DAYTON — A local bookstore remains closed after a fire earlier this month, which made the city deem it unsafe.
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A fire broke out in a parking garage next to Rabbit Hole Books on W. First Street on Feb. 12.
The city issued a vacate order due to structural concerns in the parking garage located above the business.
“I’m really left with a lingering question, which is ‘why isn’t the city helping us?’” Larkin Vonault said.
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Vonault has run the Rabbit Hole Bookstore for three years.
She’s now been shut down for two months, and she only sees one reason.
“It is really so discouraging, we want to cooperate with the city,” Vonault said.
She said the most recent setback came on Good Friday.
She said someone posted paperwork on her store windows informing her that the appeal to the vacate order was denied.
She claimed her lawyer wasn’t present because the city didn’t notify him.
However, Vonault said the building owner did apply for a permit for facade work in front that would allow the building to reopen.
A city spokesperson told News Center 7 that the application is incomplete and can’t be approved in its current form:
“The property owner has since submitted plans for a permit; however, the application is incomplete and cannot be approved in its current form. Building Services is actively working with the property owner and the applicant’s architect to identify the revisions needed for a complete submission.”
Vonault believes her store and the garage are safe.
News Center 7 obtained pictures that show city inspectors’ concerns in the garage.
Things like cracks in columns, wood posts under columns, exposed rebar in floors and ceilings, and crumbling concrete.
They insist that the building owner make larger repairs for the garage to reopen.
“We want to fix the things that they think are wrong. So why are they impeding us from doing that?” Vonault said.
The woman who ran a salon on the ground floor has moved her equipment out.
Vonault had hoped to reopen on April 23, but that date depends on the work permit being approved.
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