PERU, Ind. – Peru city officials are proposing to spend $200,000 to purchase and renovate a dilapidated downtown building after the owner was arrested and charged with operating an illegal pill mill from inside the building. Dr. Tristan Stonger previously housed one of his Pain Management Centers on the first floor of the building located at 1 S. Broadway, which sits just across from the Miami County courthouse at the city’s main downtown intersection. Since then, Peru officials say the more than 100-year-old building that housed Stonger’s clinic has fallen into disrepair. The city has now partnered with the Miami County Economic Development Authority, which would be the entity that would purchase the building. Peru City Council is set to vote next month on whether to appropriate $200,000 of economic development money to buy the structure and make enough repairs to stabilize the building so it would no longer be condemned. Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority, said his agency has gotten the courts to release the building so it can be sold. He said they are also hiring a title-insurance company to track down all the liens on the building so officials can start taking steps to remove them. Greer said the city could also simply demolish the building, but that option is off the table for a number of reasons. First, he estimated it would cost up to $2 million to tear it down. Second, it would leave a gaping hole at the most prominent intersection in the city.