Trumbull officials discuss countywide demolition program using surplus military equipment

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County Engineer Randy Smith presented a plan to about a dozen township and village officials Thursday that would enable them to carry out low-cost demolitions to help eliminate blight in their communities.

Demolitions could be carried out following a model demonstrated at 317 Scott St. in Warren two weeks ago, when Smith deployed heavy equipment such as dump trucks, excavator and front loader secured from U.S. military surplus to demolish a vacant home where a woman was found dead on the front porch Sept. 23, presumably from a drug overdose.

Smith said he is proposing that a coordinator from his office be appointed to oversee the demolitions in much the same way that Jack Simon has been coordinator in recent years for road-use and maintenance agreements involving gas and oil drilling.

New gas and oil drilling in the county has ceased, so Simon no longer is needed to manage those issues, but Simon or someone else could manage demolitions to prevent township and village officials from having to become demolition experts, Smith said.

Communities participating would be asked to pay an annual fee of about $1,700 to pay part of his employee’s salary and benefits, and the communities would pay a reduced price for each demolition, Smith said.

His office spent time with Abby Beniston with Youngstown’s Housing and Demolition Department to learn about the reduced cost of operating such a program, Smith said.

The next step in about 30 days will be to invite county township and village officials to a meeting where Beniston can discuss it with them in more detail, Smith said.

Fred Hanley, a Hubbard Township trustee, said there is plenty of need for the demolitions in his township, with 103 run-down homes needing to come down. They have a combined delinquent tax bill of $1.2 million, he noted.

The township tore down three homes about 18 months ago at the township’s cost but it would remove more if the engineer’s proposal became reality, Hanley said.

“They’re destroying neighborhoods,” Hanley said of the blighted structures.

“If we want more people to move in here, if we want industry to come here, we need to take care of this problem,” Brookfield Township Trustee Gary Lees said.

“I think it’s a good tool that Champion Township could use,” said Rhonda Fonce, Champion zoning inspector.