Fire-Ruined Wisconsin Apartment Building Becomes An Eyesore

July 29, 2004
People in an east-side Green Bay neighborhood say they want an apartment building torn down

People in an east-side Green Bay neighborhood say they want an apartment building torn down.

That building was gutted by a fire on May 5th, burning through the roof and destroying nearly everything in the building, costing half a million dollars in damage.

Nearly three months have passed and the gutted building still hasn't been torn down. Neighbors say it's an eyesore and a safety hazard.

It stands near the crossroads where hundreds of people drive through to get to their homes, a grim reminder of what happened three months ago after a four-year-old played with a cigarette lighter. Neighbors say the building, owned by Kos Management, continues to decay.

"Every day when I come out of the apartment building across the street where I live, when I get to the stop sign and look over, more of it has collapsed," Pecan Street neighbor Brenda Held said, "and I think it's a danger. There are a lot of little children that live in the neighborhood here."

Joshua Windham shares that concern. He says a curious child could easily wind up inside. "Somebody is going to walk in there one day, some little kid or something, and get hurt," Windham said. "It's a huge safety issue."

An employee of the City of Green Bay says the city is working with the landlord to redevelop the property into a new eight-unit apartment building. While both sides work to develop the site, the city has been patient on the timetable for tearing the fire-gutted building down. That was, until this week. Now the city has told Kos Management the building needs to come down soon.

"It needs to be torn down and rebuilt so people can get on with their lives," Windham said. "It's just a complete waste to leave it standing here."

Kos Management told Action News it should have the building knocked down within the next ten days. It blamed the delay on paperwork and steps it had to take to figure out what goes on the site after the demolition.

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