GRANGER, Texas — Located in Granger, the Cotton Country Club is a restaurant and dance hall with an indoor dance floor and outdoor patio. Owner Jamie Church told 6 News the business has been closed for two months but they would finally have been able to open up the patio on Friday if it was safe.
Unfortunately, it's not safe, and it has nothing to do with COVID-19.
After a bad storm on April 9, Church went to the club only to find the shared wall between her patio and a neighbor's property had collapsed into the patio area. Their outdoor bar and storage building was smashed and full of bricks and the remaining part of the wall was unsafe and needed to be torn down.
Church made plans to have the wall demolished on April 23. She paid a company and got a permit for the demolition on April 23 as well. But after getting everything in place, and paying the company more than $7,000, the City of Granger told Church she couldn't remove the wall the day before the demolition.
The wall was shared with another property owner, and he wouldn't consent to tear the wall down.
"The party with which CCC shares the common wall has received a letter consenting to the wall demolition. Although he has received the letter, he has not yet signed it. The city cannot issue a demolition permit until we receive signed consent," Granger City Secretary Christy Bradshaw said in an email.
The owner of the property next door, Mario Cipriano Torres, told 6 News on the phone he was not ready to sign a consent form on April 22 and said he still needed to remove items from the property, but said other questions would have to be handled by his attorney. Torres did not name his attorney.
This left Church with two options, wait for the city to condemn the property, which the mayor said he was working on, or file a lawsuit against Torres.
Church said there was no way to make the first option go any faster.
"The mayor had said if you can just give us 60 days we are going to condemn the property. He said there was a process that needed to be followed and I have to give them time to follow that process," Church said.
Mayor Trevor Cheatheam told 6 News on the phone Wednesday that it could take up to three months. Church said she didn't have three months and would have to file a lawsuit against Torres. She's not happy with the city either.
"Why are you going to condemn a wall and spend money using your city attorney and city funds to hire a company when we have already hired a company and are willing to pay for it," Church said.
Church said all she wants is to be able to open her business again.
"We have full clearance to be open right now, to be open because we have a restaurant license. People drive 40 miles to get here and we can't use our courtyard," Church said.
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