A recent roof collapse in Sterling is prompting the Kenai Peninsula Borough to demolish an old convenience store building, which is also a contamination site due to the thousands of gallons of fuel that spilled there two decades ago.
The old ZipMart building, on Swanson River Road, is owned by a private company. But Borough Mayor Peter Micciche said that company, Whittier Properties, hasn't paid property taxes in decades and isn't taking responsibility for the collapse.
Micciche said he learned about the collapse from Facebook last week.
“I was unaware of the condition of the ZipMart property, and started getting some tags about the fact that the building is collapsing,” Micciche said. He said the cause of the collapse is probably, “a combination of snow load and maintenance, and residents are concerned.”
Since then, the building has collapsed even further. The roof and one wall have fully fallen, exposing the inside to the elements. The remaining walls, Micciche said, are in a precarious state.
The ZipMart is a former Sterling gas station, owned by Whittier Properties Inc. ZipMart closed in 2000, after which an investigation revealed that a pipe break had caused gasoline to leak into the ground around the site.
More than 50 thousand gallons of fuel saturate the ground around the property.
“Whittier properties began the investigation in 2001, except they’ve been unwilling to continue,” he said. “Since then, they owe back taxes to KPB in the sum of $62,994.87. It’s been decades since they have paid their taxes.”
Micciche said communication from Whittier Properties recently has been “nonexistent.” It’s unclear whether the company is still active. Records online list the company as “involuntarily dissolved,” and in the years since the leak, multiple neighbors have sued.
Micciche said the borough has been hesitant to foreclose on the property and repossess it, since it’s worried about assuming liability for the contamination. But he said he’s requested confirmation from the Department of Environmental Conversation — which oversees the contamination site — that the borough won’t be liable.
“Once it’s determined that we wouldn’t be taking on any liability, the building will come down, we’ll put it out for bid, and eliminate that public hazard as soon as possible,” he said.
Micciche is hoping to have the site cleared to its foundation in a matter of weeks, with guidance from environmental officials on how to safely handle the sites. The borough is eating the costs — both the lack of taxes coming from the property, and demolition of the building.
