BATH

Given an impending Saturday, Dec. 29 order to evacuate their home, time would seem to be closing in on Alan and Yvonne Orchard.

But Scott Davis, the city’s code enforcement officer, says that nobody will be throwing the Orchards out of their condemned Windjammer Way home when he serves that order on Saturday morning. And, if they agree to move there, the city has subsidized housing lined up for the couple as of Jan. 1.

“They don’t have to leave on Saturday,” Davis said Wednesday. “I’m not going to be there with a police officer.”

Should the Orchards decline to leave, the city will seek a court order for their removal — a process Davis has said could take weeks. That would give them ample time to move to Atlantic Townhouse Apartments, located on Drayton Road, off Bluff Road.

The Orchards, who have lived in the home for 19 years, aren’t anxious to leave. They have pointed out throughout this ordeal that they don’t have the money to even pay a subsidized rent.

“Bluff Road is not ready,” Yvonne Orchard said Wednesday. “We have no place to go, so we’ll stay here.”

The Orchards are living with a hole in their roof covered by a tarp, and a slanted building that a structural engineer considers dangerous.

Helen Watts, a structural engineer, wrote in a statement to the City Council that the Orchards’ home is “quite out of plumb, there’s a large hole in the roof and parts of the floor structure are damaged and/or deteriorated.” Watts concluded the building should be vacated until the building could be made safe.

City officials decided last week to establish the Dec. 29 eviction date.

Many people have come forward with offers of help. Employees of Bath Iron Works have provided money, and some want to repair the roof. But it goes beyond that, Davis said.

“They wouldn’t need a permit to fix the roof,” he said. “But it’s not a matter of just fixing the roof. The floor’s got some serious structural problems. Some of the joints are pulling out of the supporting girders. They’ve talked about tearing off the back of the building, but that would require a demolition permit.”

David Foster, a BIW worker from Georgetown, has taken contractors to the home on several occasions.

“They said this place isn’t worth fixing, and Mr. Orchard agrees,” Davis said.

Indeed, Orchard — a retired contractor — has stated that opinion more than once.

Larry LaVallee, another BIW worker, was present at last week’s City Council meeting, and conferred with Davis. LaVallee said at the time that he and fellow BIW employees stand ready to build a new roof.

LaVallee’s mother Lillian Bellmore of Woolwich, a shift supervisor at the shipyard, said Wednesday that putting on a new roof might not be feasible.

“My whole crew would go do that,” Bellmore said. “There’s nothing solid to build a new roof on. The house probably must be torn down.”

Bellmore, who has organized two collections for the couple, said that her co-workers remain ready to help.

“We’re not going to let it go,” she said. “When you see something to this extreme, it makes you pause and say, ‘those are the people I don’t mind helping.’ We’re not going to let it go.”

With some help from the folks at the United Methodist Church, the Orchards were able to enjoy Christmas. Church member Mary Truesdell brought them over a turkey dinner.

“We don’t celebrate Christmas too much because we don’t have the money to do it,” Alan Orchard said. “We had something good to eat this time, and that makes a big difference.”

lgrard@timesrecord.com