Geers was appointed in early July by Judge Stacy Wall of Miami County Common Pleas Court to provide an independent structural engineer’s report on the building. The judge ordered the review in late June after receiving conflicting reports on the building’s structural integrity from parties involved in ligation in her court.
When Geers’ report will be available to the court and in what format is unknown at this point.
The inspection had been scheduled for mid-morning Friday, but Wall was told in an 11:30 a.m. filing by Steven Justice (an attorney for the 116 West Main LLC building owner), that Geers had not shown up.
Initial attempts to reach him were not successful but he later called to say, “there was a mix up on his end,” Justice wrote.
Geers was available for an afternoon inspection, and the parties were notified by the court that an inspection would be done. He and representatives of the other parties entered the building, which has been blocked off by the city, shortly after 2 p.m. They exited around 4 p.m.
Geers immediately left the area while the others had little or no comment. Justice said the parties have not been notified if there is a deadline for the report.
During the tour, some of the group could be seen on the building’s upper floor, using a ladder to access the building’s roof. Geers was seen at one point in the roof area facing West Main Street where bricks had fallen when the building was first damaged in a January 2020 tornado in downtown.
The sidewalk and parking In front of the building have been closed since the tornado. The block where the building is located on West Main Street between Plum and Cherry streets was closed by the city in late June after Wall declined to order building removal. Rob England, county chief building official, and Matthew Simmons, Troy fire chief, had filed findings that the structure was unsafe and dangerous.
The city said it believed the street closing was warranted for public safety. However, it later opened a few parking spaces on the north and south sides of West Main Street, just west of Cherry Street to allow patron parking to businesses in that area.
Requests filed with the court this week by 116 West Main and England as chief building official seeking a continuance of the inspection by Geers were denied by Wall.
Several legal challenges in the situation are pending in county court and Ohio’s 2nd District Court of Appeals. The appeals court on Thursday approved a request for a stay of a June order by Wall for 116 West Main to shore up the building’s north wall facing Main Street.
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