GREENFIELD — A Superior Court judge is expected to issue a ruling today on Montague’s request to demolish parts of the former Railroad Salvage building that town officials consider a public safety hazard.
After listening to town officials and a property owner for about two hours, Judge Mary Lou Rup took the demolition request under advisement and said she planned to issue an order today because of how late the hearing had gone into the afternoon.
The hearing came after the town sought approval last week for demolition after owners of the building did not respond to an order from the town’s building inspector to make the building safe. The main concerns, according to town officials are several unsupported walls and an elevator shaft, that if they collapsed, may cover area beyond the fencing of the property and could put the public at danger. The building is at risk after a fire on Dec. 31 left much of the building in disrepair.
The building is owned by Solutions Consulting Group LLC, which according to state records is now defunct, but one of the owners of the LLC is Millers Falls resident Jeanne Golrick, who was in court representing herself against the town on Tuesday.
Golrick claimed she had addressed or was working to address to the two main parts of the order: repairing fencing and demolishing several unsupported walls. Golrick said she had made repairs to the fence and was working on getting estimates from demolition companies. She also said that the opinions and recommendations of town Building Inspector David Jensen and Turners Falls Fire Chief John Zellmann were not expert opinions and shouldn’t be the basis for tearing the building down.
Town Attorney Jeffrey Blake argued that Golrick has not properly secured the fencing and submitted a photo taken by Jensen an hour before the hearing in which the fencing had no lock on its gate.
The town also called Zellmann and Jensen as witnesses on Tuesday. They explained through photographs and testimony why they felt the building was a hazard.
Jensen said the building needs to come down as soon as possible. Zellmann agreed.
“I believe we’ve waited too long,” Jensen said.
Golrick objected to both Zellmann and Jensen serving as witnesses, and said both lacked an engineering degree and should not make the determination if a building should come down.
“My opinion is as valid as the men who gave testimony today,” Golrick said.
Blake argued that in cases of emergency, it is precisely the building inspector who is charged with deciding if a building needs to be demolished.
“This is not a game,” Blake said. “There is a huge public safety concern here.”
On Monday, the town Selectboard voted to authorize funding for the demolition pending court approval. Town officials have said that once that approval comes, they plan to act swiftly and start demolition as soon as possible. Currently, Power Street is closed because of the hazard, but the town has no way to keep pedestrian traffic out of the area.
Reach Miranda Davis at:
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