Plan will use building fees to fix up city

There's no better time than the present, the councilman said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Councilman Alford L. Novak wants his colleagues to get behind an ordinance he says is likely to produce a one-time $1 million neighborhood improvement windfall.
"I'm saying: Make an investment back into our neighborhoods," said Novak, D-2nd, chairman of council's finance committee and the ordinance sponsor. "Clean up these neighborhoods. Get rid of these houses," that need to be demolished, he said.
Novak said the ordinance will be on the committee's agenda next week. It would designate for neighborhood improvement efforts the permit and inspection fees from the $153 million city schools construction project.
Novak had asked that the ordinance be tabled at last week's council meeting because, he said, he wasn't sure it had enough votes to pass. Novak said some council members told him they want the committee to discuss the matter because they want clarification as to how much revenue is coming in and how the spending will be divided and prioritized.
"The longer you wait, the more it costs," Novak said of demolition and other neighborhood improvement work, citing rising fuel and debris disposal costs.
Where funds would go
The ordinance says the permit and inspection fee revenue is to be reserved for administration and enforcement of the housing, building, fire, zoning and property maintenance codes; securing of vacant houses and unsafe structures; residential sidewalk repair and improvement and tree removal; demolition of dilapidated structures; and acquisition of land for public improvements.
The schools construction project will include four new kindergarten through eighth grade buildings and a new Warren G. Harding High School. The first of these buildings -- the new K-8 building adjacent to Lincoln Elementary on Atlantic Street Northeast, for which ground was broken last fall -- has already generated $225,000 in fees for the city, Novak noted.
The city has nearly 100 condemned buildings on its demolition list, but only $65,000 in its general fund for demolition this year, he said.
Novak said many city residents have told him that, since they'll be paying increased property taxes for 25 years under a bond issue to pay for the new schools, they want some money from the project to come back to them for neighborhood improvements.
As a prime example of an eyesore that could be demolished with the windfall money, Novak cited a 1930s vintage building at 379 Griswold St. N.E., vacant for eight years and which the city has repeatedly boarded up. At various times the building housed a supper club, a tobacco and candy wholesaler and a construction company.
Vandals have stripped the building of wiring, plumbing and furnace, and three unsuccessful attempts have been made to sell the building at auction, Novak said.
Other uses
The windfall could also be used to demolish an unsafe picnic shelter and a comfort station and remove damaged equipment at the city's heavily vandalized North End Park, closed since 1999, Novak said.
The money could be used to remove abandoned refrigerators, tires, car batteries and furniture dumped along the abandoned city-owned former B & amp;O Railroad right-of-way, he added.
If the city can demolish a house at 500 Maryland St. N.E., vacant for eight years, neighbors flanking it have said they'd each gladly buy half the lot under the city's land bank program, Novak said.
Windfall money could also be used to board up a house at 207 Charles Ave. S.E., vacant for a few months. It is winterized and salvageable, he said. Neighbors have already seen vandals steal copper plumbing from the house, he said.
milliken@vindy.com