Warren, Trumbull cooperate to raze house where woman died

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Judy McClellan, who found her granddaughter dead on the front porch of the house at 317 Scott St. NE on Sept. 23, watched as an excavator took a swipe at the porch and ripped it away in seconds.

“We are grateful to see it ripped off,” she said. Within a few hours, the entire house had been knocked down, thanks to a discussion between several Trumbull County and Warren officials that enabled the demolition to be fast-tracked.

McClellan said she thinks her granddaughter, Carly Ginnicks, 32, of Warren, died of a drug overdose. Ginnicks had been missing for more than a week when McClellan and her daughter went looking for her at vacant houses. They found her at the second one they searched.

Thanks to Sheriff Thomas Altiere and several city officials, equipment the sheriff’s office acquired from military surplus, along with laborers from the county engineer’s office and city, were applied to the demolition project to remove the blighted structure.

Enzo Cantalamessa, Warren safety-service director, said the home already had been condemned by the city board of health and was on its demolition list.

The city provided the demolition permit and the roll-off receptacle to hold the demolition debris, and the LaFarge Co. of Lordstown agreed to accept the refuse for free.

At a news conference before the demolition, Mayor Doug Franklin said he hoped removing the home would remove “a terrible reminder” for Ginnicks’ family of what happened to her.

County commissioners also said they hope to provide similar demolitions at other locations around the county.

Commissioner Frank Fuda said having equipment such as bulldozers, excavators, trucks and front loaders — all in the possession of the county engineer’s office — makes such a program possible.

The next step will be to get a commitment from the communities wanting the additional demolitions that they will provide the labor or money to pay for the labor to carry out the demolitions, Fuda said.

Several neighbors watching the Scott Street demolition expressed gratitude that the house will be gone because it harbored homeless people and drug users. One woman said, “It’s been sitting there vacant for 10 years. Why now?” She and another neighbor said they wage a daily battle with prostitutes in the neighborhood to get them to pick up johns somewhere else other than near their children.

A captain with the Warren Police Department, Robert Massucci, acknowledged in August 2014 that prostitution is a problem in that area, but said the department has “made a push” to work on it since Eric Merkel became police chief several years ago.