By JIM BUTLER

Less than a week after city officials heard a plea to do something about the abandoned Guest House Hotel it burned, again.

Cause hasn’t been officially announced but it’s most likely the same as when the hotel burned in November and in January – human intervention.

The remains of the place – without utility service of any kind but a place to sleep, hide, get high, get warm – are a magnet for vagrants and/or others.

Many of them find their way to the nearby hotel and convention center, whose owner representative urged the city to do something about the foot traffic interlopers plaguing the businesses.

Increased security measures by the owners, she noted to the Property and Zoning Committee, have failed to stem the tide.

Mayor Jacques Roy expressed empathy for the complaints while treading softly around the specifics of a topic tied up in the legal process.

He did say extra police patrols in the area would be unfair to other areas of the city, when asked if a greater police presence could be initiated.

The charred skeleton is under a city raze order, part of the legalities evoking Roy’s reservations.

He did note, for anyone who hasn’t been about lately, that the city, like most, has a homeless problem, which he said the administration has plans to address.

He said address – not solve, which has escaped cities large and small, near and far.