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Trumbull to seek grants for demolition
By robert Guttersohn
Warren
Trumbull County Treasurer Sam Lamancusa will ask for $6 million in demolition grants from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office today in Columbus.
“That’s the ball that I’ll be pulling out on the court,” Lamancusa said of the office’s meeting with Ohio’s various land banks.
The figure is part of the $75 million Ohio received after the federal government announced in February a $25 billion settlement with five banks involved in foreclosure fraud nationwide.
In Ohio, there has been no formal decision made on the distribution of the settlement, but Trumbull County has been lobbying hard for its portion of the money.
“I believe the city of Warren alone needs $4 million,” Lamancusa said.
Trumbull County also has developed a separate plan if the attorney general asks counties to match grants.
In an April 4 letter, county Commissioner Frank Fuda asked mayors, trustees and council members to “assign a dollar value to your demolition needs.”
“If no funds are identified and committed, Trumbull County may not be able to receive Bank Settlement funds for carrying out the demolition of blighted properties,” Fuda wrote.
The money set aside would be used to match any grant money disbursed to the county from the state.
Girard, for example, approved setting aside $25,000 for demolition at its April 10 meeting in hopes the state would match that amount, said Mayor James Melfi.
“It’s just another tool to help us stabilize our neighborhoods,” Melfi said.
Countywide, seven communities have budgeted money for demolition for a total of $89,000 said Julie Green of the Trumbull County Planning Commission.
But several communities such as Liberty Township have no money to set aside for demolition.
To combat this, the county land bank, known formally as the Land Reutilization Corporation, is mulling the borrowing of a five-year, $1 million bond to strengthen the county’s match, Lamancusa said. But he is hoping the matching doesn’t even need to happen.
The land bank, Lamancusa said, is financially healthy enough to borrow $1 million, but not the $3 million it would need for the $6 million goal.
“If we had $1 million, we would have torn down $1 million worth of structures,” Lamancusa said. “We’re still going to tell [the attorney general’s office] we need $6 million, and then we’ll gauge what we hear back from him.”