Controversial Fox Lake motel gets final warning
The Marina Motel has received its final warning: shape up or shut down.
Fox Lake Police Chief Mike Behan said the controversial Route 12 motel has signed an agreement with the Lake County State’s Attorneys Office that requires it to stop issuing motel rooms to alleged gang members and drug dealers, and creating a nuisance in the village.
“They are basically giving the owner a chance to make good on the issues there,” Behan said. “If he doesn’t, he’s closed.”
Bogdan Humienik, who identified himself as the “interim manager of the motel,” directed all calls on Tuesday to owner Joseph Wulf, but said Wulf is not available for comment.
Earlier this month, Behan announced he had reached the limit of his patience with the troubled Marina Motel, and was moving to shut it down after the business generated 193 police calls from March 2010 to June 2011. It’s by far the most from any business in the same period, he said.
Officers were frequently called to the motel for crimes ranging from drug activity to prostitution, and it has become a known hang out for gang members, he said.
If the police calls continue, and the owners do not take the initiative to get things under control, Behan said, the states attorney’s office will file a law suit to have the business license revoked for 365 days.
“They must now take the drivers licenses and plates of anyone there, then uphold to a quiet time between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. where guests are not allowed to come and go,” Behan said. “In addition, if a person is arrested on charges of crimes while on his (owner) property, he is not allowed to let the person back in for 365 days.”
Currently, the owners have allowed people who have been arrested on their property to return to the motel immediately after being released from jail, Behan said.
“The police calls to the motel have really gotten out of hand,” he said. “It’s time to take this to the next level for the safety of the officers of the police department and the people of Fox Lake.”
This is the second time in two years the Marina Motel has been targeted to be shut down.
Village officials closed the motel between October 2009 and March 2010 due to numerous building code violations that were found after police discovered a disabled man living in squalor inside the facility. The business was shut down for nearly four months while those code violations were fixed.
During that shut down, the village forced Wulf to sign the “Crime Free Act”, which states motel caretakers must work with police to keep the motel crime free.
However, Behan said, the motel has not cooperated.
“And, since we served him with the summons from the state’s attorney’s office, we have been there three times,” he said. “Basically, if he doesn’t comply by the law this time, we move forward to shut him down.”