By Chris Edwards
[email protected]
WOODVILLE – A motel that has been closed and condemned will soon be torn down, according to Woodville mayor Amy Bythewood.
The Willis Motel, which was open for more than 75 years, was condemned in 2022 by the City of Woodville, after violating a litany of health and safety codes. The structure was the location of a fire in late 2019 and was the topic of hearings in 2021.
Although city officials said at the time that it had been in operation for more than 75 years, a file on the motel from the Better Business Bureau indicates that it has been in operation as the Willis Motel since at least Jan. 1, 1978.
Bythewood said a lawsuit regarding its ownership was recently finalized, and SRB Enterprises, LLC, of Colmesneil, will handle the demolition as soon as a report concerning asbestos is returned to the city.
In 2021, when the city first held a hearing on the Willis, city administrator Mandy Risinger said that the fire marshal investigated the Willis after the fire and requested that the city’s building inspector come and assess things.
The pandemic hampered the city’s ability to work on cases of dilapidated structures throughout 2020, and the situation with the Willis was further hampered by the death of fire marshal Chuck Marshall, and there was no documentation that the owners of the motel had resolved any of the issues.
At one hearing, the owner had given the impression that all of the issues had been resolved, however.
Public records at the time showed an LLC, Vaishvi, as owning the Willis Motel. The Secretary of State’s office lists a Dipesh Lad as the principal with Vaishvi. Last year, in a closed session of the Woodville City Council, the city voted to move forward with the structure. Risinger said at the time that the city had “reached a point to where we had run our gauntlet of what our ordinance permits,” and wanted to find the next step available in condemning the structure. Inspectors had found that the building was more than 50% deteriorated.
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