By James Master Managing Editor, The Pilot News
ARGOS — The property located at 326 W. Church Street was once again topic of discussion at the latest Argos Town Council meeting. The property is owned by Martin and Tamara Mora.
“If you remember, we’d put out a second bid to deal with the shed and a hoop structure,” said Town Attorney Derek Jones. He informed the council that they received one bid for that work. That bid was from Kolar Konstruction Inc. in the amount of $2,820. The bid stated that the company would remove the tarp garage, woodshed, and the contents inside.
Council Vice President Shawn Harley made the motion to accept the bid from Kolar. Before the motion was voted on, Jones gave another thought to the council to consider. “I am not sure if anybody has talked to Mr. Mora about the fact that this second bid was coming. I know that the council, we had talked about giving him a heads up that these things needed to still be taken care of. I don’t know if that’s happened or not and so a thought could be to table it if that’s not happened just to say before we accept the bid and get a contractor rolling, table it till the next meeting giving him two weeks to get it done.”
Police Chief Corey Bowman and Chuck DeWitt, who oversees zoning and code enforcement, both stated that they haven’t spoken to Mora. Harley withdrew his motion and made a new motion to table the consideration of the bid until the next meeting.
Bowman said that he would speak with Mora. “I think that’s the fair thing to do. At least let the man know,” said Harley. The police chief was asking about what needs to be cleaned up and when he asked about the dune buggy, it sparked some discussion.
“I thought we agreed at the last time that the dune buggy was okay, but maybe I was wrong,” Bowman said. Jones clarified that the town let out bids to take care of what was listed on the initial order. He said that the only thing left were the items listed on this second bid.
“I think there were still questions about the boat and the dune buggy,” said Harley.
“Well, we had prior authority to remove those things to a safe location, but I honestly don’t know if that happened. But, again, I’ll come back to say that these were the only two additional things that we’ve talked about,” said Jones.
“As far as I’m concerned, the dune buggy, we’ve started this process over a year ago with this,” Harley said. In that time, according to Harley, Mora hasn’t gotten the dune buggy running. “It’s still not running, it’s still sitting in the same place with nothing done to it. I think the dune buggy should be gone according to the prior agreement, but that’s my opinion. It’s going to continue to sit there, he’s not going to do anything with it.”
Council Member George Null gave his opinion that as long as it’s sitting on concrete and doesn’t have flat tires, he sees nothing wrong with it. Chief Bowman replied that it doesn’t have a motor in it. Null then asked if it’s against the town’s ordinance.
“Our ordinance says that if you are working on a vehicle, it is to be inside,” said Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Mullaney.
“Nothing else, at least we have an ordinance violation,” said Harley.
Jones advised that if the council wishes to do something about the dune buggy, now would be the time.
“What he’s (Jones) is saying is that we can’t do that right now. We have this to deal with. If you want to add it on after you deal with this, you’re going to have another bid,” said Mullaney. It was asked if the dune buggy was in the original bid. Jones replied that everything was listed in the original order if it violated an ordinance. Kolar Konstruction submitted a bid, was awarded that bid.
The council talked about what else was needed to be taken care of and it was the hoop building and storage shed. “The same notification, we’re going to tell him about the hoop building and the storage shed. Tell him the dune buggy’s got to be taken care of, here’s the ordinance, what it says, you’ve got to be in compliance with the ordinance. That’s what our order from the court says to do. If he doesn’t do that, then ok come next meeting we can accept the bid realizing that they’re not going to mess with the dune buggy. Then if the town decides to do that then ok, tow it out to the wherever and hang on to it. Because that’s all that we’re entitled to do right now,” said Jones.
