Marsh's Given Two Weeks to Fix Violations

Although a couple members of the Board of Health would prefer that the city health license of Marsh’s Bar be suspended immediately, the board voted to give the owner 14 days to remedy the 32 violations found in inspections done last week.

“This property is a disgrace,” said board member Jim Evans. “It’s one of Bradford’s worst.”

Referring to pictures that were taken by inspectors Mike Cleveland and Mark Grassi, Evans said, “What’s going on inside mirrors what’s on the outside.”

He asked why the license couldn’t be revoked immediately because the owner has had every opportunity to bring it up to code in the past. Letters were sent to Ken Marsh in April and also in August of last year in reference to code violations.

The city’s special counsel Greg Henry said he “would much rather take action immediately than have any sort of delay. There’s no question about that. On the other hand we need to do this in a way that will survive any legal attack upon us.”

“This deals with this individual’s livelihood and we have to be very careful to afford them due process,” Henry added.

City health officer John Peterson said that in his opinion “Every day that he operates … there are people in jeopardy” because of some of the code violations.

Peterson recommended that he be given no more than 14 days to correct the violations, but some of the board members were concerned about giving him enough time.

Henry and others said they didn’t have enough expertise to know how much time it would take to remedy some of the problems like plumbing or electrical issues.

“But I do have an idea,” said member Rick Benton, “how much time it would take to require that the microwave oven be wiped and sanitized every 24 hours.”

Fred Proper asked if the city would have any liability if someone is injured within the next two weeks.

“I think not,” Henry said.

Cleveland did say that Marsh fixed the roof after he got eight citations from the district judge’s office.

Marsh has 14 days to correct the violations. If they are not corrected by then his license will be suspended. If they are not corrected in another 16 days, the license will be revoked.