11th Street home ‘Exhibit A’ for ‘frustrating’ blight process

Life was looking up for neighbors of the abandoned home at 519 N. 11th St. in the fall of 2014.

The building had just been purchased at a tax sale, and new owner William Hartman was trying to get a court injunction to force squatters occupying the home to leave, said Lebanon Fire Commissioner Duane Trautman.

The one thing Hartman didn’t do, according to Trautman, was purchase fire insurance.

A clock radio malfunctioned on Dec. 2, 2014, igniting a flame and heavy smoke that soon engulfed the structure.

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“There was a baby in a bassinet in the back room when it started,” Trautman said. “(The family) happened to hear the baby cry, or something that they went dashing into the back, ran by the fire to get the kid.”

Trautman still has the radio in his office – a momento to a preventable fire and a frustrating legal process that has still prevented the city from forcing Hartman to fix or tear down the home.

The next day, the city sent a notice asking him to demolish the fire-damaged structure and remove it from the premises. It also attached a purple notice on Dec. 5 reading, “DANGEROUS. KEEP OUT. THIS STRUCTURE IS UNINHABITABLE.”

Nothing happened. People started breaking into the home to get copper until it was boarded up, said Terry Lerch, owner of a neighboring home used for apartments.

The city finally took Hartman to court, and won. And won again.

Still nothing happened.

Magisterial District Judge Maria Dissinger found Hartman guilty of five summary offenses. On appeal, Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge John C. Tylwalk affirmed the verdict on four of the five charges, including three counts of having a dangerous structure on the premises and one count of failure to comply with the property maintenance code, according to court records.

In a transcript of his sentencing hearing on June 28, 2016, Hartman argued that he did not believe the property had been legally transferred to him, so he could not clean it up. Tylwalk disagreed, and ordered Hartman to pay $2,540 in restitution to the city and $900 in fines.

Hartman and an attorney listed as representing him on court documents could not be reached for comment for this story.

Instead of demolishing the property, Hartman appealed again.

More than 30 months after the fire, Trautman said the parties are still waiting for a decision by the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Lerch has waited long enough.

“It’s an eyesore,” he said. “It needs to come down.”

People frequently dump trash at the house, he said. He can’t even complete repairs to the siding on his neighboring property stemming from the fire.

Trautman wants neighbors to know the city is doing everything it can to compel Hartman to tear down the house, and frequently cleans trash from the area to stop it from becoming even more of a dumping ground. But he’s as impatient as the neighbors.

“I wouldn’t want to live in that neighborhood with that derelict sitting there,” he said. “The city is completely in the legal right to every extent that it can be, and has won and prevailed every step of the way, and here we sit. It’s very frustrating.”

Trautman consoles himself by being thankful for the property rights that allow Hartman to slow the process but also allow him and others avoid overreach by government. But that doesn’t mean he likes to think about the building.

“519 N. 11th St. is Exhibit A of a number of examples throughout the city where we do have cases on these buildings, and we just wait,” he said.