Watch your head in downtown Perry.
Pedestrians in the downtown will find several sections of sidewalk blocked by barricades erected by the city as a public protection from falling debris from crumbling buildings.
The barriers to walking were put in place “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of pedestrians on those portions of the sidewalk,” said Perry Community and Economic Development Director Mike Fastenau. “The buildings had some issues with material falling, and we just wanted to insure that nothing major happened and we didn’t want anything coming off those buildings that could potentially hit a person. Not that there’s anything imminent in that regards there, but there’s been small bits of material falling from those two buildings.”
The sidewalks are closed in two places: from the mid-block alleyway on the east side of the 1100 block of Second Street and extending southward about 40 feet and along the north side of the 1200 block of Lucinda Street and extending eastward from Second Street to the alleyway.
The two-story building at 1110 Second St. was built in 1900 and once housed the old McDonald’s Drug Store and more recently the Casa de Oro and Bosco’s Grill restaurants. The vacant property is now owned by Javier Zamora of Fontana, California, according to court records. The assessed value of the property in 2020 was $69,760.
The two-story building at 1300 Second St. was built in 1912 and once housed the old Roxy Theater. The property is now owned by James and Jillene Dorman of Perry, according to county records. The assessed value of the vacant property was reduced from $93,760 in 2019 to $13,380 in 2020 due to a “very large hole in roof,” according to county records.
“We have provided notice to the owners of what we’ve done,” Fastenau said, “and that they need to come back and present us with some type of plan of how they’re going to rectify or insure that those buildings are safe.”
When bits of mortar and other materials were noticed fallen from the building and with high winds likely to bring down more, the city decided to act in the interest of public safety.
“Our hope would be that the buildings will be renovated and brought back to life,” Fastenau said. “We wanted to err on the side of safety instead of erring on the fact of waiting until something happened. We just felt it was wise to keep people from being directly underneath those buildings.”
