By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Monday was the reported deadline for Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage to finalize a site plan for a condemned property that he, at least in part, owns.
The property, a single-story building located well back from the corner of Bonner Street and John Small Avenue in Washington, is Deatherage’s former real-estate office.
A check of tax records showed more than one name, including Deatherage’s, on an account for the 3.22 acres of land on which the onetime office is set.
The site is the former John Small Elementary School property.
At last check, the land had an appraised tax value of $112,700.
The tax assessor’s office could not find a listing for the building, which had no apparent tax value.
The building was condemned by the City of Washington because it had no permanent foundation, Allen Pittman, senior building official with the city, told the Washington Daily News in late January.
Last month, Pittman referred subsequent inquiries to Bobby Bryan, a building-code official with the city.
Bryan said the city had held a hearing on the matter. He said Deatherage’s deadline was May 10, which was Monday.
“Really, nothing has changed since the hearing we had,” Bryan commented in April.
On Tuesday, Bryan referred requests for further information to City Manager James C. Smith.
Smith said the hearing to which Bryan referred was held several months ago. As a consequence of the hearing, Deatherage was required to present a plan to bring the building into compliance or remove it.
Deatherage has presented the plan, which hasn’t been executed, Smith noted.
Over the years, the city has worked with property owners in cases where there was an option of letting them keep their properties and avoid spending public money to remove or demolish them, Smith pointed out.
Reached for comment Wednesday, Deatherage said he had sent the city an e-mail regarding the condemnation issue Monday, but hadn’t received a response as of Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m working on it,” he said. “I’ve sent them an e-mail, and they have not sent me one back, so I’ll pray that there will be some kind of agreement. I need more time to do this. I still want to do what I originally sought to do.”
Smith said he has read Deatherage’s e-mail, which was forwarded to the city’s code-enforcement officers and City Attorney Franz Holscher.
In January, Deatherage related that he hoped to subdivide the land, which he said is zoned for office and institutional use, and add a story and a half to the building.
He said he’d been dealing with concerns tied to the property and his late father’s estate.
“It is a legal matter, and it has been a legal matter since shortly before my father’s death,” he stated in January. “It is my hope that it will be taken care of so that I can continue my desire to build on that property.”
On Wednesday, Deatherage asserted that he’s willing to cooperate with the city in “any way I can that is possible.”
He said the issue is “one that can be remedied without drastic action.”
“I’m hoping that because I’m a politician, it won’t work against me in that regard,” he noted.
Deatherage said he doesn’t believe that politics played a role in the condemnation, but he did contend that politics motivated some of the people who complained about the structure in question.
Pittman has said that public concerns — complaints — led city inspectors to investigate the building.
“I think any time you’re an elected official you’ve got to be careful who you listen to,” Deatherage said. “I think if I did everything I was asked to do by the public I would be in a hell of a mess right now.”