The town has issued an immediate cease-and-desist order for Ancom Custom Cabinets, a business located in the former Sargent Mill in Graniteville, following the building commissioner's discovery that the business was allegedly operating a paint booth with inadequate ventilation and sprinkler systems that were severed and capped.
Inspectors also discovered at least one business - Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi Northwest - has been operating without a permit in the building at 69 Broadway St. owned by Chris Franklin of Wayne Road, according to Town Manager Steve Ledoux, and there may also be illegal dwelling units in the building.
"I wasn't aware that they (the sprinklers) weren't functioning or capped. This was news to me," said Andy Kalafatis, owner of Ancom Custom Cabinets. "I realized that there was one issue there that I was responsible for which is the spray booth."
Kalafatis said he is already working to resolve the ventilation issues for the spray booth and is waiting on further information from the Fire Department on installation requirements for the booth.
Ledoux said inspectors, including the state fire marshal, had a difficult time breathing in the building where adults have been working and children have been taking martial arts lessons.
The state fire marshal and a state building inspector were set to perform a full inspection of the mill on Tuesday. Their findings were not available at press time.
"No one is operating over there that is not permitted to be there," Franklin said Wednesday, adding that no one is living in building. The karate studio needs a special permit from the Planning Board, he said, and an application will be filed for that.
Franklin said the sprinkler system is operational but there is a portion of pipe where sprinklers are not working.
"That has been like that since before I owned the property," said Franklin. "We're going to have that corrected, but it's probably 20 feet out of 800 or 900 feet of sprinkler pipe."
The town has had ongoing issues with the owner of the former mill.
Selectmen took action to foreclose on a number of Franklin's properties in 1998 for unpaid property taxes. He had also amassed $30,000 in fire code fines because the mill properties lacked proper fire systems.
In April 1999, selectmen approved a timeline for Franklin to bring his Bridge Street and Broadway Street properties to compliance with building and fire codes and Franklin was able to stop two foreclosure proceedings in August 1999 after paying nearly $400,000 in back taxes owed on the mill and a parcel of land on Bridge Street.
Franklin met with former interim Town Manager Madonna McKenzie and other department heads on a weekly basis to conduct tours and document the cleanup of the properties. Selectmen were unhappy with the poor conditions of the buildings and the presence of building debris, unregistered parked vehicles, illegal apartments and unregulated indoor tire storage, as well as the inappropriate containment of flammable objects.
"It's one thing not paying your taxes," Selectmen Chairwoman Dini Healy-Coffin said Tuesday before recommending maximum fines for the violations. "It's another putting people's lives in danger."