YOUNGSTOWN House-razing funds increased

The new funds should keep demolitions happening well into the winter.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Right about now, Mike Damiano usually is out of business until spring.
With an extra $225,000, however, the city's demolition director can keep knocking down houses through the winter.
City council appropriated the money Wednesday.
The move increases the city's demolition budget for the year to $625,000. The city typically has budgeted between $400,000 and $500,000 a year for housing demolition in recent years.
The funds come from a couple federal sources, said Jay Williams, city Community Development Agency director. Some is money left over from CDA housing programs in past years. The rest is money set aside when CDA did its 2002-03 budget this summer.
A high priority
CDA knew that Damiano needed more than his usual amount to keep knocking down condemned houses all year, Williams said. Demolition is a high priority with city leaders so more money was reserved for razing houses, he said.
Damiano's office usually gets its money in the spring and awards contracts for 25 houses at a time. Usually, the money is spent by the fall.
Then, the department must wait until the following spring to award contracts. The down time is spent assembling demolition contracts, several of which can pile up waiting to be funded.
Damiano isn't sure how long the new money will last. The funds should keep demolitions happening well into the winter, he said.
"I'm going to keep going until the money runs out," he said.
Paying back
The new money will change the type of homes being knocked down, Damiano said.
The street department does emergency demolitions, such as after a house fire. This year, the demolition department is paying back the street department for those costs. In the past, emergency demolitions came out of the street department's budget. Demolition is on pace to repay the street department about $200,000 -- about half this year's budget, Damiano said.
The new money, he said, means more nonemergency-type home-demolitions can be done than expected.
rgsmith@vindy.com