JOHN DAY — The passing of beloved Grant County newspaperwoman Ruth Harris on April 9 left a void in the lives of all who knew her — but it has also left a mess at her former residence at 250 NE Dayton St. in John Day.

Garbage and dilapidated camp trailers cover the property. Doors to the home lack doorknobs and are often left wide-open. The inside of the home isn’t much better, with trash piled in the rooms and gaping holes in the floor and ceiling.

An unpleasant smell lingers in the vicinity of the home and has led to complaints from neighboring residents, the People Mover office and attendees of the First Christian Church on Dayton Street.

Jerry Franklin of John Day-based Eastern Oregon Realty was a close friend of Harris and has been working for months to broker the sale of her former home to the People Mover, which is next door to the house and wants to acquire the lot for a planned expansion.

Franklin said an agreement between Harris and the People Mover regarding the property was hashed out prior to her death but is waiting for her estate to clear probate.

“Well, I listed it up with Ruth while she was still alive,” Franklin said.

“So I had the People Mover make an offer, which she signed and accepted with her kids there in the hospital,” he added. “She knew what she was doing.”

A People Mover official confirmed that there is a presumptive deal in place that would allow the bus service to expand its footprint by purchasing Harris’ old residence.

Franklin said the issue with the sale has been getting through probate, the legal process that occurs after the passing of an individual that deals with validating their will and determining the disposition of their assets. In the meantime, Franklin said, a lack of funds has made it difficult for the family to clean up the property.

Franklin said that the probate issues have now largely been resolved. Franklin and the People Mover are working with an attorney on the sale, with Harris’ son, Robert Tillotson, who resides in Arkansas, acting as the representative of Harris’ estate.

Eastern Oregon Realty, which Franklin owns, started an escrow account for the property shortly after the passing of Harris. Franklin said a sale of the property was agreed upon on April 4.

“We’ve had hurdles and obstacles, but everything is moving forward,” he said. “The probate should be coming very soon.”

Pastor Al Altnow leads the First Christian Church, located next to Harris’ old home on Dayton Street. Altnow said there were concerns about the state of Harris’ house prior to her passing, but now that she has died, something needs to be done about the condition of the property.

“I think that’s the thought process behind everybody,” Altnow said. “The Nazarene Church actually sent a crew down one time (and) cleaned up the outside.”

That was at least five years ago, Altnow added.

“That was the last effort that was done on that,” he said. “The key at this point is we just really need to do something to move forward.”

Altnow said he’s reached out to the city for some type of resolution with no success.

“They said, ‘Well, we can’t touch it,’ which they can because they have the ordinances,” he said. “That was the response I got.”

The concern for Altnow is one of health and safety, along with the fact that the residence is an eyesore.

At this point, he said, the home doesn’t just need to be cleaned up — it needs to be torn down.

“There is no rehab at all,” he said. “Whoever is doing the demolition, if they want to save the frame to the house or the metal frame, that would be the only thing that is salvageable.”