This house on County Route 1055 just south of Lawrence has been the subject of numerous complaints from neighbors. The building used to house Fairview No. 21 school, which was built in 1890. It now is a rental property that the county is trying to get the tenants to clean up.

For years, the one-room schoolhouse on County Route 1055 just south of Lawrence had been a reminder to neighbors and passersby of the idyllic nature of country life.

But now Fairview No. 21, built in 1890 and situated on an acre and a half, has come to symbolize the underbelly of living in the country.

Junk cars, old tires, a boat engine, beat-up appliances, bicycles and other debris litter the yard and the right of way next to the road.

This house on County Route 1055 just south of Lawrence has been the subject of numerous complaints from neighbors. The building used to house Fairview No. 21 school, which was built in 1890. It now is a rental property that the county is trying to get the tenants to clean up.

Flood lights at night, loud noises and lots of traffic to and from the old school also are making neighbors mad. On windy days, the rubbish blows out of the yard and lands on other property.

Neighbors say the property has to be in violation of county codes. County officials agree that it is, but for months it has been reluctant to bring the hammer down.

Instead, as part of its code-enforcement philosophy of working with violators, inspectors had been working with the tenants and the property owner to try to get them to clean it up without taking the owner to court.

“We have gotten a lot of complaints,” said Sarah Plinsky, assistant county administrator.

But even as the county continued to try to get the tenants to do the right thing, tenant David Sharon continued to bring more junk onto the property, Sean Reid, the county’s new director of zoning and codes who is monitoring the property, said he observed.

On Friday, Plinsky said she and Reid had decided to escalate enforcement.

“Because the tenant continues to bring new materials on site and the site continues to be in substantial non-compliance, despite the efforts of the property owners to provide means to clean the property, the County feels it must escalate the enforcement action,” Plinsky wrote in response to questions from the Journal-World.

Reid referred the case to the county attorney for review and to determine what the county’s next steps will be, Plinsky wrote.

Plinsky said in an interview two weeks ago that she had been reluctant to escalate the matter.

“At this point in time we are working with the property owner and the tenant … If we escalate the situation and turn it over to the court system, it prohibits staff from working with the landowner and the tenant. So it’s a tough situation for staff to make that judgment call.”

Reid had managed to get the tenant Sharon to put a dumpster in the schoolyard in February and county officials saw that as a sign that progress was being made on cleanup.

But 10 days ago, the dumpster was gone, and Sharon told the Journal-World that he had no plans to replace it because he couldn’t afford to pay the rent.

A roll-off dumpster rents for about $150 for two weeks from Honey Creek Disposal and disposal costs are $34.50 a ton.

“I can’t afford another dumpster,” Sharon said. “I only get $700 a month disability, and my wife got laid off from Arby’s.”

On Friday another, smaller dumpster had been placed in front of the schoolhouse.

Proud history

The school is owned by Linda Fritz, of Lawrence; her daughter, Ann Speicher, and Sharon live in the schoolhouse with their 7-year-old son.

The school was purchased by Donald Fritz, Linda’s husband, in 1973, according to the Douglas County Register of Deeds. The property was well kept until Donald Fritz’s death in 2011, neighbors said. His wife became sole owner at that time, according to county records.

Linda Fritz, as owner, is ultimately responsible for the property. A few weeks ago, she told the Journal-World that she had rented the dumpster for her daughter and boyfriend to use to get rid of the debris at the request of the county.

“They are supposed to be cleaning up the yard,” said Fritz two weeks ago. She also said she was extremely frustrated that “the kids” were not taking better care of the place.

She acknowledged it was a slow-go because of Sharon’s disability and that “the kids are hauling off some of it to make extra cash.”

Fritz blamed the mess on previous tenants, who she said had chickens and dogs living inside the schoolhouse.

“It’s been a horrid mess,” she said. “I don’t know where the (former tenants) are. They just vanished. The kids have been working on getting it cleaned up.”

The Fairview school closed in 1961 after having served the community as a school, a Sunday school and community center where political meetings, literary society meetings and spelling bees were held, according to Watkins Museum of History records.

Before the school fell on hard times, a 2014 survey by Dale Nimz, a historic preservation consultant for the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Commission, said the building could be a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.

Trash piles up

The former tenants moved out last summer, and Fritz’s daughter and Sharon took over the house in about August, Fritz said.

By fall, junk started showing up in the yard, according to neighbors and county reports. A county inspector filed a report in October saying she had spoken to a cousin of one of the tenants at the property and told him that the junk had to be removed.

The inspector visited again in November and in a report following a visit on Dec. 1, the inspector wrote that nothing had been done: “This looks really bad.”

In a letter a few days later to Linda Fritz, inspector Kay Pettit wrote that the “exterior storage” of motor vehicles, tires and debris “constitutes operation of a junk/salvage yard” according to Douglas County Zoning Regulations and was not permitted in that neighborhood.

The letter informed Fritz that trash, including the tires, must be disposed of properly. The letter said Fritz had 30 days, until Jan. 4, to clean up the site and be in compliance.

A month later after reinspecting the property, Pettit wrote, “This looks worse than ever. Debris is now in the right of way … (Sharon) was cutting apart an apartment-sized refrigerator. I told him he had to get all of this trash picked up … He said he was diabetic and could not work very much.”

Complaints pile up

The complaints started rolling in.

One woman who was trying to sell some acreage across the road said she had lost two sales because of the condition of the Fritz property.

One neighbor reported seeing 20 pickup loads of trash and scrap metal being dumped on the property, a codes inspection report said. The caller said people were bringing in two and three pickup loads every day.

Another caller said car motors were running all night and people were periodically revving the engines.

“He believes they are collecting scrap/metal/junk and dumping on the property,” the county codes report said. “Also had concerns about a seven-year-old child living on the property.”

Neighbors said they also called the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to report the noises and floodlights. Information about any action the Sheriff’s Office has taken wasn’t immediately available.

Hoping to work it out

Until this week, county officials are still expressing optimism that the matter can be resolved without going to court.

Reid, the county’s new director of zoning and codes, said he’s working hard to reach an amicable solution with Fritz.

“I explained we wanted to work with her to get the property cleaned up and suggested that an important step towards compliance could be accomplished by placing a Dumpster on the site, demanding her tenants start cleaning-up the trash, and conveying to the tenants that the property was not approved for use as a junkyard,” Reid wrote in his report on Feb. 12.

But it became clear that process wasn’t working. In an interview last week and in an email on Friday, Reid said he had visited the property and noticed that there were materials there that weren’t present during his first visit.

The county’s reluctance to take the case to court is consistent with a strategy the county has used in other cases recently. The strategy has drawn some criticism after the county showed leniency with a 2014 code case involving Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was building a rural home without all the necessary permits.

Until late Friday afternoon, county officials said they believed not taking the case to court was the best course of action to resolve the mess. Now, they are reconsidering that position.

“It is difficult,” Plinsky said. “Once you move to court it makes it harder for (Fritz) to deal with her daughter. At least now we are able to send letters to the tenant and try to make some of those things move forward. When it goes into the court system, the conversation will be between Mrs. Fritz and the courts.”

Reid said he believes Fritz is trying.

“I have found Linda Fritz to be cooperative,” he said. “I sense she is as frustrated as I am. She is cooperating. She did get a Dumpster out there.”

As for Sharon, the tenant who neighbors say has been operating a junk business, he said that’s not the case. During an interview with a Journal-World reporter, Sharon was in the process of working on a Chevy Blazer. The hood and fenders were missing, and the frame was broken. The cab of the pickup sat on the ground nearby. Tools were scattered on the ground.

Sharon said it’s difficult for him to clean up the mess and he can’t work very long because he suffers from arthritis as a result of a motorcycle accident in 1988. He said the property is not a junk yard. Most of the trash was there when he moved in, he said. And he said he put up flood lights because “people were stealing his stuff,” including a broken dirt bike that his 7-year old son had bought.

But Sharon said the property will get cleaned up. First he needs to complete another project: He plans, he said, to put some wooden side panels on his truck to haul away the debris.

“Hopefully next week we will have it all done,” he said on March 22.

But on Friday afternoon, 11 days later, a dumpster was in place waiting for someone to put trash in it.