SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Shaker Heights City Council on Monday approved spending up to $100,000 to build a protective barrier around the historic former First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association headquarters at the corner of Lee Road and Scottsdale Boulevard.
The city’s Building and Housing Department declared the building a nuisance on Sept. 13, the day that department Director Kyle Krewson said the city became aware of a piece of masonry that fell from the century-old building’s parapet.
Krewson said the building’s owner, Cecil King Jr., did not meet the city’s deadlines to build protective fencing and get the structure’s façade inspected. The city entered an emergency contract with Suburban Maintenance & Construction on Nov. 14 to do the work.
Work on the barrier began Monday and is expected to wrap up on Wednesday.
The city plans to pay for a detailed façade inspection and any necessary repairs of the building in the coming months.
The city plans to recoup the money by billing King and his company, T.N.L. Group, for the job. The city will also assess a 22% administrative fee on top of those costs.
If King comes forward with a plan for repairs, Krewson said that the city will back off and let King take the lead.
King attended Monday’s council meeting and asked, during the public comment portion, for council to postpone their vote. But his comments came after council had already unanimously passed the contract.
King said the piece of masonry actually fell two months before city staffers went to the property and declared it a nuisance.
He told council that the building and housing department was aware of the collapse well before the Sept. 13 declaration of the nuisance, and accused them of only acting after the façade of a commercial building in Cleveland Heights collapsed on Sept. 11.
cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to a city spokeswoman on Tuesday for response to King’s claim.
King made some repairs to the building already, but he said he was struggling to find an engineer who could sign off on the repairs to the city’s satisfaction.
He said he did not think that the fence was necessary.
“Why cause me that type of financial hardship for something that is not serving any purpose at all?” King asked.
Mayor David Weiss said that he and city council rely on the expertise of the building department. The work they approved was to intended keep the public and the building’s tenants safe, Weiss said.
“Ultimately we need to get comfort that those repairs you’ve made, or need to make, have been done,” Weiss said. “You need to get an engineer or someone who has the qualifications to give us comfort with that point.”
King has owned the building since 2003. Built in 1930, the building was declared a local landmark in 1998. It has 14 apartments and two empty storefronts on the ground level.