By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emeritus
The Ontario Village Board made a tentative move at its Monday meeting to demolish the older portion of the former Ontario Elementary School building on Church Street.
The new “interim community hall” is in the old school gymnasium, which was added to the building in 1984, but there appear to be few uses for the 1937 classroom building, which has deteriorated considerably since its closure 25 years ago.
The board agreed to hire a firm to examine the building for asbestos and get estimates on removing asbestos and razing the structure.
Also, three mobile homes in the McElhose Trailer Court on State and Division streets were targeted for razing. One, which is owned by Mike Thompson, was badly damaged in the August 2018 flood. Rudy Brueggeman owns the second trailer; and Zachary Jensen, the third. Although there was some objection, the board argued that in the three years since the flood, little progress has been made on repairing the property.
All will be given six months to either repair or make significant progress on repair or an order will be given to raze the structures.
Other business
• At Police Chief Dave Rynes’ recommendation, the board issued a six-month provisional operator’s license to Jordan Lenser, who was denied a license last month.
• The board issued a letter of support for the Dark Skies Initiative.
The board will consider a refund to Tony Kelbel, who paid property taxes for years on the public canoe landing, a property he did not actually own.
