A stretch of Scenic Highway may soon look quite different.
The Scenic View Motel, a mainstay along the roadway, has been sold. Plans for the property, however, remain undetermined.
The motel and surrounding land were sold at auction on October 8. The winning bidder was Carol Toomey, publisher of The Action Unlimited, a weekly advertising publication based in Concord.
Ms. Toomey was one of two people who bid on the property. The auction included the motel, a 1.4-acre site at 871 Scenic Highway, and 1.9 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the motel. Town assessor records show the Scenic View Motel with an assessed value of $743,900, and the Herring Pond property at $311,400.
The auction began with a starting price of $500,000, and Ms. Toomey won the property with a bid of $305,000, far below the million-dollar-plus assessed value. There is also a municipal lien of about $17,300 that Ms. Toomey will have to pay off.
Calls to Ms. Toomey seeking comment about her plans for the property were not returned.
Options for development of the property were expanded in May 2019, when residents at Annual Town Meeting voted in favor of a zoning change. The zoning was changed from Scenic Development District (SDD) to Village Business (VB). The warrant article was sponsored by motel owner Dennis M. Waitekunas, and was meant to expedite his plans to tear down the existing building.
Town assessor records show that the Scenic View Motel was bought in 2003 by Paint America Inc. for $1.1 million. Mr. Waitekunas was the company’s president and treasurer. In 2005, ownership was transferred to A.J. Michael Realty, another company owned by Mr. Waitekunas.
Built in 1900, the Scenic View Motel has fallen on hard times in recent years. In March 2019, the business was shut down by the Bourne Board of Health for 90 days for violations of the town’s health and safety regulations. Violations included guests smoking in rooms, missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and unpermitted electrical appliances, such as hot plates and toaster ovens.
Guests were also staying longer than the three weeks allowed under town regulations, while outside of the building, trash and propane tanks posed a fire hazard. Other violations brought against the motel included unsanitary conditions, failure to follow the town’s blight regulations, and the need to exterminate pests.
In July 2019 the body of a 63-year-old man was found in one of the motel’s rooms. The man was staying in the motel despite the board of health order that the business be shuttered. The victim was eventually identified as the brother-in-law of the motel’s manager, Vickie W. Brady.
Following that incident, the board of health shut the business down permanently, and told Ms. Brady she had to vacate the premises. The board also instituted fines against Mr. Waitekunas. The fines amounted to $21,700 and dated back to March 2019.
In October 2019 Mr. Waitekunas sued the board of health, claiming he had been fined inappropriately. In his complaint he stated that the board of health fined him in contradiction to its own regulations, which forbid operating a motel, hotel or guest cabin facility without a license granted by the board of health.
He stated he did not violate regulations because the Scenic View Motel was no longer in operation, and the man found dead at the motel was not staying in one of the rooms as a paying guest.
The lawsuit asks that the board’s ruling be vacated, all fines nullified, and his attorney’s fees paid. Barnstable County Superior Court records show that a ruling on the case is pending.
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October 23, 2020 at 11:00AM
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Scenic View Motel Sold | Bourne News - CapeNews.net
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