The Franklin Town Council voted Monday night to begin the process for demolition of the house at 981 East Main Street.
The council has discussed the property at previous meetings and a public hearing was held as part of the Oct. 2 meeting. No one signed up to speak at the hearing, but Dr. Ann Shower spoke about the issues she has had with feral cats and vermin on the property as well as people crossing over onto her property. Shower owns Animal House Veterinary Clinic next door to the house. At a previous meeting she spoke about safety concerns for her staff and finding drug needles. “It needs to go,” she said of the house.
Town Code Enforcement Officer Frank Belanger has been monitoring the condition of the property since receiving complaints in October 2022 and has sent violation notices to the owners. The house is owned by brothers John and Sam Duncan who inherited it from their aunt Pearl Mashburn.
In his report, Belanger noted in November some work had been done to remove debris and trash and the overgrown grass had been mowed. Also a mobile sawmill that had been on the property was removed.
No one from the Duncan family spoke at the Oct. 2 public hearing. In a letter to the council dated Sept. 9, Sam Duncan said he recently had surgery on his hands, and it was their intent to clean up the property which had been “virtually destroyed by drug addicts, vagrants and squatters.” He said they had boarded up the house and posted “no trespassing” signs, but they had been torn down and people re-entered the house.
Duncan said he has been a licensed contractor for more than 40 years and he would like to assess the structural condition of the house and determine if any of it could be saved. “It is after all our private property and our investment, regardless,” he stated in the letter.
Sam Duncan, who lives in Florida, said he planned to be in Franklin the end of September with a track hoe to remove everything but the core of the house and to clean up the property. He asked that the town table a decision for six months. (Crews were working on the property last week.)
Duncan closed his letter by saying that after cleaning up the property they planned to list it for sale. “Perhaps the Town of Franklin would be interested in purchasing the property for future highly anticipated expansion,” the letter stated.
According to the 2023 tax records, the house is valued at $3,450 and the 1.29 acres of land is valued at $290,250.
Council member Rita Salain made a motion to accept the ordinance to have the house removed or demolished. Vice Mayor Joe Collins seconded the motion. During the discussion, Council members Mike Lewis and Stacy Guffey asked about a timeline and what are the options if the family started working on the property.
Attorney John Henning Jr. said it could take 2-3 weeks for the paperwork to go through, then the town would have to get bids for demolition of the house; he said the town can delay the demolition if the council feels an effort is being made to improve the property.
Guffey said he understands the house is unlivable, but he was hopeful the owners would move on it before the town has to. Mayor Jack Horton said the house is a health hazard. Lewis said he had talked to the fire chief to see if the fire department could burn the house as a training, but that was not an option. “I just want us to look at every available option before we take somebody’s property,” Lewis said.
Salain said, “This is not a new situation.”
Collins said it sounds like the family is not “gee-hawing” about the property. “We’re not taking the property, we’re marketing the property and we’re doing it for the betterment for the town,” he said.
In an interview on Tuesday morning, John Duncan said they had complied with what the town had asked. “We have not ignored the situation,” he said. He said they had bush-hogged the property, had cleaned up the inside of the house and boarded it up, and that they were waiting on a piece of equipment to be delivered to “take the house down to the bare bones.”
Duncan said homeless people and drug addicts had destroyed the property as well as another house the family has outside the city limits. “It’s a very unfair situation,” he said.
If the town moves forward with the process, the town would get bids to have the house demolished, but the property would still belong to the Duncans. However, the town would have a lien on the property for the cost of the demolition. That lien would either need to be paid by the property owners or if the property is ever sold, the town’s costs would be paid out of proceeds from the sale.
“The town will not make any money, the town is not in it to make money,” said Town Planner Justin Setser.
The motion on the ordinance passed with the five council members present voting in favor. Council member David Culpepper participated in the meeting virtually and could not vote.