MASON CITY – A house on the city’s southwest side has been found to be unsafe and the property owner has been ordered to demolish the structure.
According to a City Hall document, the house located at 322 24th Street SW is unsafe and dangerous. The property owner, Radigundis Contreras Figueroa, has been given 10 days to vacate and 45 days to have the property demolished.
If Figueroa fails to comply, the City Council may take action to have the property demolished, and all costs would be assessed to Figueroa.
815 S. Van Buren Someone needs to look into that house also
“Go to the county website and you can also verify I do not own that house. It may be owned by a family member of mine”
That explains everything.
Actually what this sounds like is a land grab by the city. Mr. Contreras (or is it Mrs?), more than likely won’t have the ability to comply with this order, so the city will move quickly to have it demolished, assess a large bill to Contreras, and then confiscate the house when the bill is not paid.
If I’m correct, this would be a despicable way to seize property from citizens without much means.
Now, I’m just assuming this person doesn’t have money…who knows, they may be hording a hundred grand in coffee cans.
But if they are in fact poor, and the city confiscates the land in this way…I would say it should be considered GAME ON for revolution against these mofos. The rights for poor people to have land is one of my principle causes I believe in.
Shelter, Food, Medicine The Big 3.
Its to bad some people cant mind their own FN business and leave people alone. Worry about your own life and not how someone else lives. This cant be the worse example in town.
@50 miles-You are correct. I can see two rent homes that are empty out my window. Both have red tags all over them but because they belong to Dodge they let them sit. The lawns do not get mowed in the summer and the walks don’t get shoveled in the winter, but money talks and Dodge is the mayors good buddy. I have a real problem with these slum lords who buy these home at auction (and there are a lot of them) for almost nothing and then rent them out for much more than they are worth but will not keep them up. If I had to guess I would say someone wants the property the house sits on.
your last sentence is what I was looking for. who wants it. For my own reason,this is the exactly why I like NIT.
I actually agree with LVS for once…once.
Mr. Snyder (AKA LVS)
I tried to call you today at the number listed in the phone book but that number is no longer valid. I have for some time, sat and allowed you to take pot shots at me about my business, my career choices, and even how it appears you knew my grandfather better than I did. I do not believe that you and I have ever met. I do not own the house near your home, a simple check of public record could have told you that. Calling me a derogatory name because I own rental property really shows the type of person that you are. I also volunteer to sit on the Mason City HRC, Make A Wish, and Boy Scouts. I see that you never mention those activities. I would like to ask you to call me at 422-9264 and let us have a conversation and get to the bottom of your hatred for me. I am home battling cancer so I have even more free time than normal. I look forward to your call. I also have only blogged on the site a few times and have used my own name each time. I only visited today because once again you are taking shots at me with out even knowing me and a good friend made me aware
Matt I wish you well in your battle against cancer. One thing you may want to do if you haven’t already is become a completely organic vegan. No meats, dairy etc. Only fruits and vegetables. If you feel so inclined, please post LVS’s full complete name.
For those who don’t know, I went to school with Matt. I never had a problem with him at all during school. Nice guy. And yes he was popular.
Mr. Dodge-You do not know me so don’t try to call me by name. That ruse will not work on me at all. I have nothing personal against you at all but am against ALL slum lords who come into the Northend, buy these homes for little or nothing to make a profit, rent them out to all types of undiserables and then let the property go to hell and not maintain it. I am pretty sure the property on the corner of 14th and Madison is your property. At least the family you evicted said it was. I din’t realize that you were in ill health and for that I am sorry. You grandfather was a nice guy and I carried insurance with him for a long time. I live here and have my home here and if you can’t own property and maintain it then don’t come up here.
LVS or Mr Snyder you also do not know me but yet continually comment on my character and even continue to tell me that I own property that I have informed you that I do not. This is not a ruse at all I am tired of you staing all of this knowledge that you have about me but have no facts to back it up. If you would like to conduct yourself as an adult I again would urge you to call me. I do not have a number to call you. I have taken sometime today to read your posts on this website and you are all about being upfront and not hiding. I am doing neither.
Go to the county website and you can also verify I do not own that house. It may be owned by a family member of mine but that is not me and I am only responsible for myself and my business. I do not know how to make that any clearer
LVS-That property is not owned by Matt Dodge. You were either told wrong or you are lying. Either way that property is owned by Ann Dodge. Matt Dodge has nothing to do with it. There are about 8 members of the Dodge family that own property and all of them take care of their property a little differently. Before you blindly start slinging criticisms you need to at least get your facts straight.
Mr Dodge-If you are not the owner of the houses in question I apologize for my mistake and will try to do better in the future. You must understand that up here we have called those houses Dodge houses for years as your grandfather owned them. I used to talk to him all time when he came to check on his property. I have even talked to you outside one of those houses a couple of years ago. That is why I thought it was yours (that is not the house I was referring to). Again, if I made a mistake I apologize.
Matt Dodge: I do not know you, other than what I have seen and heard now and in the past. You stated this “I also have only blogged on the site a few times and have used my own name each time”. I remember a few years ago when you blogged with your own name many times. Until someone asked you to explain a certain situation. Not being from MC I did not understand what it was about. I do remember that you suddenly stopped posting under your name. People continued to ask , but you never responded. That made me suspicious. this is what I have learned from reading NIT.
If the man sees what the man sees, what’s the problem? LVS looks out the window of his own home and sees slum. Is he lying? He is entitled to his opinion. Maybe NIT will investigate. I can see why Mr. Dodge is sensitive to criticism. No one wants to be labeled a slumlord. And everyone wishes Matt the best with his health problems, no question about that. But… the word is out on the street, fair or unfair. To change that perception, clean up all your properties (not always immediately easy to do) and stop letting Eric Bookmeyer sit in your office with you like you are long lost friends. Don’t be duped by the cowardly red snake, Matt, you are better than that.
PS if you let Eric in your office, hide your stamps and stationary. He stole it once, he’ll steal it again.
Maybe Matt should post a list of all the properties that Matt Dodge actually owns. Or anyone with Dodge as the last name. With a list of how they are related.
Also, anyone in business will know why sometimes items are not always in one persons name. this excuse is merely a technicality.
Matt you are entitled to investigate what ever you can find in public records but I do not own that house that your friend Mr. Snyder is referring to. Also I welcome persons from all sorts of walks of life in my office. I treat all of my customers with respect.
Poor people who don’t buy the mayor drinks at the country club don’t deserve over 45 days to tear it down. Heck, a landlord can’t even get a renter out that fast.
It looks bad and that person is a poor bum so let’s make him homeless. We are the new young America…Reagan babies.
to me, from the pic of the house. Yes it does look old but not an eyesore or looking unsafe. Someone who paints their house red, yellow or pink is far worse to me. My first thought is who wants this property?. Who are the neighbors complaining?. What are their arterial motives?
Figueroa is not going to tear down this house. If he lives in a place like that why would you think he would have the money to tear it down and pat the landfill charges to get rid of it. This is nothing but a foramilty by the city to allow them to tear it down later. I would guess the inside must be terrible. We had a family up here who had their water shut off for months and who had six or seven kids in the house. The sewage they found after they finally got them out would have been enough to cause me to burn down the place
looks like it oughtta be tore down. i drive by there once n awhile, a real dump.
Another eyesore is across from the apts on Spring Lake on briarstone. House is a dump yet the city let’s the people live in it. Its practically falling in the lake.
Turn them in using the see click fix deal on masoncity.net. Then the city has to get back to you on what they are doing about it.
I never thought of that. Good idea. Many of my neighbors are just as puzzled as I am as to why this house is allowed to be occupied.
There’s a house over by the East Park sledding hill on 4th street NE that looks far worse than this. Porch rafters are falling down.
Probly where Eric drinks his moonshine when the wife’s earnin’ his pocket change.
45 days to demolish a house? In the wintertime? Is this even legal?
Philly, why would winter have anything to do with tearing down a house?
I would consider that to be quite severe to force a property owner to tear down a structure when it’s potentially -20 below. Wouldn’t you? Not every property owner is some Mack Daddy with the bucks who can pay some year-round operation to raze it. This guy might have to do it himself. That’s why I consider it a bit harsh to force a homeowner to completely demolish a structure during January and February. Am I wrong here? Who else agrees this is odd.
no I would not find it severe due to weather conditions. I work outside in this weather all the time. I cut cut this place up into small pieces in two days with a saws all, it is nothing but a cracker box.
Throw a wood or corn burner in the middle of it…run a chimney straight up the middle like a tepee, dig an outhouse, and let the transients stay there. They get heat and a place to take a dump. Everything else, they haul in and haul out.