Demolition starts on eyesore apartments in Liberty

LIBERTY

Heavy machinery finally started biting into five apartment buildings on Colonial Drive that have been vacant and deteriorating for seven years.

Walters Paving of Warren demolished two of the buildings Monday. Jim Rodway, Liberty Township zoning inspector, said it will be several weeks before the buildings are down and all the rubble is hauled away.

Township Trustee Jodi Stoyak said Monday that Rodway, with the help of the township legal adviser’s office, has been working to get the property owner to maintain or tear down the buildings.

He said Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan ruled in March that the owner, Warren attorney Donald Guarnieri, had to do just that.

But in August, Guarnieri died.

His family contacted the township afterward, Rodway said.

“The family said they would tear the apartments down.”