After nearly a year, the city has finally moved forward to have the burned-out structure, once housing a Catholic Social Services Thrift Store at 2108 Broad St., demolished.
Catholic Social Services never owned the building, according to deed records.
The city paid for the demolition at a cost of nearly $80,000. The final bill to demolish the structure and haul away the debris was $79,500, more than the intact building was worth.
The building burned in November 2023 and left bricks and other debris strewn across the sidewalk and into the road. It took a public outcry, most notably by former Augusta Mayor Bob Young, for the city to take action.
In April, the city announced the matter was tied up in court and then admitted that legal action had to wait because the required legal notices had not been published.
In March, Magistrate Court Judge Carletta Sims Brown wrote in her order: “If the owner fails to comply with the order to repair or demolish the dwelling, building, or structure, the public officer may cause such dwelling, building or structure to be repaired, altered, or improved or to be vacated and closed or demolished after 180 days of the date of this order.”
During all of the delays, the city could have had the bids in order and had contracts to move forward signed; however, no request for proposal notices went out through the Procurement Department.
Instead, Code Enforcement waited until the 180-day period expired and then petitioned the Procurement Department for an emergency bid, which likely drove up the price. Rather than send out an RFP in an emergency situation, a Request for Quote is sent out to only the companies on the “emergency list.”
Big demolition companies such as Thompson Wrecking were not on the emergency list. Only two companies, George Wilson Contracting and Pond Maintenance Inc. were on the list; therefore, they were the only companies sent an RFQ.
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson says he is still shaking his head in disbelief at how the matter was handled.
“I have no idea why they did it that way, and, of course, I am getting phone calls from angry contractors who didn’t know that an RFQ was out there, and they didn’t get a chance to make a bid,” Johnson said.
George Wilson Contracting was the lower of the two bids, with Pond Maintenance Inc.’s bid coming in at almost double the amount as Wilson, or $156,000 for the work.
Another factor that caused the price to skyrocket is the fact that the building was erected in 1950 and therefore had asbestos, lead paint and other dangerous materials that had to be handled by a specially licensed crew.
According to emails received through an Open Records Request, the city used funding from the 2024 demolition budget to pay for the work. In 2021, the city passed its new blight ordinance that was touted as the magic bullet to remove blight.
The law allows the city to give a landowner 60 days notice to remove blight, whether it is a building that is abandoned and unsafe or overgrown vacant lots that attract rodents and other pests.
If the land owner refuses, the city can hike the ad valorem taxes, get a court order to demolish buildings and if the owner refuses to pay up, the city can seize the property and sell it.
However, now that the bricks are gone, there is no record of a tax lien on the property, which is owned by Coordinated Health Services, Inc. In fact, records show that the non-profit has not paid taxes on the property since 2019, leaving what appears to be an outstanding balance of $2,032.50.
It could be that because Coordinated Health Systems is affiliated with a religious charity, they have filed to be exempt from property taxes.
Even if the city does file a lien, the cost of demolition was more than the land value of $71,438.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
