On September 3rd, the Fort Scott City Commission voted to demolish several blighted buildings.
The purpose and goal of the Fort Scott Codes Department is to enforce all codes, ordinances, and regulations adopted by the City of Fort Scott to ensure the safety and aesthetic value of all properties and establish a standard of property maintenance, according to the city’s website.
The city has a process to allow extended time for property owners to repair the buildings.
Properties in a state of deterioration are turned into the city by community members for the most part, said Leroy Kruger, who works in the codes department.
This begins a process that starts with a letter to the property owner asking them to repair the house up to city codes and to give the codes department a phone call, within 30 days of receiving the letter.
“If we haven’t heard from them, we send out a condemnation letter,” Kruger said.
“We give 30 more days, if we haven’t heard from them, we turn it over to the city commissioners, and they vote on it,” he said.
“The next step is to advertise (in the Fort Scott Tribune) that we are going to tear it down. Then we have a public meeting,” Kruger said.
“Homeowners or any interested parties get another letter to come and speak to the commission,” he said.
“If no one shows up, the next step is to tear it down.”
“We try to get three bids submitted to the commission (for demolition) and they decide who gets the bid.” he said.
Once torn down to ground level, if the owners want to sell the property, a special assessment fee is given them to recoup the cost of the demolition.
“There’s quite a few blighted properties in Fort Scott,” Kruger said. “We have to stay in a budget for the year. Usually, there are two to three properties at a time.”
At the September 3 Fort Scott City Commission Meeting six properties were submitted.
“If these six go through, we’ve done 10 or 11 properties this year. I think the six have eaten up our budget,” Kruger said.
The codes department office is located in City Hall at 123 S. Main Street and can by reached by calling 620.223.0550.
Norm Nation is the supervisor and lead codes inspector.
On September 3rd, the Fort Scott City Commission voted to demolish several buildings. Here are the addresses and photos of the buildings taken from Google Street View.
