CORINTH — Amid a years-long saga, the town plans to sue the owner of an out-of-use building in East Corinth that officials call a hazard to the public and the environment.
Town officials say the owner, Michele Walker, currently owes over $60,000 in fines — and counting — for failing to bring the property at 657 Village Road into compliance, particularly considering that it threatens the Tabor Branch of the Waits River, which runs directly behind the store.
“There is tremendous community concern about having a building in this condition,” Selectboard Chair Stephen Devoto said Friday by phone.
Devoto also told the Valley News Friday that the town has received no responses from Walker regarding the violations. Her contact information was not publicly available.
East Corinth village was settled around 1783. Norm Collette, of the Corinth Historical Society, believes the Village Road building has been there since the late 1700s or early 1800s. It was originally a one-story structure that Nathan Blake and Susan Torrey purchased in 1817 and operated as a general store.
Through several owners, the building largely continued to serve as a general store — not to be confused with the East Corinth General Store on Route 25, which remains open.
The Village Road property was featured in the 1988 film “Beetlejuice” as the exterior of the story’s Maitland Hardware Store, alongside other Village Road buildings.
When the most recent owners before Walker, Jeff and Mary Martin, decided to sell the building, members of the historical society secured a commitment from Preservation Trust of Vermont for a low-interest loan to preserve the store and its architectural features.
“We got back to the Martins too late, as they had sold it to Walker at a reduced price,” Collette said Friday.
Walker purchased the now-2.5-story building in 2012, but it has remained inoperative and, according to town officials, begun falling apart. For at least four years, the Corinth Selectboard has tried to bring the property up to code, to no avail.
A dilapidated building is one that is “hazardous to the health and safety of the public or presents a threat of damage to other buildings or property,” per the town’s ordinance.
Olivia Tillman, who sits on the board of the Congregational Church next door, told the Selectboard in a public comment that, despite having paid for dumpsters to help the owner clean up the property, the problem persists, according to April 4 meeting minutes.
In December 2022, the town issued a building safety order against Walker, with a second order raising her fines under the amended ordinance issued in June 2024.
The deadline for compliance was Aug. 4, 2024. On Aug. 3 of that year, the building safety officer confirmed that no substantial remediation had occurred and the hazardous conditions persisted, per meeting minutes from that August.
The next day, the Selectboard unanimously approved a motion by Devoto to find Walker in violation of the ordinance and responsible for civil penalties.
Hazards documented by the town’s building safety officer included “imminent collapse” of the barn structure into the river; threat of damage to the Village Road bridge and the neighboring East Corinth Congregational Church; and instability in the main store building.
Citing the public safety impact, the owner’s knowledge of the problems since 2022 and her record of non-compliance, the town assessed a one-time $150 penalty, $10 a day from March 11, 2023, through Aug. 6, 2024, and $75 a day since Aug. 7, 2024.
Fines continue to accrue at $75 a day, now reaching a total of over $67,000 as of Nov. 12.
The town’s counsel was continuing to collect information regarding the violations and taxes due over the years in order to serve Walker at the time of the Nov. 4 Selectboard meeting.
Devoto confirmed Friday that the lawsuit has not yet been filed in the Orange Unit of Vermont Superior Court, but he anticipates it will be filed in the next month.
