A Stanley woman served City of Stanley officials with a small claims lawsuit at the Stanley City Council meeting on Monday, April 15.
Ruby Ann Birt, 206 E. 2nd Ave., alleges she’s been discriminated against and harassed by the city and is seeking $10,000.
There’s no formal complaint attached with the action. Birt wrote on correspondence to and from the city, some of it appears illegible.
The case was filed against outgoing Mayor Al Haas, City Administrator Nicole Pilgrim, Police Chief Lance Weiland and Alderperson Laurie Foster and will be heard in Chippewa County Small Claims Court on May 13 at 1 p.m.
Birt mentions several properties she either owns or has owned and municipal actions taken against her in past years.
She appeared before the council in the public appearances portion of the agenda.
“Allow me to approach you,” she said, handing out copies of the small claims suit.
She warned the city against taking action on a property she owns on First Avenue that she is in the process of selling. The building formerly housed Yellowstone Implement at 219 E. 1st Ave. and appears to be currently undergoing renovations. Records show Birt bought the building in 2019 for $28,620 and no other property transfer has been filed.
“I will address about the building on First Avenue. It was not hit by a tornado, and the young couple I sold it to that’s redoing it, it’s not condemned. The windows broke out because it was cracked. It was not hit by a tornado,” she said.
She apparently is upset the city has told her the building is zoned for commercial use.
“Now they’re told it’s commercial,” she said. “There’s going to be a fight. Don’t start with that young couple because they’ve redone that building better than it ever has been done.”
She said she has worked to renovate several buildings in Stanley.
“I’ve redone three condemned buildings and homes in this town. Beaver Johnson’s was one of them (the former Dale Johnson Accounting building). It was condemned and sold to me. Anyway, now it’s the Mexican restaurant. The house on Second Avenue that the fire department blew the windows out, it was condemned when I bought it. Now, it’s the nicest house on the block.”
She said the action against the city has been “a long time coming.”
“Please don’t start on the young couple that I sold the building to on 1st Avenue,” she ended.
Attached to the small claims paperwork are:
•Aug. 30, 2022, correspondence to Birt from the city administrator stating an application for rezoning is incomplete. Birt wrote on the paperwork that the city wouldn’t tell her the zoning numbers and she wrote, “Bitching about having to make copies.”
That claim is apparently because she planned to put an apartment in the back of a building she owned at 115 N. Broadway St.
•A citation she received from the Stanley Police Department on Aug. 26, 2022. for violation of parking restrictions regarding a trailer parked on 1st Avenue. Notes from the police state she was “previously warned via phone” and “trailer will be towed and stored at your expense if not removed by 9/2/22.” The citation was in the amount of $100.
•Correspondence from the city that property is in violation of the snow and ice removal ordinance in early 2022.
City officials had no comment on the court action at the meeting.
