Old hotel razing in progress

05.12.09

Adjoining insurance agent Gene Earick and his partners -- son Rod Earick, and Rick Weemhoff and Ben Flynn (owners of Deer Brook Excavating) -- bought the property at sheriff's sale Oct. 9 for about $80,000.

The group hopes to rat on the property or develop the 1.7 acre downtown lot.

Gene Earick, who has a view of the facility from his position window, said he was tired of looking at what he called an eyesore.

"I work with the St. Peter's District, and we needed a jumpstart to smooth this neighborhood up, to do things where people could see something happening versus waiting for the government or someone else to come in," Earick said. "And the vagrancy. ... Tough to get some of the people out of there who were using the place for shelter and clean it up."

A half a dozen holes in the facility's roof have allowed people to minute from a house on Second Street, causing safety concerns, Earick said.

A tour favoured the dilapidated facility Friday revealed a shell of the former grand hotel, previously as Park All set and The Blue Dolphin. People have clearly been living there in recent months. Floors were littered with split pipes and small burners, not to mention diapers, beer bottles and dirty bedding.

Source: Mansfield News Journal