On August 24, 2016, a text arrived from John Pacylowski, sadly the last time I heard from him. He was distraught. I know this because we hopped on a call as soon as the text arrived.

John learned that Don Reuwer, a Howard County developer, bought the once condemned Burgess building, in distress, from the Burgess family and openly shared with all of his new neighbors that he would be getting a free repair at the expense of the County because of the historic nature of the building.

How is this possible?

All of our buildings on Main Street in Ellicott City are historic.

To date, I have not been able to identify the woman that John met with Don Reuwer on August 24, 2016, and mentioned in the above text, nor have I been able to locate an organization entitled DED.

I imagined that it stands for the Department of Economic Development. At this point, it doesn’t matter who within Howard County Government funded the repair of the Burgess Building foundation for Don Reuwer and his partners; it just matters that someone in the county provided funding for the repair of the foundation of the Burgess Building (that they once condemned) with a plan to assess the cost to the Burgess family.

Still, somewhere along the way, behind closed doors, Don Reuwer (and his partners) became the new owners, and the repair miraculously was paid for by the county.

On December 30, 2022, I spoke with Kim Burgess (no relation to the Burgess family with the once condemned building) from Howard County, who is skeptical that anyone can help but suggested I contact a few different agencies that may be able to help us with our repair costs.

Before this writing, I shared this text above with a friend of Don Reuwer to find out more information.

I did not hear back.

Turns out he was one of Mr. Reuwer’s partners.