City suspends Marigold’s license
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, November 17th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The city of Pendleton has suspended the business license for the Marigold Hotel on Southeast Court Street. The scene of a recent shooting, police have responded to 268 calls at the hotel since Jan. 1.
Police Chief Chuck Byram said the license has been suspending pending the revocation process. He pointed out that the owner, Shivam Patel, does have the right to appeal.
“We are going take a zero tolerance approach,” Byram said. “We’re going to move to close the place down. We’re done with it.”
In April Byram had declared the hotel a potential chronic nuisance property.
“I sent notification to the owner who does not actually operate on site at the motel, which in my opinion is a majority of the problem,” Byram said.
Patel was on site for about two weeks and Byram said things became better. Once he left, putting a new manager in place, conditions began to worsen.
Byram said that Measure 110 is at the root of what’s hampering police from taking a more aggressive stance at the Marigold. The decriminalization of user amounts of narcotics means all police can do is write a citation.
“We can only get search warrants based on probable cause that a crime has been committed, not a violation,” Byram said. “That is what is hampering our ability to successfully maintain the peace and security that is within our community. It is quite frustrating and, quite frankly, I’m done with it.”
Byram said it’s on Patel to get the current residents out of the building.
“Effective immediately, obviously, there’s people staying there and he needs to make sure those people are out of there,” Byram said. “If he chooses to ignore that it’s a fine of $1,000 a day up until the point where the city attorney can request through the court process, an abatement issue where we go in and we close the place down and secure it at the cost of ownership.”
