‘They just took everything’ w/ Joplin city code concerning dangerous buildings & demolition of property

By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

A Joplin man claims that workers hired by the city removed thousands of dollars worth of personal property when a storage barn on his land was demolished after a judge found that the building was in dangerous condition.

City officials contend that the man was given more than four months to fix the building or to clear out and properly store any property he wanted to keep.

William “Bud” Wirick, 305 S. High Ave., said he did not know when a demolition crew showed up on Nov. 2 to take down his storage barn that he would not be allowed to keep a half-dozen cars, a couple of motorcycles, six mowers, tools, 15 rolls of metal roofing material, roof rafters, and other belongings in and around the barn.

Wirick said the property he lost when a crew hired by the city cleared out his storage barn was worth several thousand dollars. He said one of several cars stored there was a 1966 model that was sold as a rebuilder for $2,300, but the buyer hadn’t picked it up yet.

Wirick was cited July 13 in Joplin Municipal Court for allowing a dangerous building to exist next to his house. He pleaded guilty Oct. 6. As a result, Municipal Judge Alex Curchin ordered the city to tear down the building.

Citations

Wirick said he had the barn built because of a number of citations he received over the years for keeping inoperable vehicles parked on the street or in his yard. The city has an ordinance against indefinite open storage of vehicles and other items.

According to court records, Wirick has been cited seven times since 1996 by the city of Joplin for code issues. All but one of those offenses — most were for storing cars and other things on his property — resulted in fines of up to $60. He was fined $272 in 2001 for parking non-operable vehicles on the street.

He said the barn’s roof came down during one of the ice storms that hit the Joplin area in 2007.

Earlier this year, Wirick said, he bought rafters to repair the roof and was slowly working with relatives to fix it as his health and weather conditions permitted. He said he had installed a main support beam and was working on installing rafters when he was cited.

The municipal judge gave him a number of continuances in the case, having him report to the court about every two weeks, he said. He said he had installed all but four new rafters when the weather turned rainy and delayed the work.

He acknowledged that he had not cleared the collapsed debris from inside of the barn.

Wirick said that when the crew showed up Nov. 2, he was told that nothing could be kept.