OURAY – After Building Official Paul Christensen deemed the building dangerous in August, the Ouray County Commissioners on Monday decided to further secure the old and decrepit Fairway Pines clubhouse with plywood window coverings, while deciding what should be done to the structure that has fallen in disrepair and seemingly ditched by its owners.

Located at 117 Ponderosa Drive on Log Hill Mesa, the clubhouse failed a safety inspection by Christensen and a member of the Log Hill Fire Department last August. The building, which formally housed a kitchen, pool, bar and lounge, has not been occupied for some time. Christensen in his August inspection found unsafe electrical hookups for the roof’s snowmelt system, rusted and weathered boiler vents, sagging deck structures, mice feces in the kitchen, and dead rats/mice in the swimming pool. In all, the inspectors found 24 code violations when they deemed the building dangerous and an immediate threat to the health, welfare and safety of the community.

Upon that notice, the owners of the building, Norm Wiggington and Rebecca Gold, are required by the county to apply for a building permit to fix the code violations within 30 days of the notice or set plans to demolish the building.

As of Monday’s commissioner meeting in Ouray, Christensen had not received an application for a building permit from the owners to fix the problems or any sort of demolition plans.

“We have secured the building pretty much on a temporary basis,” Christensen told the commissioners. “Locks have been put on the doors, we have taped up the porches and entries so people can identify it is an unsafe area and we posted it with the notice and condemnation signs. So now we are in a position of what do we do with the building?”

First, the county could demolish the building and if the county provides some in-house removal, the cost is estimated at $29,000. The second option would be for the county to further secure the structure with plywood window coverings and the removal of the unsafe decks. This would come at a cost of approximately $2,000-$2,500. The final option would be to do nothing and leave the unsafe building as it is. The county would have to front the cost of the securing or demolition but would then put a lien on the property after that.

For Dick Kreutzen, president of the Fairway Pines Homeowners Association, the building has to be fixed, now.

“This has been going on a long time and we really want to get this problem behind us,” he said.

Both commissioners Lynn Padgett and Heidi Albritton (Keith Meinert was absent) agreed that the best way to proceed, for now, would be to further secure the building while county staff investigates just what further notices would need to be issued to demolish the building.

“I think we further secure the building and if we need to raze the building, what processes do we need to go through to make sure we are within the bounds to do it right,” Albritton said.

Christensen plans to meet with the building’s owner or owner’s representative, to discern what if any plans are in store. Should the owner apply for a building permit, work on the building must be completed within 120 days of its issuance. Since the use of the building has ceased for an extended period of time, the owner would also have to apply for another Special Use Permit.