The City of Sedalia is asking a Pettis County judge to allow the demolition of a structure in downtown Sedalia considered to be on the verge of collapse.

In a court filing late Wednesday afternoon, the City is seeking a declaratory judgment against the owners of the building at 207 West Main, over a month after the front entrance to the building had caved in and several bricks had fallen onto the adjacent sidewalk following heavy rains. The eastbound lane of Main Street in front of the building has been closed since June 4. Since then, the city says an engineer that inspected the building determined that, “a catastrophic collapse of wall areas to the ground is imminent in the foreseeable future”. In their petition, the city says its attorneys have spoken with the building’s owners over the past month to determine if they would take necessary steps to make the area safe, but to no avail.

The city’s filing requests the court to order the building’s owners to tear down the building, or allow the city to enter the property to complete the demolition, with all costs incurred by the owners. The court issued summonses Thursday morning to both owners, Travis Dixon and Dana Melton, giving them 30 days to respond to the city’s petition. A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.