually needs to be torn down since it’s attached and the buildings share a common attic, or if it could be saved.

She said at this point she is frustrated with the whole situation, commenting that she may now lose her building after spending 10 years doing everything she needed to do for it because someone else did nothing.

Owens said it’s frustrating because this is the middle of tax season and he has had to cancel four days of appointments and he also has over 150 drop off taxes that he needs to do and is currently working out of the building owned by Dallas Cole, which used to be Simply Sweets previously owned by Ashley LeClaire, but it’s difficult because there is no water or internet in the building. He is appreciative of at least having a place to work to get him through this tax season while he regroups.

He also said possibly God was watching that day, because he would have typically been in the office working and that Saturday when the collapse happened was the first time in 35 years that he had taken a day off during tax season.

Council members voted to put out a request for bids on demolishing the buildings so that if the decision is made to tear the building down, they will they prepared. But for now no decision has been made on what the village is going to do. They will meet for further discussion and possible reconsideration after they have the engineers’ reports.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com