City officials fighting for the demolition of the burned-out Sanger Avenue School were baffled by a motion that Sanger School Foundation official LaNelle McNamara filed Monday in the 10th Court of Appeals.

The appeals court last week granted McNamara until Monday to make her case that 74th District Judge Gary Coley abused his discretion by failing to stay his demolition order until her appeal could be heard.

McNamara, an attorney, filed a motion Monday that was largely a word-for-word restatement of prior filings, mixed with snippets of transcripts from the December trial over the demolition.

Sanger School Foundation official LaNelle McNamara said Monday that contractors are working to enclose the property with a fence.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

She states that if the court does not act, the school will be torn down March 11 — a date that has already passed.

“I would say it’s unintelligible,” City Attorney Leah Hayes said. “We have read it a couple of times, and, unfortunately, it’s difficult to discern what it actually is. It’s cut-and-paste, but it’s not strung together in a logical fashion.”

Hayes said the city will file a response today arguing that McNamara failed to make her case against Coley’s decision.

In a hearing March 3, Coley refused to stay his order allowing the city to demolish, saying the building was too much of a public danger to wait for the appeals process.

The appeals court then granted McNamara until Monday to challenge the March 3 decision, based on court records.

“It appears that all she asked the court to do was give her more time to file a substantive response to show why the trial court got it wrong March 3,” said Roy Barrett, an attorney representing the city of Waco. “She has never said why he got that wrong.”

McNamara denies filing motion

Court records show McNamara signed the motion and filed it Monday.

But in a brief interview later in the afternoon, McNamara denied that she or anyone representing the foundation had filed the any motion Monday in the appeals court.

McNamara did say her contractors are working to enclose the property with a 6 1/2-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, with posts anchored in concrete.

Trenching work began late last week on the fence.

Testimony in the original trial and in the March 3 hearing indicated the temporary fence McNamara has around the property was ineffective in keeping out vandals and others.

Hayes said it’s debatable whether a new fence would make the property less accessible, but she said the building would remain unsafe because it could fall onto Sanger Avenue.

In the meantime, the city of Waco also has filed a motion in Coley’s court questioning McNamara’s authority to represent the entire Sanger School Foundation board, which state records show has six members.

The city’s motion states that no other board members are involved in the appeal.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752

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