A close friend of mine has a mechanic shop in Salisbury. His shop is joined with several other units with a adjoining neighbor that has a body shop.
About two months ago the Salisbury "Task Force" of about 8 or 9 people visited the facility to inspect the units, the "Task Force" said that they only come out when someone calls and makes a complaint. Later on the same day a man from the Salisbury "Health Department" also visited the facility to inspect the units, he also stated that he was there via a complaint that people were "urinating on the exterior of building"
Now what makes this interesting is that it's my understanding that these two business's have a neighbor across the street that also does auto repair and auto body work. From what I have gathered this person doesn't want the competition of the two tiny business's this close to his business and is doing everything he can do to run the little business's out and away from his business and that he is the person that made the complaints, that business is Kelley's auto body.
Fast forward to yesterday. Not hearing from the city in 2 or 3 months after their visit and assuming from what the task force said while doing their inspection, and what the health inspector said that he found nothing in violation, the two small business's thought everything was a-ok until yesterday. To their surprise a person from the city taped a bright orange piece of paper on the outside of each business and literally ran away after posting the piece of paper.
What was the bright orange paper? I'll get to that in a second. Let me explain how the building is set up. This is a large L shaped block building with nine units with six business's but only two that do auto repair.
Now to the orange piece of paper. The bright orange notice read,
Public Notice
This building is deemed unsafe
for public occupancy
under section ________116 #4________of the building code
of the City of Salisbury, Maryland
IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR ANY PERSON TO
OCCUPY OR RESIDE IN THIS BUILDING
UNTIL APPROVED BY THE BUILDING OFFICIAL
30 DAY VACATE SIGNED William Holland
BUILDING INSPECTOR BUILDING OFFICIAL
My good friend called Mr Holland to find out what this was all about, Mr Holland just kept repeating that he should get a letter tomorrow, finally Mr Holland said it was because that there were no firewalls, and people were "pissing on the building" (those were his exact words) and numerous "life threatening violations" OH PULEEEEZE!!! "life threatening violations", "people pissing on the building"??? you have got to be kidding Salisbury. Isn't it strange that the only units to receive the vacate notice were the two that are repairing vehicles?
Now the City of Salisbury is closing down two honest very small business's because of numerous frivolous complaints from the owner of Kelley's auto body and auto repair which is a very large business. I guess Kelley's is afraid that the two little business's will take a biscuit off his plate.
Now thanks to Salisbury the big business can have his extra biscuit and several families will not be able to feed their families.
Thanks Salisbury