FORT THOMAS — A decision on whether to demolish a house from which more than 100 cats were removed last summer won't be made until Jan. 4.

        The Fort Thomas Board of Housing Appeals listened for three hours Thursday to the city's code enforcement officer, representatives of the property owner, Phillip Sarakatsannis, 32, and residents of the neighborhood of Scenic View Drive, where the house is located.

        The five-member board, after hearing the testimony and discussing the issue, voted to table the matter until its January meeting. In the meantime, the board ordered an appraisal of the property in its present condition.

        City director of building services Ron Dill presented a number of photos taken in the house shortly after the previous owner, Bonnie Sarakatsannis, mother of Phillip Sarakatsannis, was removed from the house and taken to a hospital last summer. The photos showed damage to walls, floors and other parts of the interior, mostly caused by the cats that roamed freely through all areas of the dwelling for several years.

        Mrs. Sarakatsannis, 69, died a few days after enter ing the hospital with a broken hip, bed sores and other ailments. Police said she told them she had been living in the garage of the house, lying on a sheet, for three weeks after she fell and broke the hip.

        The house was condemned shortly after police entered it. Another order subsequently ordered its demolition as a public nuisance.

        The house is listed on the tax rolls with a value of $167,000. Appeals board members wanted a new appraisal to determine if the repairs would exceed 100 percent of present value.

        Jim Owens, one of the owners of A-Absolute Restoration in Fairfield, who accompanied Mr. Sarakatsannis to the meeting, explained that the company had done similar restoration jobs on homes in the area.

        He estimated the cost of the project at $85,000.

        Mr. Sarakatsannis, who faces a criminal charge of abuse by a caregiver because of his mother's condition before her death, addressed the board and assured them there would not be a repeat of the cat problem.

        “I can guarantee you will not have the same problem,” he said. “And I wouldn't put this kind of investment into the house if I didn't think it was feasible.”

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