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| One of the dilapidated properties that code enforcement continued to ignore |
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
Below is the chronicles of the 4 year odyssey of Dr. Joe Holt and his wife Michelle Holt in dealing with the city of Augusta to enforce building codes on property surrounding theirs in downtown Augusta. As you will see, they mostly got the run-around from the city. During that time they endured numerous acts of vandalism to their property, costing them in the tens of thousands of dollars. As you may be aware, the residents of Harrisburg have also had numerous difficulties in getting action from the city to act on enforcing building codes. The following chronicle of events was sent to us by Michelle Holt. This is what hard-working, taxpaying property owners are having to deal with regularly with the city of Augusta.
Background of who we are:
Southeastern Family Institute was a
non-profit started by my husband Dr. Joe Holt in 2004. This non-profit would provide services for
the community in blighted areas as well as low income areas. Most of the clients would be families with
children in foster care who need to full fill their case plan through DFCS
and/or DSS in order to obtain custody of their children.
One building would be used as a visitation
center for the children and their families and we provided supervised
visitation. The other building would house the various groups and counseling
needed such as anger management, substance abuse groups, domestic violence
classes and parenting classes. There was a third building in our row that we
were looking to acquire or lease and that building would house a teen shelter. We
became a host site for Golden Harvest and Angel Food Ministries to serve the
families.
Those needs were many and
we had support of the local family court judges in town as well as DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice). My husband met with all the juvenile judges
as well as leadership in DJJ. We attempted to gain support through the
community with media attention (See Augusta Chronicle story here)
and
even had articles written in the Metro Spirit but we never saw the support.
We
gave our personal money into the projects and community. We asked for support
from the local churches but were asked “what’s in it for us?” and the state
funding and grants were nowhere to be found. The only funds used were funds
from our own pockets. It would appear the consensus of so many was “NIMBY” and
this attitude was reflected from local leaders as well as our local government
with their lack of support.
Our battle with the city to enforce the
created laws and ordinances began in 2008. Just months after we purchased our
properties on 5th street in Augusta, Ga. we started making calls to
code enforcement and when that didn’t create a response we then began
documentation about our issues in 2008. Our neighbor Calvin B. Walker had several
properties that were condemned and they all surrounded our block (441 Fenwick, 443 Fenwick, 438 Watkins and 448 Watkins). One of those buildings actually backed up
against our property and our chain link fence was all that separated us from these
eyesores. For years this went on and
finally escalated in November of 2009 when our buildings were first attacked by
squatters. It was not until I threatened getting media involved that I gained
the interest of code enforcement.
Below is a chain of emails documenting our efforts to have code enforcement rectify these problems.:
-----Original Message-----
From: mychel65
To: csrafamilies ; pcostabile
; llariscy
Sent: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 4:48 pm
Subject: Re: Help with facilities
Dear Ms.
Costabile,
Almost a year and a half ago, my husband Joe
Holt sent information to you via the emails attached requesting assistance in
matters of which we as law abiding tax payers where facing
concerning owners of properties in the block of 5th and Fenwick street who are
not abiding by code and city ordinances on the upkeep of the buildings he owns.
This man (Calvin Walker) owns several dilapidated houses that surround our
properties. We abide by the codes. We spend thousands of dollars to renovate
our buildings and yet the owner of the dilapidated buildings does nothing about
his and gets away with this behavior? Why is that? As per your response,
someone was supposed to contact my husband and never did. This weekend
our offices on 632 and 626 5th street in this area were burglarized
and vandalized by squatters whom the Sheriff's office has knowledge of
arresting before.
There is thousands of dollars in damage due to copper pipes
and wiring being stripped from inside the walls of the building and
underneath. In addition they stripped the copper wiring and pipes in the A/C
units outside. The squatters also had dogs that they allowed to poop and pee in
the rooms as well as tear up the wood trim around the walls and
doors. The deputy stated the buildings owned by Calvin Walker are
full of human feces and apparently these squatters/drug addicts are now
moving to our buildings. We can't afford this type of crime as we provide
services for probation and Richmond Co. Family court.
As taxpayers and
responsible land owners it is not fair that some owners such as Mr. Walker are
not held to the same standard and I want to know why? I am taking this to the
media because this must stop and one way or the other it must be addressed. We
have been more than patient for the city to do their job and enforce the codes
to everyone and not just a select group.
I look forward to your response on this
matter.
Michele T. Holt
-----Original Message-----
From: csrafamilies@aim.come
To: mychel65@aim.com
Sent: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 8:29 pm
Subject: Re: Help with facilities
Below is the email Pam Constible sent to Larry Lariscy of code enforcement (we were forwarded a copy)
-----Original Message-----
From: Pam Costabile pcostabile@augustaga.gov
To: Larry Lariscy <llariscy@augustaga.gov>
Cc: E J Holt, Ph D <csrafamilies@aim.com>; Rodney J. McAmis <RMcAmis@augustaga.gov>; Robert H. Sherman <rsherman@augustaga.gov>
Sent: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 12:22 pm
Subject: RE: Help with facilities
Larry, Please call
Mr. Holt and meet with him and be sure we are addressing the issues he is
concerned with. I found several addresses you are working on behind
his properties on the 400 blk of Watkins near Gordon Hwy. One you
sent to Marshall Department to issue a citation to appear in court. Did
they ever serve them?. I also see where we have ordered a title search
for 438 Watkins. I will check and see if the law office has
received the title search, If so we can try to bump it up to the next
available court hearings for demolition. I will check and let you
know. Please Keep Mr. Holt informed of your progress until the work is
completed. His phone number and address is listed below. Once you
have spoken to Mr. Holt please let me know status so I can report back to Rob.
Thanks,
Pamela C. Costabile
Pamela C. Costabile
Code Enforcement Manager
City of Augusta Georgia
706-312-5049 pcostabile@augustaga.gov
Now Rob Sherman, Director of Code Enforcement volleys it back to Pam Constabile:
From: Robert H. Sherman
Sent: Tuesday, August 19,
2008 11:50 AM
To: E J Holt, Ph D; Rodney
J. McAmis
Cc: Pam Costabile
Subject: RE: Help with
facilities
Pam,
would you have an inspector contact Mr. Holt, and address the code issues.
Thanks.
Sent: Tuesday, August 19,
2008 11:22 AM
To: Robert H. Sherman;
Rodney J. McAmis
Subject: Help with
facilities
I
am the owner of 626, 632, and portions of 634-638 Fifth Street. The
properties surrounding are falling down around me and now we have discovered a
huge swamp of yellow jackets at the rear of the property where the properties
come together. I have spoken with code enforcement about a year ago
regarding the conditions of the facilities around me and now they worse and I
do not see any efforts to improve or destroy the units, but I am harassed by
yellow jackets as they reside in those unsafe facilities.
As a tax payer, I am hopeful that you can assist me. I am required to
keep mine up, so how can the others walk away from the same
responsibility. Please advise.
EJ Holt, Ph D
Augusta,
Georgia
xxx Fifth St Augusta, Georgia 30901
706 xxx xxxx -
Office
North Augusta
xxxx Georgia Avenue, Suite D North Augusta, SC 29841
Office 803 xxx xxxx Fax
803 xxx xxxx
On November 16, 2009 I
received an email from Pam Costible informing me that they have taken a warrant
out on Mr. Walker for violation of code enforcement policies. I was told in
this email that they were giving him 45 days to clean and demolish all of his
buildings that surrounded our properties. However this never happened, so I contacted Pam Constabile yet again (see email below)
-----Original Message-----
From: mychel65@aim.com
To: pcostabile@augustaga.gov
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 10:13 am
Subject: Re: Watkins and Fenwick St
Ms. Costabile,
As of last Saturday there has been no movement in the process of taking
down and cleaning the properties owned by Mr. Walker. We were told in the last
conversation that Mr. Walker was given until the end of the year (2009) to
address the properties and once again it appears either he has "political
ties" or power that we are not aware of with his involvement in the
Harrisburg renovation project to be able to ignore the courts order. It is
extremely distressing for my husband and I to watch how we are being held to a
different standard as other taxpayers. We pay our property taxes every year
with out fail and try to offer Richmond Co. a better visual than what Mr.
Walker promotes with his "eyesores". It is hard to lease our
buildings when prospects can see buildings falling down around us. The failure
of Mr. Walker is causing us financial harm since we can not get our buildings
leased because of his negligence in taking care of his properties. Would you
lease a building with those views?
Sincerely,
Michele T. Holt
xxx/xxx 5th Street
Augusta, Ga. 30901
xxxx Georgia Ave.
North Augusta, SC. 29841
From: mychel65@aim.com
To: maitken@augustaga.gov; csrafamilies@aim.com; MayorDeke@augustaga.gov
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 11:44 am
Subject: Fwd: Watkins and Fenwick St
Dear Mr. Aitken,
My name is Michele Holt. Below is dialogue that I have had with
the city (outside of my husband's many conversations with the city as well)
concerning property owner Calvin Walker. Mr. Walker owns condemned
buildings that surround our Augusta offices located at the corner of 5th and
Fenwick Streets. Our buildings are at 626 and 632 5th street and we have
spent thousands of dollars out of our personal pockets to restore and
revitalize that block. Mr. Walker however has been able to ignore
requests and orders to clean up his properties for many years now and I want to
know why?
We have suffered greatly financially due to Mr. Walker's negligence because we
can not lease our buildings because of the view of his shacks. In addition we
have had our office broken into (as recently as 2 wks. ago) because those
offenders feel like since Mr. Walker allows vagrants to shack up in his
buildings, we must all feel that way on that corner (as per the deputy who
answered the call). I spoke with Ms. Costible this morning (she called me after
receiving the below email) and I just asked her point blank, "Does Mr.
Walker have some political ties that allow him to just be able to ignore
requests to clean up his mess?"
Mr. Walker claims to be a pastor of a church on our block yet he also has
contracts to benefit from in the Harrisburg revitalization/Laney Walker project
(as per the article in Augusta Chronicle in December). Mr. Walker has
approached my husband to let him through his "church" purchase the
buildings we own. How is he able to do that? As you can maybe pick up by
this email, that I am extremely frustrated at how we as taxpayers and property
owners are doing the right thing and Mr. Walker is able to get away with his
actions.
On Nov. 7, 2009 our buildings were broken into and vandalized causing
close to $9,000 in damages (I have the estimates to prove my claim). We
discovered that several people were not only stealing wiring from our buildings
but living there during that week. They stole items we had stored from our
plans to open a girls shelter and also used the bedding. To add insult to
injury they also had pit bulls. Between the squatters and the dogs, every room
had been destroyed with urine and feces (both human and dog). One of those
individuals came back the following day and was caught trying to steal more
copper wiring (my husband and a contractor friend yelled at him to stop) and
when the man jumped the fence, he ran to Mr. Walker's church and yelled "
he is going to call the cops". When the police arrived (even the detective
who showed later) and questioned, Mr. Walker denied he saw or spoke to the
man.
That is why we are living in fear Mr. Aitken, because we are constantly being
attacked and Mr. Walker just ignores clean up orders. If it is true that he (or
anyone associated with him) knows these people who are breaking the laws, then
he is also in part accountable for our loss. Two weeks ago the electrician who
was working on one of our buildings, called our office to notify us that yet
again someone had kicked the doors upstairs in to one of our buildings. We now
have A/C duct work pulled from the vents underneath the buildings (and once
again another damage claim and more money out of our pocket).
Ms. Beard ignored our complaints during her tenure as we have been voicing them
now for over 5 years. Mr. Walker has also promised to take care of his
responsibilities and still nothing has been done. Please do not do the same.
Sincerely,
Michele T. Holt
Southeastern Family Institute
xxx 5th Street
Augusta, Ga. 30901
If you notice my dates I reported that our properties
were hit by squatters and thieves on Nov. 7, 2009 and January 4, 2010. Below is
the next email I sent to Mr. Aitken, Mayor Copenhavor and the city:
-----Original Message-----
From: mychel65
To: maitken ; District1CC
; MayorDeke ;
csrafamilies
Sent: Tue, Jun 8, 2010 8:23 pm
Subject: Fwd: Watkins and Fenwick St
Dear Mr. Aitken and Mayor Deke,
Below is an email I sent to you on January 14th of this year. Since this
email the properties mentioned that my husband owns has had 4 more incident
reports of thefts, vandalism and trespassing to include a break in Tuesday
morning. I would say that for a property owner to continually be victimized
over and over again is quite shocking, wouldn't you? I mean it has not been 30
- days since all of our A/C units were completely stripped and the outer core
peeled away costing us thousands of dollars in damages and here we are again.
This time we had our front window shattered and all of our Disney lithographs
(over 14 total) taken and our property trashed.
We are a non-profit who at one time provided services to the community that
assist families and children as well as our justice system. In May when our A/C
units and wiring were completely stripped in both of our buildings (for the
second time, the first incident occurred in November) our insurance agent
stated in front of Scott Hudson w/ WGAC that we would be dropped if we filed
another claim. Financially we are devastated. My husband and I put thousands of
our own money into these properties to bring them up and revitalize them to
offer the community services that were desperately needed. We have no money to
fix our buildings and with this latest incident today, it is obvious to us as
well as the RCSD deputy who came out today that someone is sending us a message
that they want us to give up and go away.
We have the support of the Justice system in town. Sheriff Strength, Lt.
Scott Gay and the deputies who have answered the multiple calls have done
everything they know to assist. When they arrest people who are caught on the
property, they are released the next day, and guess what...they always come back
to our property. We have had the support from several Judges in the
community who were a part of our dream of opening a shelter for at risk youth,
but with no community support, grants or cuts in state budgets we had to stop
investing our own money.
At this point I am deeply distressed at how we are continually victimized, and
how we can financially continue. We are exhausted mentally and physically at
what we as property owners have faced in the last 6 months. My husband's health
has deteriorated due to the stress. I can only imagine how Joe Bowles would
feel if he was treated this way over and over again, if after one time being
the victim he felt he must take matters in his own hand. I don't blame him
quite frankly...not after this.
When asked by the city (code enforcement) to assist in the case against our
neighbor Mr. Walker, we were present multiple times...this meant taking our
income we could have earned working and instead supporting the city.
Unfortunately Mr. Walker was allowed to not show up several times and on the
last time in May when he was arrested, he only spent a few days in jail and was
given a pass because even today he has yet to do everything code has asked him
to do on his properties. We forced the issue with Code enforcement today
because we feel it is adding insult to injury to hold one property owner to a
different standard than their neighbor. Mr. Walker has never been burglarized,
his A/C units are still untouched while ours (that is protected by a 6 ft.
privacy fence) gets vandalized continually. How would this make you feel? I
would think pretty helpless and ready to give up.
It is sad to say this because I personally lived in Augusta from 1975 to 2000
and grew up in the schools here. As a small business owner and philanthropist,
my husband and I have done what we could to give back. However, if responsible
property owners like us are going to continue to be beaten down over and over
again with thefts, vandals, etc....what is left for us to look forward to in
downtown Augusta?
I realize that sending this really only means a venting session you may read
and pass on or just read. However I feel my voice must be heard, it must be
taken seriously, and it must matter. If Augusta is to be successful, then those
things must not go unnoticed.
Sincerely,
Michele T. Holt
***
Update
I would also like to note that during the visit by Lt.
Scott Gay, we were told that RCSD was going to develop a task force to combat
the increase in metal crimes in Augusta.
To my knowledge that “task force” consists of only ONE deputy and
I believe this was nothing more than an appeasement position created. The only feedback we received from Mr. Aitken
was a phone call stating how sorry he was for our losses and to keep him informed.
We never heard from Mayor Copenhaver. This is just a portion of our feedback and
dialogues we made. My husband had
repeated conversations with Rob Sherman, Larry Lairscy, Pam Costible, George
Patty, as well as Sheriff Strength. Everything that comes to Augusta, the
newest and shiniest building or development will soon become another victim to
crime. We’ve seen it over the years with downtown, Regency Mall, and Augusta
Mall and we will continue to see crime or the criminal element take over areas
as long as the city continues to not make enforcement of laws and a strong law
enforcement department a priority. And
to those who think you can just move to Evans or North Augusta to get away from
the crime, trust me it will follow no matter where you are. The only difference
is leadership and how serious they decide to take protecting the taxpayers a
priority.
Since that last email shown above we have been victimized
another 5 TIMES!! which included the last incident report on January 5, 2012. It
is interesting to note that Walker’s buildings still remain untouched. Below is the link to that coverage after I
called Channel 12 and got support from Chris Thomas to cover the story since he
was part of the news media who covered the last incidents with our break-ins
and Calvin Walker.
Below are the links that covered the Calvin Walker issues
w/ code enforcement and the LW/B development issues from 2010:
My purpose in sending this information is not to be a
catalyst for more of the same. I am also not interested in being nothing more
than an example to be used for personal vendettas or “bashing sessions” against
our city leaders. What I am interested in is a movement for change, one that is
proactive and not reactive. One that exposes the wrong in the system and with
the information makes a positive change that benefits all of the communities,
not just ones that are the most affluent. I’m looking for accountability and I do
not support reliability on other people’s money. If I am expected by the city
of Augusta to be a responsible property owner, maintain my land and dwelling(s)
and pay my taxes and not create an eyesore for the city to complain about then
I must look to the city and say, “do your part as well”. Obviously the city has not lived up to their
part of the relationship. ***
1 comment:
When we had a problem with the A-RC's utilities department, the department didn't solve the problem until we got an attorney to write them a "demand letter." Have the Holts tried this?
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