Elgin sues to demolish dilapidated bowling alley
Elgin leaders are seeking to demolish a vacant, decrepit bowling alley on the city's southeast side that was once proposed for use as a church.
"This is really a last resort," said Marc Mylott, the city's director of community development. "It's an attractive nuisance. It's not safe for anybody to go in there. It's unsafe and it's dragging down the neighborhood."
The city filed a lawsuit in late April seeking a judge's permission to demolish the 67,000-square-foot building at 11 Woodview Drive or to order the owner, Glorious Life Worship Center, to make repairs and pay a litany of fines.
Pagel J. Williams, who is named as the Glorious life representative in the suit, could not be reached for comment Friday. The phone line at the Glorious Life Worship Center in Blue Island was disconnected. A message sent to the group's Facebook site seeking comment was not returned.
The phone number for The Miami Council for Church and Social Action, which is listed in the lawsuit as another owner of the site, was disconnected.
According to the suit, the building's roof has been damaged and has partially collapsed. Doors are missing locks, electrical outlets don't have covers, and furnaces lack exhaust pipes, among other violations, the suit states
Mylott said officials from Glorious Life Worship Center approached the city in February 2016 with an inquiry on what process to go through to use the building for religious instruction for small to large groups, bowling, indoor football and soccer, and a ministry area.
But the city never heard back from the petitioner. Glorious Life officials didn't respond after roof damage occurred in March 2016, and officials failed to attend adjudication hearings for code violations that summer, Mylott said. A final repair or demolition order was issued to Glorious Life in March 2017 with no response, Mylott said, so the city sued.
The lawsuit cites 13 code violations and asks a judge to impose a $750-per-day fine for each violation, retroactive to Feb. 16. At $9,750 per day, that equates to $780,000 in proposed fines through today, and that sum will reach over $1.6 million by Aug. 7, the day the two sides are due in Kane County court.
Mylott said the city asked for the maximum fines and that it is up to the judge as to what, if any, are assessed.
Mylott said the bowling alley was deeded from Mervyn and Steven Dukatt to Glorious Life in December 2012. Mylott said Williams came into the city's building department this week. Mylott said he informed Williams of the city's intent, but Williams said he and church leaders still had plans for the facility.
Mylott said he offered to meet with church representatives and emailed Williams, but he did not reply.
The suit also seeks reimbursement for a $1,431 fence the city paid to have erected around the facility in December because the roof was in danger of collapsing.