GREAT BARRINGTON — The Board of Health last week issued an order of condemnation to the owners of a vacant Stockbridge Road building that had been plagued with violations and had been the scene of a structure fire only a day earlier.
After some deliberation at its July 8 meeting, and on the recommendation of health agent Rebecca Jurczyk, the board voted unanimously to issue the order of condemnation to Harry and Deb Sano, owners of the building that previously housed the Wonderful Things yarn and gift shop.
The combination of smoke damage from the fire and longstanding issues such as a cockroach infestation made the building uninhabitable. Windows were also broken by first responders during the fire, Jurczyk said at a public hearing concerning a pending correction order issued in March. Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
See Edge video below of the July 8 Board of Health meeting. Fast forward to 02:00 to see the discussion on 232 Stockbridge Road:
“So, with these added things and just the structural damage from the fire, I would like to ask you all to consider issuing an order to condemn the building,” Jurczyk said.
The building has a history of code violations and other problems, including a malfunctioning furnace in 2017 that sent five tenants to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning.
At that time, responding firefighters said the building had no functioning carbon monoxide detectors. There are no longer any egresses and there are still active complaints against the Sanos in housing court.
“All the occupants have been housed in a different location, so with the prior violations and now this report from the fire department, and just looking at the building, I think that there is good reason to condemn the building,” Jurczyk added. “It wasn’t safe to occupy three weeks ago and I think it’s even more so now.”
Board member Ruby Chang said she would like to hear from the Sanos before making a decision. Deb Sano said the store has long since closed and the last of the tenants vacated the building about a month ago. The building was cleaned out by the middle of June.
The Sanos said they had found a buyer for the building who wished to demolish it, which, as Deb Sano said, “is the way it was supposed to have been.”
“We were selling it as-is, with the understanding that it’s too old,” she said. “There was too much to be done to it. It needed to be demolished.”
As for those who lived in the building, Sano said, “They were not just tenants; it was a community.” She added that when the tenants learned of the recent fire, several of them called her immediately to find out how their former landlords were doing.
“We tried to do everything to meet the demands of the board of health, but no matter what we did, it wasn’t enough — and that’s why we decided to sell,” Sano said, her voice rising in frustration.
Board of Health chair Michael Lanoue said he agreed with Jurczyk, in part because of “the many outstanding violations.”
“And now the building is completely unfit for human habitation, so I think this order meets the criteria,” Lanoue said. The vote on the order passed unanimously.
