City, homeowner in battle over property

A confrontation in St. Anthony nearly brought down a house on Thursday.

Lorraine Taylor says this is a 4-year battle that nearly rolled over a property she rents out in St. Anthony.

She has been trying to repair the house since her husband passed away and tenants have damaged it.

“Four years they’ve been sending me notices, four years I have been doing exactly what they’ve wanted.” Said Taylor. “They have always been dismissed and I’ve never paid a fine. This year they sent me a notice through the lawyer to come in again, so I went to the city council under the premise that we would talk about my property, my yard. When I got to the city council meeting, they threw at me that they were going to tear down my house.”

Taylor has a letter from the city showing she agreed to have the home razed, but there is still contention.

The city says they have given her months and th house is still a nuisance and unlivable.

“We have tried for several years to have it cleaned up.” Said City Clerk and Treasurer, Patty Parkinson. “The neighbors have complained to us repeatedly, So back in April, we sent a letter to her to clean it up. In July, we invited her to city council to say why the house shouldn’t be abated by the city since it wasn’t being cleaned up. She came to the city council meeting and agreed that the house needed to be torn down, and we’ve proceeded with that measure. On the day that we decided to proceed, she decided it didn’t need to be torn down.”

Lorraine was given 10 more days from Thursday to fix the property before they come back to demolish it.

Local News 8 and KIDK Eyewitness News 3 will follow up in 10 days to see what the outcome of this will be.