My name is Samantha Oliver and my husband is Benjamin. He recently became the legal homeowner of the house we have been living in for the last year and a half. Prior, his father owned it & had plans to get it fixed up, adding a bedroom, doing siding, etc to get into tip top shape and we would pay him rent until we go to the amount he paid for the house and then it would be ours forever & we’d never have to worry about battle of renting ever again. We moved in in October of 2022. I was on bedrest for an extremely dangerous pregnancy. We already had 5 children and my husband has cerebral palsy and his dad has blood cancer. The plan was once spring hit they’re be up every weekend making repairs. That never happened. Everyone was also always constantly sick and we started to worry if it was the house (the blastomycosis that almost killed my son was most definitely from the town/area). I threatened to go to the city inspector so we could get a list of violations to light a fire under his butt and get repairs going. That didn’t work. And since we were new to Merrill and the mentality of Merrill and the corruption that is city hall and the City Inspector, I made the biggest mistake of my life by filing a nuisance complaint & asking for an inspection. Darin Pagel is the city inspector. He showed up early despite me making it clear I couldn’t do before 10am. My teenage son was home and he was telling my son how stupid I was.  I got home and was then introduced to the “city health inspector” he brought with him. (Long story short, he’s not a city health inspector, doesn’t work for health inspector department and is actually a council board member for Ward 6 of Merrill). Darin spent maybe 8-10 minutes barely walking about my home and looking at things.  I actually had to point things out to him. He was loud and obnoxious. Initially told me it wasn’t that bad then said he was going to probably red tag it. I asked why? He said “what did you expect when you called me? That’s what I do”. I said I expected a list of violations and fix it by dates so I could get my FIL to start moving on this stuff. He yelled at me. Told me I was stupid and then put a notice on my door that it was uninhabitable & we had to be out in 6 days then put a raze order on it. Never gave a list of violations. We worked things out with my FIL & he gifted the house to my husband so he could be the owner and fight for it. Darin Pagel refuses to let us make the repairs. He just wants it torn down. See, we have 3 lots. He thinks he’ll wind up razing it, charge $20,000 (take a kick back from the person razing it) and assess the bill against the land value (he completely underestimated our house and land value and it’s clear as day on the tax records). He wants these lots because they are big, on the corner and they went to put up storage units. They’re going after the other side of the block/neighborhood next. 

As the new legal homeowners, who are willing to do the repairs we should be allowed to and keep our home. We’ve had contractors out to view the house who not only have said that they can’t see how he put a raze order on it, but their estimates/quotes for repairs come in under the 50% of the undervalued assessment he gave it. We legally should have the right to fix our house. 

He also does not have a list of violations. The “health inspector” Norbert Ashbeck said he gave our house no health code violations and “it’s all Darin”. Darin claims he doesn’t need a list of violations for a raze order because “I can just tell by looking at it”. That is not how the statute is written and if we have to follow it to a T then so should the city official. 

Please sign this petition in support of us having the right to fix our home. By not allowing us to fix our home they are making a family of 8 (with 6 kids in age ranges of 1-15) homeless, with nowhere to go. There are no rentals, certainly no affordable ones and more importantly none for a family of our size. My children will be losing their home, their school, their friends, their softball teams, and their pets that they use for emotional supports and needs. My 2 year old autistic son uses our golden retriever and cocked spaniel for communication, comfort and self regulation when he is overwhelmed. My 13 year old daughter and I use our cat for emotional support. For her it’s for anxiety, for me, it’s because I got him as a kitten to help me on my healing journey when my son died in utero in 2020. Everything is being taken from us without even giving us a chance and WE’RE WILLING TO DO THE REPAIRS/WORK. Our neighbors/neighborhood support our fight. They don’t think our house is s blight in the neighborhood and believe that now that we own it we should be given the chance to fix it. Not to mention there’s worse looking houses then ours in the neighborhood and every single person I spoke with today in my neighborhood has a Darin Pagel horror story. 

Please sign this petition so we can show that the Merrill city inspector and Merrill city attorney are doing wrong and so that my children can have their home.