N. Aurora to clean out condo

Neighbors sick of the smell, insects and rodents coming out of 207B Linn Court may get relief this week, now that the village has picked a company to clean the residence out.

The village board agreed to hire Restoration Techs of Batavia to remove the contents of the condominium, clean and sanitize it, for an estimated $25,880. The cost could go higher, if unseen damage is more severe than estimated.

The firm expects will hire an animal trapper to catch a cat living there, and an exterminator to rid the place of insects and rodents. Village officials believe the company will have to remove drywall and carpeting.

Neighbors complained to the village about a foul odor emanating from the two-story condominium, as well as pests. It is one of four side-by-side units in a brick building, built in the 1960s and converted to condominium ownership in the 1980s, in the Northtowne complex.

It has three bedrooms and a basement. Black fabric or plastic covers the first-floor picture window on the front, but in a torn corner, garbage, including an empty candy box, can be seen piled against the window.

Scott Buening, the village's community development director, said that in some of the rooms items are piled nearly to the ceiling.

He said this is the first time the village has ever taken this action.

A village inspector declared the property nonhabitable in July. The village took the owners, married couple Murray and Barb Schantzen, to court, charging them with violating village ordinance by failing to keep the property up. The Schantzens failed to appear at their Oct. 20 court date, so a Kane County judge ruled in favor of the village and gave it permission to clean the place.

Court records indicate that Murray Schantzen now lives in a nursing home in Aurora; he was the only one living in the home when the village red-tagged it. Barbara Schantzen had been living in Park Forest, but court records indicate the latest residence was on the 1500 block of Indian Trail Road in Aurora.

The village will charge the owners for the cleanup, likely by placing a lien on the property. Before the property is sold, the village's bill would have to be paid.

And why wasn't it cleaned sooner? It was just a matter of going through the “the bureaucracy in government,” including getting the court order, according to Buening, “You can't just trespass on someone's property,” he said.