STEUBENVILLE — Efforts to make Steubenville more “business friendly” have ratcheted up since the inspections department pink-slipped a property that was damaged during the July demolition of the old Moose building on South Fourth Street.

The inspections notice gave the owners of the building, Cameron Fradd and her husband, Matt, until Sept. 1 to either repair the damage or demolish it.

The Fradd’s closed on their purchase of the building, located at 114 S. 4th Street, on July 5, just one week before they said a side-facing wall was destabilized by the Jefferson County Land Bank’s demolition of the old Moose lodge.

Gateway Engineers, a Pittsburgh company hired by the contractor to assess the stability of the Fradd’s building, determined the “portion of the … property above the second floor level appears to be laterally destabilized and lacks adequate attachment to the floor framing at several locations.”

“Further distresses or movements may cause localized sudden and brittle failures of the wall structure and supported floor framing,” structural enginer Alex Damewood wrote in his report, dated July 25. “Further, any persons occupying the … property should be made aware of the observed conditions; without immediate bracing and remediation of the existing structure, we believe the existing observed structural conditions represent a life-safety issue for anyone occupying the … property.”

Damewood had recommended the property owner “take immediate action to stabilize the brick wall … via installation of retrofit brick anchors at the second floor, third floor and attic levels,” saying the anchors will “serve to connect the brick wall to the structural framing at each level to prevent the wall from being able to pull away from the rest of the structure.”

Once that’s done, he’d said the contractor could get rid of the temporary bracing and demolish parts of the wall that had been supported by the garage wall and use a concrete “flowable fill” to reinforce the foundation.

At a City Council meeting two weeks ago Mrs. Fradd had voiced frustration that it was a tenant, not the city, who notified her of the inspection department’s concerns and that the threatening them with a demolition order, posted on a Friday, didn’t give contact information.

She couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment.

City Manager Jim Mavromatis acknowledged the “fix-it-or-demo-it” notices they’ve used in the past — including the one posted on the Fradd building — didn’t include a phone number, but letters are simultaneously mailed to owners of affected buildings and those do have contact information.

“As long as I’ve been here, we have not shut anything down or demo’d anything within (that) 30 days,” he added.

Going forward, he said the notices would bear the city seal on either side of the notice as well as a phone number building owners can call. The seal is intended to bear notice that it is an official communication from the city.

Meanwhile, Mavromatis said contractors are back at work, “finishing the Moose building demolition, putting all the backfill in and finishing the job.”

“Until they’re done our parking lot is closed,” he said, pointing out its affecting businesses that need places for customers to park.

He said they haven’t heard from the Fradds, so he can’t speak to what, if anything, has been done to shore it up.

A garage between the Moose lodge and the Fradd building also was flattened, and Mavromatis said what happens with it and the Fradd building “will be handled by insurance and their attorneys.”

“Those other issues are in the hands of insurance and attorneys, that’s up to them,” he said.

Council members have been critical of the 30-day demolition warning, suggesting it’s “overly harsh,” but Law Director Costa Mastros disagreed, saying it “doesn’t say it’s going to be torn down. It’s up to and including (that).”

“It’s encompassing,” Mastros told council. “I kind of like that. As a city, we want to place people on notice of the least thing they can do and the most they can do … No one can come and say we didn’t put them on notice. I get everyone’s concerns, I do. But I think it’s better practice to keep the range (of options).”

Other changes Mavromatis recommended:

— Creating a citizen access portal that would allow members of the public to submit permit applications, check the status of their applications, schedule inspections and pay fees, all online. He also recommended converting application documents to a PDF format. Residents who don’t want to use the citizen access portal could still fill the PDF out on a table or computer, instead of printing them by hand, and then print them out and email, fax, mail or hand-deliver them if they don’t want to use the citizen access portal.

— Having the planning commission host a public information session on how to get a permit.

— Developing a building inspection division FAQ document and mass-mailing it, along with the existing Building and Business Owners Five-Step Development Guide that’s posted on the city’s website to all registered contractors.

Mavromatis said he talked with officials in a number of other cities to find out what they were doing to improve the inspections process in their communities.

“Those ideas … would make it a little bit easier to apply for permits and people would be able to track permits by software program,” he told council.

“We want to make it easier for consumers.”

Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon said it’s a start. “We’re trying to make the city more business friendly,” he said.