The dilapidated Big Timber Motel near downtown Anchorage has no fire alarm system, no flushing toilets and no way to cook food, according to the city fire marshal. On Tuesday, city building officials took the rare step of posting eviction notices around the property, saying the building is no longer safe for the few people still living there. Among those residents is the former owner who still claims the building is his.
Red "notice to vacate" signs posted around the shuttered motel say that anyone still living there has until noon Thursday to move out. Anchorage fire marshal Cleo Hill said five of the motel's rooms were occupied Tuesday. She said she wasn't sure of the total number of people affected.
"They've been living there for a while," Hill said. "And they shouldn't have been."
The signs tell anyone who needs help finding housing to call 211, a resource line operated by United Way. Hill said the city health department has made arrangements with two social services organizations to provide alternate housing for those who call 211.
When the city seized the property over delinquent taxes by then-owner Terry Stahlman last year, inspectors found it infested with bedbugs and shrews, with no heat or hot water.
In recent months, Stahlman has been embroiled in a legal fight with Robert and Serena Alexander, who say they bought the property last year. State filings show that Stahlman signed over the deed to the property last year to Serena Alexander, and the Alexanders paid the city $81,000 for back taxes and for repairs and upgrades made to the building during the seizure, including the replacement of two boilers.
Robert Alexander did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. Earlier this year, he and Serena Alexander filed in court to evict the handful of people still living in the hotel -- including Stahlman, who was living in the old front office room. Robert Alexander has said that he and Serena Alexander were hoping to start remodeling the building months ago, but Stahlman and others refused to leave.
Stahlman has claimed he has a 50 percent ownership stake in the building.
In May, an Anchorage Superior Court judge said Alexander couldn't evict Stahlman or five other people living at the hotel until the ownership issue was settled.
But Tuesday's eviction notice is separate from the court case -- building and fire officials have ruled that the hotel is too unsafe for anyone to live there, said Hill, the fire marshal.
"It has nothing to do with the court case or the ownership of the building," Hill said. Except, she said, the owner has not been repairing it or keeping it in "habitable condition."
Hill said one of the owners had been paying for a fire watch to make sure the hotel was safe, and people were behaving responsibly. But she said the contract was recently canceled.
She said it's uncommon for the city to post notices for residents to vacate a building, and it hasn't happened in several years.
"We try to work with the building owners to bring the building up to a safe condition, but in this case, it wasn't being done and the residents were in danger," Hill said in an email.
Carol Hopper, Stahlman's co-conservator, said Stahlman was still living in the office but had not contacted her Wednesday about the eviction order.