Mt. Morris resident threatens lawsuit against village over missing tools

MT. MORRIS – A Mt. Morris resident has threatened to sue the village for removing “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of tools from the site of an April fire that destroyed Sharky’s Sports Bar and a next-door building.

Justin Coltrain addressed the Mt. Morris Village Board during the public comment portion of its Tuesday meeting.

“I want to know what gave you, sir, the right to have it tore down within 24 hours and have my property removed off that property, including toolboxes,” Coltrain said when addressing Village President Phil Labash. “I was not notified. I was not given any kind of notification that anything was being done. It wasn’t even 18 hours later, and tens of thousands of dollars of my tools were moved off that property and taken to a scrapyard.”

The two buildings destroyed in the April 16 fire are 1 N. Wesley Ave. and 3 N. Wesley Ave., the latter of which housed Sharky’s Sports Bar.

Coltrain said at the meeting that he was going to purchase the property from Brock Swanlund on Wednesday and file a cease and desist. As of Wednesday, Ogle County property tax records list Brock and Heather Swanlund as the owners of 1 N. Wesley Ave. and Double Duce Corp., in care of Michael Rossi, as the owner of 3 N. Wesley Ave.

“I’d like to know why you had my property removed off that property,” Coltrain said.

Village Board members did not respond to Coltrain’s comments, per the advice of village attorney Rob LeSage.

Additionally, under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, board members are not required to respond to public comment, LeSage said.

Before he left the meeting, Coltrain said that he has hired an attorney out of Chicago and that they would be in touch with village officials soon.

“Sounds good. We’ll wait for the complaint,” LeSage said. “Thank you.”

At 1:33 p.m. April 16, the Mt. Morris Fire Protection District was alerted to flames coming from an apartment in the building at 1 N. Wesley Ave.

The fire quickly spread to Sharky’s Sports Bar because of strong winds and the absence of a fire wall separating the two structures. The fire was extinguished by 5 p.m., with most mutual-aid companies released by 7 p.m.

The Mt. Morris Fire Protection District requested a Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Box 15 to the third-alarm level for additional assistance from Advanced EMS; the Byron, Dixon City, Dixon Rural, Forreston, German Valley, Lanark, Oregon, Pecatonica, Polo, Shannon and Stillman fire protection districts; and Ogle County Emergency Management.

Before Coltrain’s comments, Labash said a demolition permit has been pulled for Sharky’s by the owners, but village officials did not have a timeline for the work.