A property at 199 Sea Lion Drive, Mayville, has been referred to court for repeated code violations. P-J photo by Gregory Bacon

MAYVILLE — A dilapidated structure in the village has prompted officials to file a legal summons against its owner.

According to documents filed with New York State Supreme Court, the village of Mayville has summoned Ellen Shepherd of Warren, Pa., to answer a complaint regarding the property at 199 Sea Lion Dr., Mayville.

“In case of your failure to answer or appear, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint,” the document states.

According to the filed documents, building inspector Frank Watson inspected the property and found 16 violations of the state Property Maintenance Code and another five violations of the state Fire Code. Violations listed include unsafe structures, sanitation, weeds, rodent harborage, exterior and interior structures, foundation walls and doors, among others.

“On numerous occasions the defendant has been notified of these defects and requested the defendant to remedy,” the documents state. “The premises have been condemned and is an unsafe structure and the defendant has been served and failed to comply with the notice to remedy.”

The documents state that the condition constitutes a “haven for rats and other rodents and insects.”

The documents additionally state that the premises “have caused and threaten to cause other properties in the village to be damaged and depreciated in value as well as injured and threaten to injure the health of the citizens of the village and have interfered with and threaten to interfere with the reasonable, proper and orderly residential and business development in the village.”

The village is requesting the court ban the defendant from the property and give them permission to enter the property so it may board it up, securing it from becoming an additional nuisance.

Further, if the defendant fails to abate the situation, the village is asking the court that it may demolish the structure, along with the costs and disbursements of this action.

This dispute has been going on for several years. Among the documents filed with the court is a letter ordering it be cleaned up from 2014. It was officially condemned in June, 2021.