Gary mayor Jerome Prince steps past a pile of debris as he prepares to speak during a press conference on the proposed demolition of a number of abandoned Gary schools on Friday, January 3, 2020. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
Standing in front of long-vacant Edison School where a north door stood wide open, Gary Mayor Jerome Prince said the main reason for serving unsafe building citations on nine shuttered Gary schools was concern for public safety.
Prince spoke to the media Friday at Edison, surrounded by city officials and city council members.
“This is an issue of public safety,” said Prince. “The law is very clear. The owners must address the complaint.”
Gary’s unsafe building ordinance was adopted from Indiana’s code and school officials were told to appear at a 9 a.m. hearing Feb. 3 at City Hall. Building commissioner Kenneth Willis said a hearing officer, who was not named, will review the complaint. The school district could face fines for the violations, if they’re upheld. The citations seek demolition to begin in March.
Ten schools were cited as blighted in a release Thursday, but on Friday Prince said two schools – Emerson and Ernie Pyle – were removed after a meeting with Gary Housing Authority officials. The GHA has plans to purchase the schools to create affordable housing.
However, Aetna Elementary was added to the list that includes Horace Mann, Edison and Lew Wallace high schools and Norton, Carver, Brunswick, Nobel and Spaulding elementaries.
Prince said those schools represented the “most egregious” blight threats.
Willis said he was tasked with reviewing properties with a focus on vacant schools. More than 30 schools have closed within the past two decades, many with books, furniture and other equipment left inside. Over the years, scrappers and vandals have broken windows, stolen wiring and started fires.
“In the last four or five years, these place have become lairs of violent crime,” said Prince.
Since 2011, four homicide victims have been found at vacant schools, including a 27-year-old Portage woman whose body was found Nov. 21 inside the gym at Norton Elementary.
Willis said the Gary Community School Corp. should receive the citations Friday, although the district is closed until Monday for the holiday break.
Robert Buggs, president of the school district’s advisory board, asked if the city had told school officials they would receive citations. He learned they didn’t receive a warning.
Prince said the school district, or the state which controls the district, would have to answer the complaint. “I think the order is clear,” said Prince. “The property owner is responsible.”
The new mayor said he understands the dire financial plight the school district is in, but the unsafe building statute was clear.
School district emergency manager Peter Morikis is holding a 6 p.m. Jan. 14 meeting at the Gary Area Career Center to discuss the issue of vacant schools and to likely announce another round of sale listings for the schools.
Prince said he didn’t want to impede the schools’ sale plans.
Vacant schools won’t be the only blight targets, he said. “We intend to address every property in the city.”
Buggs said after the press conference the city has blighted properties of its own in need of repair or demolition.
Advisory board vice president Larona Carter said she was happy to Prince is cracking down on the school eyesores.
“I think the DUAB (Distressed Unit Appeal Board) has to redirect finances, instead of all these outside contracts,” she said.
The DUAB has controlled the school district’s finances since a 2017 school takeover as the district lapsed into more than $100 million in long-term debt. A private company, MGT Consulting, is managing the district under a state contract.
District officials have said there’s no money available to tear down all its vacant schools.
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