MEDORA

A brick building at the corner of Main and Perry streets in the heart of Medora has been vacant for a while.

According to property tax records, a note in 2011 said the building had been in the process of being remodeled since at least 2002, and the walls and flooring were removed. When the remodeling was finished, the nearby post office planned to move into the building.

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The remodeling, however, never was completed, and the post office is still in the same location.

Recently, the Medora Town Council expressed concern about the safety of the building at 3 S. Perry St., which has been owned by David and Mary Abner of Norman since Feb. 17, 2000.

Council President Bob Thompson suggested to David that he have an engineer check the building.

“It was leaning when I bought it,” David said. “I can’t tell it’s leaned any more than it was when I bought it, but I’ll check into it. I’ve tucked it on both sides and put sealer. You can go inside and check the sealer, and it would be cracked if it was leaned any more, but we tucked it inside and out.”

Thompson said if the Abners don’t want to have the building checked by an engineer, it will be up to the town’s unsafe building committee to have it checked.

“If that comes down and it is unsafe, then we’ll have to do something. It’s mainly for the safety of the people is what it’s all about,” Thompson said. “If you feel it’s not unsafe but you want to have it checked out, that’s fine, but we need some kind of answer. The board has concerns over it being in the area it’s in, and there are older people that do park there, and here lately, I’ve not seen hardly anybody park there.”

Town attorney Matt Lorenzo said the town’s ordinance states a building owner has 20 days to take action after receiving a letter. The council, however, could extend that to allow an engineer to inspect it, he said.

David said he would try to get an engineer so he could report an update at the next council meeting.

“It will take awhile to get an engineer,” he said. “I’ll try to get one. I don’t know if I can or not. You don’t get them that easy.”

Thompson asked David to keep in touch with him or Lorenzo with any progress.

“It’s a pretty good concern of the downtown people,” Thompson said of the safety of the building. “Some people are afraid, I guess. That’s what we’re trying to get resolved.”

According to property tax records, the building was changed to all utility storage and unfinished and the plumbing was removed in 2015.

Town Councilwoman Sharon Bowers said she remembers different families operating grocery stores in the building years ago, and Clerk-Treasurer Betty Campbell said a store that sold thread and material used to be upstairs.

In her 19 years as clerk-treasurer, Campbell said the building has been vacant.

It’s currently listed for sale with FC Tucker Bloomington Realtors.

“We would love to just see someone purchase the building and actually do some good in there, put something in there again,” Bowers said. “I’m not saying (the current condition of the building) is what’s keeping anyone from buying it, but I think a lot of people look at it as pretty much a gutted building and just feel it’s not stable and that it would cost so much to actually go in and start pretty much over with it.”