Dec 15, 2004 By Jennifer Harr 3 min read

A Fayette County judge will hear arguments next month that a Brownsville Borough property owner should face a potentially hefty fine for not razing a dilapidated property, as he agreed to do last year in court. In court papers, borough solicitor James T. Davis contends that businessman Ernest Liggett had until last December to apply for a demolition permit to tear down a yellow building at 106 High St., across from the borough building.

Liggett, Davis claimed, has never applied and should have done so by Dec. 15, 2003, under a court agreement between Liggett and the borough.

Now, Davis contends, Judge Steve P. Leskinen could impose a $1,000-per-day fine on Liggett, although it’s unclear from what date the potential fine would start. Davis’ petition also requests that Leskinen order Liggett to do the work. Leskinen set a Jan. 13 hearing date.

Borough representatives and Liggett came to an agreement on Oct. 14, 2003, that he would demolish the building at 106 High St. and the Plaza Theater.

The agreement, according to court records, stated that Liggett would raze the properties within 90 days of receiving a demolition permit from the borough. He had two months from the October agreement to apply for the permit to raze the High Street property.

Liggett did apply for a permit to demolish the theater, and that work was done. But Davis’ petition contends that Liggett never applied for the permit to raze the High Street property, even though the borough’s engineering firm repeatedly asked him to do so.

Although Davis has asked Leskinen to impose the $1,000-per-day fine both sides agreed to at the October hearing, the purpose of that fine was to penalize Liggett if he did not demolish and clean the building area within 90 days of receiving a demolition permit. In this case, Davis contends Liggett never applied for a permit.

At the time of the October hearing, Liggett owned 114 properties in the Brownsville area.

Last year, Liggett, who owns about 90 percent of the buildings in the downtown historic district, threatened to sue the borough because he believed they were unfairly targeting him with code enforcement.

The October hearing where this agreement was reached seemed to be the end of several rounds of court proceedings involving Liggett and the dilapidated properties. In February 2002, Liggett agreed to pay fines and tear down six buildings in the borough as part of a court proceeding.

And in July, a district justice dismissed building code violation citations filed on Liggett’s Market Street properties.

Liggett initially purchased the properties with the hope of pursuing riverboat gaming, but the state Legislature never legalized that practice. Last year he was in talks with a Pennsylvania-based Native American company to work towards an Indian casino. There have been no new announcements on that front since 2003.