Potential tenants might be able to move back into the apartments at 215 East St. In Hobart after March 1 if progress on it continues apace.
City Building Official Karen Hansen told the Board of Public Works at its Wednesday meeting that the electrical contractor completing the work at the condemned apartment building was waiting to install new fire alarms that day. Once they’re installed, the city will issue permits for Chesterton-based All Aspects Heating and Cooling to start work on the HVAC system, she said.
Once that work is finished, the city is prepared to issue property owner Joe Gore an updated certificate of occupancy, Hansen said.
“It seems like there’s a lot of progress being made,” she told the board, to which Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor said was “very good to hear.”
The board agreed to allow Gore or his attorney, Greg Bouwer, to appear at the March 1 meeting for an update.
Hobart Firefighters conducted a wellness check on an elderly woman who lived in a basement apartment at a 100-year-old, 11-unit apartment building at 215 East St., just east of downtown, sometime after noon July 11, 2022. Firefighters first discovered that the windows to the basement had been boarded and sealed shut.
Firefighters later learned that the woman had been moved out of the dwelling, officials said, but further investigation showed that the building had, among other problems, standing water in the basement, water leaking into the main electrical box and out of electrical outlets, and sewage from one unit bubbling up into another unit’s bathtub. City officials first posted bright yellow “Do Not Occupy” signs on the doors that afternoon; the order to shut it down completely came the next day.
“The inspection of the building at 215 East Street, Hobart, Indiana, concluded numerous violations relating to public safety including but not limited to electrical issues, blocked exits, inoperative illumination/exit signs, water leaks, sewage backup, expired fire extinguishers, potential asbestos and black mold, unsanitary living conditions and lack of properly working smoke detectors,” the order reads. “The condition of the building presents a clear and immediate danger of serious bodily injury.”
A judgment docket book also was entered Dec. 20 in Lake Superior Court Civil Division 6 against Gore, principal of Valparaiso-based Glenwood Properties LLC, according to court records. A judgment docket book, according to the state’s website (https://www.in.gov/courts/iocs/files/pubs-trial-court-judgment-docket.pdf), “is a list of all judgments for the recovery of money or costs, indexed in alphabetical order, open to public inspection, and intended to afford official notice to interested parties of the existence of a judgment.”
The judgment of $245 was issued against Gore for an August violation of Hobart’s ordinance against high grass and weeds, City Attorney Heather McCarthy said in an email. Gore, she said, neither paid the fines nor appeared in City Court over them.
Gore has eight other pending cases out of New Chicago for nuisance violations at various properties, court records show , in addition to a lawsuit filed in October by 17 of the former tenants of 215 East, who are asking for “all reasonable actual, compensatory and/or consequential damages, recoverable punitive damages, recoverable pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, recoverable attorney fees and costs and all other just and proper relief in the premises” on two counts, the Post-Tribune reported previously. The tenants are seeking a jury trial.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
