Thursday, March 21, 2013
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SHOP | ‘We’re going under. I don’t see any way that we’re not’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “Now instead of losing $1,500 a month, I’m losing everything because there’s no income to offset the costs,” said Stephen. “We’re going under. I don’t see any way that we’re not going under.” He said that after a month of vacancy, their insurance policy would likely double. A few months later the insurance company will void the policy altogether. “Then whether or not I’m bankrupt, the mortgage company in Toronto will foreclose. Or, it could cost an extra $1,000 a month for insurance due to the risk,” said Stephen. “Right now I’m thinking Anne’s business is done. It’s done. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s done.” He feels even if they opened shop someplace else, the fence and publicity has scared off most of their loyal customers. His wife Anne, who has run Pie in the Sky for five years, was emotional and reluctant to let her business go. “It’s taken me five years to build the business up,” Anne said. “It’s not about money, it’s about me staying in my building that I grew for five years and I don’t want it taken away.” The Hulls feel they are being tossed the short end of the stick: owning only part of the building
deemed unsafe by the town. They say the building’s decay is due to problems that are not on the side of the building they own. Pie in the Sky owns building 117 on John Street, while the other half, 115, belongs to the estate of a man who died last year. The Hulls say they are not sure who is handling the business now. “Regrettably, 115 John Street has been abandoned and no one has stepped forward to contribute to the cost of its repair,” the town announced in a press release last week. The Hulls say they contacted the Town of Greater Napanee by letter and phone for more than a year, informing them of issues to 115 including a bowed out back wall. They said they never received a response until after the wall collapsed on Nov. 11, 2012. “I reported a year ago in March that the building was damaged at the rear… Nobody ever got back to me,” said Stephen, who sent a letter to each town councillor about the issue. “That building has been in failure for five years and the reason is (that) there’s no eavestrough, the roof is sloped back, so anytime it rains the water comes over the roof and into the brick and limestone and into our bathroom, which is also
broken now,” said Stephen. He said after the adult video business failed, the building was rented out as a rooming house and decayed quickly, greatly affecting the Hull’s portion of the building. Terry Gervais, Greater Napanee Fire Chief, said the issue is delicate and complicated. But regardless of how many owners there may be, the building has been declared unsafe and prioritizes public safety above all else. “The key is that it’s one building with two owners. So the building is actually one complete building so it’s not one building versus another building, it’s one building,” said Gervais. “The initial issue that was brought to our attention was for (John St.) 115. That’s where we started. When the engineer went in and looked at that they said, ‘Yeah, 115 is a problem’, once we found there was a problem with 115, because it’s one building, then we had an engineer look at the entire structure, both 115 and 117,” said Gervais. It was at this point that the entire building was labeled as “at risk.” Last Tuesday, the Hulls were given 48 hours to erect a fence around the building but did not do so. Consequently the town erected a fence on Friday, forcing the business to close shortly after noon and for Anne to close her
doors. The Hulls have taken the town to court and moved the case from small claims to superior court on Monday. Stephen said they are seeking legal counsel but are having a hard time finding a lawyer that will go up against the municipality. “A guy (lawyer) in Kingston said, ‘You can’t win this case, you can’t force them to fix the building,’ but I think I can. They (the town) want that building,” said Stephen. Stephen and Anne said they didn’t want to have to take the town to court but feel they have been left no other choice. They feel it is fair to receive financial aid from the town for the months their rental unit sat vacant under the municipality’s order, and also for the cost of closing their café and ignoring their complaints regarding 115’s decaying structure in the first place. The Hulls have been in negotiations with the Town of Greater Napanee regarding the matter, but have not yet reached an agreement. Gervais said the town did not have a responsibility to get involved prior to the wall collapsing, as the town does not own the building. Once the issue became a safety hazard, though, it did become the
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town’s responsibility to ensure public safety. “We don’t want to see a business close either and council is very supportive of the downtown core and all our businesses but they’re not going to do that at the risk of public safety, which we believe is the case in this building,” said Gervais. The building was built in the 19th century. Though Town of Greater Napanee Mayor Gordon Schermerhorn could not comment on the issue, he did say public safety is a primary concern. “I can’t talk about Pie in the Sky because we’re going to court… I’m not going to say anything that will put the town in jeopardy. We just did it for public safety because our
engineer said the building is unsafe and that’s all I can say,” said Schermerhorn. Gervais said the Hulls are not the only ones affected, though they are arguably suffering the largest setbacks. The fence blockade passes through other business’s parking lots as well as town property. “The building sits on a footprint and the building actually has no land,” said Gervais. “The fencing unfortunately affects five different owners, the two building owners and then the two parking lots and then the town out front with the sidewalk and the two parking spots. So it’s very complicated,” Gervais said.
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