FARGO -- City officials here want a wrecking crew to take down the Bison Turf, a north Fargo bar heavily damaged by an intense and stubborn fire last week , but its owner still maintains he will repair it.

“We’ve told the owner that, in the opinion of the city, it needs to be demolished. There’s over 50 percent damage,” Director of Planning and Development Jim Gilmour said Wednesday, July 27. “It’s a building that doesn’t appear to be structurally sound. The owner can certainly hire an architect and a structural engineer.”

But Bison Turf owner Pete Sabo reaffirmed Wednesday that he planned to rebuild the popular watering hole near the North Dakota State University campus, and he claims the fire, water and smoke damage from the blaze Friday, July 22, appear repairable. He told The Forum earlier this week he hopes to reopen within a month and said Wednesday he’s still confident in that timeline.

“They have to say those things. I can prove them wrong,” Sabo said of city officials. “It’s a step in the process. I’m hurrying along as fast as I can.”

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If Sabo does convince the city his bar doesn’t need to be destroyed, his plan to rebuild would have to involve bringing the entire building up to existing code.

Sabo said he’s hired a Moorhead-based structural engineer and will have him work with an architect to come up with a new vision for the building, perhaps even including a rooftop bar.

“The city only requires me to have it up to current code. I fully intend to rebuild the Bison Turf and keep it all to its original condition,” Sabo said.

However, Sabo did get news that will make rebuilding the 1930s vintage building tougher. He’s underinsured.

”I don’t have enough to cover everything,” Sabo said. “My very last option would be to totally take it down and rebuild it. I’m confident that I can have all this done in much less than 30 days.”

Fire Chief Steve Dirksen said Monday that he believed that timeline was unrealistic.

Bruce Taralson, interim administrator for the city inspections department, said he talked with Sabo Wednesday morning and told him his options. He also said the city will move to demolish the Bison Turf if Sabo does not act.

“The fire did cause that building to be a dangerous building,” Taralson said.

An official letter from the inspections department was also sent Wednesday, Taralson said.

“The one thing it does say is demolish. The word is in there,” Taralson said. That’s because “many times, people let things sit like that and the city has to act.”

Taralson said the city’s dangerous building ordinance gives Sabo 30 days to take action on the building, but with time needed for correspondence and to let Sabo work with his insurance company, he will let that stretch to 60 days.

If Sabo doesn’t act, Taralson said he will forward the case to the city attorney, who would then take a request to go ahead with demolition to the City Commission. Commissioners would then decide whether the city would go ahead with the demolition and charge the cost to Sabo or give him more time to come up with an acceptable plan.

“We’ve had to do that with other buildings,” Gilmour said. “At some point, the city, in order to protect the public, will go in to demolish the building.”

Taralson said he went through the building with another inspector and the city assessor. It’s up to the city assessor to determine whether repairs are expected to cost more than 50 percent of a building’s value. The 50 percent mark trips the “dangerous building” designation, Taralson said.

If Sabo decides to repair the building, it must be brought up to current construction codes, including the installation of a sprinkler system, he said.

Taralson said much of the damage to the Bison Turf is to the roof, with some damage also likely to the building’s second story.

“I can only say that much of it is gone or damaged,” Taralson said. “You don’t even get to see the whole building when you walk through it. His (Sabo’s) engineer will tell us the extent of the damage.”

Still, “it’s not positive that the building needs to come down 100 percent,” Taralson said.

Firefighters were called to the Bison Turf, 1211 N. University Drive, about 2:18 p.m. Friday.

When they arrived, flames were leaping from the western roof of the building and a thick column of black smoke rose over the neighborhood bar and grill.

Sabo said he was at the Bison Turf when the fire started. He said there’s no doubt in his mind that it was caused by some sort of electrical problem, likely with an exhaust fan in the kitchen.

The Fire Department has not yet stated the cause of the fire.

This isn’t the first time Sabo and the city of Fargo have clashed. Sabo, a businessman who also owns rental properties, was critical of fines the city assessed about a decade ago against property owners for building safety and maintenance code violations. The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the city’s enforcement program was illegal and ordered Fargo to refund about $5,000 in fines to about a dozen property owners. That included a $500 refund to Sabo, he told The Forum at the time.

“I’m going to cash it and get it all in 10s and 20s and sit at the Bison Turf and toast the city of Fargo all night,” Sabo said.