No work or demolition will likely occur for at least six more weeks on a house on Roland Avenue that had been severely damaged by fire.

A Chancery Court, TN judge on Thursday extended a restraining order that prevents city officials from destroying the building. City officials also seem to have rebuffed an offer by the house's owner to donate the 70-year-old home to charity while repairs to the building are completed.

Chancellor James Butler concluded that razing the house would cause owner Paul Mundt irreparable harm. But Butler also said several issues with a city demolition order needed clarification, including whether the Jackson-Madison County Historic Zoning Commission must clear the razing.

The home is within the Lambuth Area Neighborhood Association boundaries.

The restraining order was extended through Feb. 19, when another hearing will be held on the case.

"The saga continues," Mundt laughed after the hearing.

Mundt received an order to destroy the home on Dec. 3, three days after he failed to meet a deadline to finish rebuilding. Building officials ordered the house's repair in July at a hearing held after Mundt was issued an order to remove hazardous debris from the property, the hollowed remains of which had lingered after a March fire.

Mundt has said he did not think the officials meant that the home must be completely rebuilt by the deadline, but scrambled to repair much of its exterior before receiving the demolition order. He filed suit and got the restraining order shortly after receiving a city permit to destroy the building.

City Attorney Lewis Cobb argued that razing the home could cause Mundt financial harm but nothing that would be irreparable.

"Paul Mundt does not live in this house," Cobb said. "The real victims are the families living adjacent to it."

Neighbors have said they were concerned with the property's tenants before the fire, especially after a Lane College student was shot and killed at the house last year.

After the fire, neighbors complained of the hazards posed by the scorched debris and remaining walls. Mundt has said initial reconstruction was halted in late spring because zoning changes stopped him from rebuilding the house as a fourplex.

Mundt said he wants to donate the property to charity with the agreement that the repairs be finished and the building eventually be auctioned off, preferably to a prospective homeowner.

The money paid for the building would then go to the charity, Mundt said. He said his "charity of choice" would be Eagles Nest, a work and mentoring program he helped found for troubled East Jackson youth.

"The neighborhood then wouldn't have to be concerned with tenant problems," he said. "It's a win-win-win situation."

Mundt said he had not received a response from city officials on his offer, but Cobb said they likely would not accept. He said the home was once one of the most appealing homes on Roland Avenue, but was sloppily converted into a fourplex and irreparably damaged by rain in the months it was unrepaired after the fire.

"Our experience with Paul getting things put back in shape is not real good," Cobb said.

Cobb asked Butler to order Mundt to refrain from further repairs to the home before the February hearing. Though not ordered to do so, Mundt said he likely will not repair the house before the hearing date.

"It probably wouldn't be a good use of my time," he said.

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