WARREN Council debates solutions to demolition delays

There are at least 70 houses that have been condemned.
& lt;a href=mailto:dick@vindy.com & gt;By DENISE DICK & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- With a list of condemned buildings bigger than the amount of funds available to demolish them, council agrees the problem must be addressed, but the best remedy hasn't been determined.
At a meeting of city council's engineering committee Tuesday, Christopher A. Taneyhill, chief building official, presented the list of buildings to be demolished in the city. He acknowledged 70 more condemned buildings haven't even made it to the list.
It's difficult to get owners to pay demolition costs, and sometimes an owner cannot be located, he said.
Councilman Robert Marchese, D-at large, suggested Taneyhill and representatives from the engineering and health departments meet with council to develop a plan.
Gary Fonce, D-at large, thinks it's an issue of priorities. When council members wanted to pave roads, they allocated more than $740,000, even though the administration told them it couldn't be done, he said.
Fonce advocates a similar tack on building demolitions.
Wants tougher law
Robert Pinti, deputy health commissioner, said council should enact legislation that would make it a criminal offense not to comply with a demolition order.
Right now, if an owner doesn't comply, the city demolishes the house and the cost is added to the owner's property taxes.
Fonce said some cities require even vacant homes to be inhabitable with running water and intact windows.
Pinti agreed.
"Here the first thing that comes up is the grass needing cut," he said. "The bar is pretty low. You can't have homes that are sitting condemned for 14 years. We need to lift the bar."
The city should tighten the restrictions and if someone wants to challenge it, they can take it to court, Fonce said.
"It's on us, folks," he said. "We can keep having meetings on this every three to four months to talk about this," but council has to decide its priorities to address the problem.
Councilman Robert Holmes, D-4th, favors raising the fee for a permit to work on a structure that's been ordered demolished and setting a time frame within which the work must be done.
If a contractor or property owner hasn't complied within that time frame, the permit money is forfeited to the city.
That fund would be used for demolitions, Holmes said.
denise. & lt;a href=mailto:dick@vindy.com & gt;dick@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;