This morning the head of the city’s Building Division personally paid a visit to the LGBTQ bar that a St. Louis police SUV ran into in December. There, Building Commissioner Frank Oswald stressed to the owners of the building that the city has no intention of condemning their property or shutting down the bar located there.
Over this past weekend, the owners of the building on South Broadway went public with a letter from the Building Division that they interpreted as the city threatening to condemn the building because of the damage done from the cop car crashing into into its front wall . The letter cited the building for various violations and said it was scheduled for re-inspection on February 19.
“[The letter is] basically saying we had 60 days to have the repairs completed,” building owner Kevin Benear told KMOX .
But this morning, Oswald hand delivered a letter in which he wrote that the previous communique from his department was in no way meant as a threat to condemn the building. “Our intention was to ensure that you were aware of the ordinance codes for these violations, the permit requirements for repair, and your right to appeal the notice of violation,” Oswald wrote.