MASON CITY – A trial date has been set in a case between the city of Mason City and embattled home owner Phillip Flinchum in his case against the city, which decided last year to tear his house down.
Last September, attorney Randy Nielsen for the city and Michael G. Byrne for Flinchum worked with judge James Drew to arrange a stay of proceedings as legalities were sorted out in his attempt to prevent the demolition. The city had moved to tear down Flinchum’s house, located at 32 6th Northwest. Due to these legal proceedings, the city cannot proceed to demolish Flinchum’s house until a trial is complete.
Flinchum hired a lawyer to defend himself against an aggressive move by the city council where it decided last summer that his house should be demolished. The city, however, had no report from an engineer stating the house was “structurally unsafe”, as city councilman Scott Tornquist had told a group of Mason City citizens, and can produce no evidence that an official inspection of the house was ever made. In fact, documents do not show that city officials have ever been inside Flinchum’s house.
In the city’s own words in documents submitted to NIT, the entire reasoning behind the demolition of the house states “Due to calls from neighbors about the condition of the property, the past history of nuisance calls and lack of response from Mr. Flinchum and because the property was not being used as a residence we proceeded with a Letter of Intent to Condemn.” (Read more here.)
McKinness Excavating was the low bidder for the demolition project, at a cost of $11,000 to taxpayers.
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