HOBART | City officials on Wednesday agreed to go forward with cleanup of a long-closed gas station at 3209 E. 73rd Ave.

The Board of Works approved a two-step process during which the former Marathon station will be cleaned up and all items removed.

Additionally, the station owner must pay a $1,000 fine and cleanup costs or a lien will be placed on the property by the Dec. 17 meeting, the Board of Works agreed.

"It's rapidly becoming an eyesore," Board of Works member Thomas Ehrhardt said.

Building Commissioner Carroll Lewis said his department will begin by removing sheds at the business and doing general cleanup in the first step.

Once that is completed, bids will be taken for the remainder of the work.

That's because the cost to remove a canopy over a gas pump area and related work will likely be more than $5,000, Lewis said.

He said the Marathon station has been closed since early in 2003 when a gasoline leak in the area closed the business and forced the evacuation of one adjacent home on Colorado Street.

Fire officials at the time determined that gasoline had leaked from one of the gas station's underground lines into the sump pump of the house that had to be evacuated.

Lewis said city officials have tried to reach the owner, but have only had limited communications, including most recently through certified letters he's signed and returned.

He said owner Jerry Gill, whom The Times couldn't contact, has not attended the last two Board of Works meetings as he was directed.

"The canopy is unsafe and there are open sheds with lots of stuff, including rats. We're moving ahead for a reason. If he doesn't respond we'll do what we have to do," he said.