CHARLEMONT — Owners of the Charlemont Inn have been given until mid-January to comply with a Housing Court order to make basic repairs to the Inn or face having the historic building being placed into receivership, as requested by the town’s Board of Health.
According to Town Council Jeffrey Blake, inn owners Charlotte Dewey and Linda Shimandle have made some repairs but hadn’t completed all the “Phase 1” renovations by the Dec. 1 deadline given by Housing Court Justice Rebekah J. Crampton Kamukala.
Blake said Dewey has been given more time, and the next Housing Court date is Jan. 13. If the Phase 1 improvements are not done by then, the town will go forward with its effort to place the building into receivership, he said.
The work required in Phase 1 is to fully restore the kitchen so that it can be open for a catering business. The required fixes also include restoring heat, electricity and plumbing, so the kitchen will have running water and an employee bathroom. It includes waterproofing the basement, regrading the partially earthern basement floor, roof work, and a thorough cleaning. The estimate of these costs was about $91,000.
The 22-room inn was built in the 1770s and has been operating since 1775, according to Dewey. It has been closed for at least five years, starting in 2011, when the Charlemont Sewer District foreclosed on the property for back taxes. Dewey got the property back in 2012, after paying the taxes, but said the copper pipes had been removed from the building.
The Board of Health began meeting with Dewey about the condition of the unoccupied property after receiving complaints by neighbors in February 2015. Since then, action plans proposed by the Board of Health and other agreed-upon repair deadlines were not met. After a Sept. 9, 2015 inspection of the inn, a state public health official found the building “unfit for human habitation,” citing mold and excessive moisture, lack of heat, removed plumbing.
The board voted to take the issue to Housing Court, and in November 2015, issued a condemnation order, which was later lifted when the fire alarm system was repaired.
Town officials had proposed that Montague building contractor Bob Obear be given receivership of the building, since he was willing to spend between $250,000 to $300,000 to fix problems throughout the building.