BRADENTON BEACH – You can fight city hall, and win.
The red condemnation notice on Gash Caudill’s Gulf Drive home has been removed by the city following his appeals for a comprehensive inspection.
Caudill, a building contractor who shares the duplex at 1107 Gulf Drive N. with his 84-year-old mother, Betty Cole, saw the notice on Nov. 7 on the front door.
“I was here working, and I found that at 4 o’clock,” Caudill said on Nov. 22. “The red tag stated ‘Your home is damaged beyond repair and must be demolished.’ At 6 o’clock I was down at city hall for the commission meeting.”
He spoke at that meeting and said his home remained structurally sound following the hurricanes and questioned why it had been condemned without an interior inspection.
He then attended the next city commission meeting and spoke to city leaders on Nov. 21.
“Two weeks ago I attended my first ever city hall meeting because before that, city hall had never interfered in my life,” Caudill said. “Now you’re interfering in my life in a big way. I have a condemnation letter that was placed on my house by a building official who’s never been in my home. I never had an inspection or an evaluation and a drive-by declared my home damaged beyond repair and must be demolished. Why?”
Prior to the recent arrival of former city Building Official Steve Gilbert and a team of 20 inspectors provided by the state to assist with damage assessments, City Building Official Darin Cushing had been tasked since the hurricanes with evaluating the damage to hundreds of storm-affected homes citywide. Cushing’s initial assessments primarily consisted of “windshield” assessments.
“At the last meeting, the city attorney and many others have stated here many times you don’t want to kick us from our homes, and you’re just following FEMA guidelines,” Caudill said. “At the last meeting, I provided the city attorney with a copy of the letter from FEMA stating that my home is safe to live in. FEMA did come to my home on two separate occasions and did an inspection. They determined our home is safe to live in, but you did a drive-by and determined the house needs to be demolished.”
Caudill said he doesn’t want to have to hire structural engineers and attorneys to fight the condemnation, but instead asked for a comprehensive inspection before the home is condemned.
“I don’t qualify for FEMA assistance, that’s how good my home is, but you guys are trying to make me demolish a perfectly good home? That’s home to my 84-year-old mother?” he said. “We’ve been here for 25 years. This is our home; this is our future.”
He said his home is structurally sound and repairs can be done well within the guidelines of the FEMA 50/50 rule.
“It’s just not right. I’m pushing for my case and for a change in the policy. This should not happen to anyone else,” Caudill said.
Following Caudill’s remarks, Cushing responded.
“In individual cases, I have said give me a call, I’ll come down, take a look at it, and see if it’s something you need to be concerned with or you can continue to keep working,” Cushing said. “That’s really what we want everybody ultimately to do.”
Cushing said he would come by Caudill’s home the following day.
“I did go to your house, and I walked around it. I couldn’t get inside of it, as you know, there was sand piled around and debris everywhere,” Cushing said. “I did a walk-by windshield assessment. I did see some cracks in your foundation.”
“Our top priority is for our building department to get on these things as quickly as possible,” Mayor John Chappie said. “We understand there are a lot of people in the city that are in a similar situation.”
“It’s not in stone yet because you haven’t gotten a letter in the mail, so I’ll come take another look at it to get some clarification,” Cushing said.
Commissioner Ralph Cole (no relation to Betty Cole) asked Cushing to make the inspection of Caudill’s home a priority.
“Please put his mind at ease,” Cole said.
RED TAG LIFTED ON NOV. 22
“Darin (Cushing) came by earlier and did an inspection and decided to lift the order of condemnation and give me the go-ahead to proceed with my project,” Caudill said on Nov. 22. “People need to know they can step up and fight city hall on this one because they were premature in placing those red tags, in my opinion.”
Cushing responded to The Sun by text stating, “I was able to see more of the foundation a little better now that more sand is out of the way, and he gave me a verbal estimate of his repairs so I felt it would be ‘savable.’ ”
“I’m very happy today that I can continue to move forward,” Caudill said. “I’ve been in a holding pattern with the stress of wondering am I going to have to tear down a perfectly good home and give up our dreams?”
He said the 1947 home received about 8 inches of water inside during Hurricane Helene.
“This is the first insurance claim it’s ever had,” Caudill said. “There’s never been water in this home before this. This house is built very strong.”
He said the sand surrounding the house was about 3 feet deep.
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He will be replacing drywall, cabinets and two air conditioning units. According to the Manatee County website, the FEMA value of the structure is $237,956. Caudill estimates repairs will cost around $65,000, well under the FEMA 50/50 guidelines.
“This is a cinder block home, and we’re elevated. There’s a crawlspace under this so there is no foundation to crack,” Caudill said. “What he did see on the outside was some cracks in my stucco, but not structural. He acknowledged that today as we walked around the house together that all my damage is minor and nothing worse than anyone on my block.”
Caudill said his mother had a medical issue about a week before the September storm and has been in the hospital and nursing facilities since.
“She doesn’t even know about any of this that’s going on, we kind of shielded her from it,” Caudill said.
He said he’s looking forward to having her come home once the work is completed in about 30 days.
“Our plan was always for her to age in place and live here for the rest of her life. That’s why I’m fighting so hard. This isn’t just a house, it’s not a vacation rental, this is my mother’s home that she worked 25 years for,” he said.
