By MARGARET L. WILLIS

The current owners of the former Moneypenny property have a choice to make, they were told in no uncertain terms by the Burns Harbor Town Council Wednesday; either cooperate with town Building Commissioner Randall Lopez, or the town will proceed with condemnation of the derelict property.

Mary Slagenweit attempted to draw the council and the council attorney into the process, claiming progress had not been made because town attorney Bob Welsh had not contacted her attorney about council members meeting her and her husband at the site to review its status.

Attorney Bob Welsh told her he has no intention of contacting her attorney and that the problems lie squarely with the Slagenweits for not making and keeping an appointment with Lopez.

“I am not going to spend taxpayers money to explain this to your attorney,” he said. He also said Town Council members are not going to get personally involved.

“This is between you and the town Building Commissioner. If you want to take advantage of the meeting being offered, get it worked out. If not,” he warned, “by the next council meeting it becomes a legal matter. As far as the town is concerned, this has been made very clear.”

Slagenweit said she was awaiting word from her attorney about a town response to a home inspection she’d paid for and word on a meeting.

Lopez said he had tried to set up meetings with Slagenweit and gotten no cooperation.

Welsh told Slagenweit that a home inspection holds little weight compared to a building inspection to determine whether building repairs are up to town code or not.

The matter has been dragging on for many months and council president Jim McGee, at least, has little patience left. After some minutes of back and forth, McGee cut off further discussion. He reiterated Welsh’s comments, telling Slagenweit that council members would not meet with her and directed her to meet with town building commissioner Lopez.

The Slagenweits were visibly upset by the council reaction and attorney Welsh’s comments and McGee had some trouble cutting off their remarks and accusations. They claimed to have cleaned up the house and “done all they could do,” and said they were getting no cooperation from the town.

They then left the council meeting room but returned after the meeting, apparently to make an appointment with Lopez.

EDC, Redevelopment meetings

The council set two consecutive meetings for Monday, April 28; one to deal with the possibility that Ryerson , a local steel processing plant, may be out of compliance with their Tax Abatement reporting. There was speculation that since the company was sold, it may no longer qualify for Tax Abatement at all.

The Economic Development Commission will meet at 7 p.m. April 28, to discuss the issue.

Just prior to that meeting, the Redevelopment Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Both will be held in the town hall.

Welsh was instructed to examine the town of Porter’s Frost Law ordinance with an eye to adopting similar language for the town of Burns Harbor, which does not currently have an ordinance guiding truck weight when roads are vulnerable to damage due to the changing frost line.

The committee on the town employee Personnel Manual continues to meet and is “working diligently,” said town council member Toni Biancardi.

The Technical Upgrade of the town offices has progressed with a list of needs and requests compiled and an evaluation of current equipment planned this week along with a phone system analysis.

The town website is “ready to publish,” Biancardi reported, and will go online once a final decision about the IP address is made.

All council members were present; Perrine, Toni Biancardi, president Jim McGee, Cliff Fleming and Louis Bain.

This was the first meeting of 2008 Bain has been able to attend. He has been on active duty with the Marine Reserves in Iraq and returned home last week.

Posted 4/11/2008