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City to demolish vacant buildings
YOUNGSTOWN
The city is moving in a number of directions to demolish vacant, dilapidated buildings.
The city plans to spend about $140,000 to demolish five to 10 vacant commercial buildings.
Though most houses can be demolished for about $2,500 each, the cost of commercial-property demolition is typically much more expensive, said Mayor Jay Williams and Councilman DeMaine Kitchen, D-2nd.
For example, the estimated costs of taking down the 10 vacant commercial buildings on the city’s list range from $9,500 to $22,800 — and those are single-story structures without hazardous materials inside, Kitchen said.
The city has demolished about 50 commercial structures and about 2,500 houses since January 2006, Williams said.
Though the city will continue to demolish rundown vacant houses, it will start to focus more on empty commercial buildings, particularly those in residential neighborhoods, Kitchen said.
“Commercial properties are going to be a priority,” he said. “We feel demolishing smaller commercial structures will impact neighborhoods in a positive way.”
Among those on the list are two properties on McGuffey Road, last used as a restaurant and a convenience store, and two properties on Wilson Avenue that used to be a barber shop and a boxing gym.
The work should begin next month, Kitchen said.
The money for the commercial demolitions will come from the federal Community Development Block Grant the city receives annually.
Meanwhile, the city is pressing ahead with the demolition of 27 vacant houses on the South Side near St. Dominic Church as part of its “Operation Redemption” program.
The decision to take down the houses came after Thomas J. Repchic was murdered, and his wife, Jacqueline, was seriously injured during a Sept. 25 shooting.
The couple was leaving St. Dominic when hit by gunfire in their car in what police say was a case of mistaken identity.
The Rev. Gregory Maturi, the church’s pastor, had a list of 20 houses suspected of being used by criminals. Williams added seven more houses.
To date, eight of the residential structures are demolished with the remaining 19 expected to be taken down by the end of the year, Williams said.
The houses are on Lucius and Auburndale avenues and Southern Boulevard.
Also, at Monday’s council community development agency committee meeting, members strongly criticized the city’s deconstruction program.
Deconstruction systematically takes apart a vacant house by removing portions of the structure, such as entire wooden floors or chunks of brick, rather than using a traditional wrecking ball.
To date, the city has spent $99,724 to deconstruct nine houses and to have at least 60 percent of the materials from 11 other vacant homes diverted from landfills and be recycled, primarily as mulch, said Bill D’Avignon, the city’s CDA director.
Council members said the program is too costly and there is no demand for the salvaged materials.
“It’s not working,” Kitchen said. “We keep throwing money into a bucket with a hole in it.”
This was a pilot program, using federal funds, to see if deconstruction could work, D’Avignon said.
The program runs out of money at the end of the year.