Demolition funds make their mark

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The city plans to demolish 375 structures this year.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — The goal set at the beginning of the year was rather ambitious.

City officials, led by Mayor Jay Williams, wanted to demolish up to 300 vacant and dilapidated structures, primarily houses, in 2006. In past years, the city typically demolished 100 to 200 structures annually, most of them vacant houses without problems such as asbestos and lead paint.

That sometimes did little to improve many neighborhoods, Williams said. Only a house or two on a street would get torn down and two or three houses with asbestos or other major problems on the same street would remain standing because of the extra cost of demolishing them, he said.

Williams persuaded city council to allocate $1.27 million for demolitions. That is significantly more than the city has spent for demolitions in previous years. For example, $275,000 was spent in 2005 by the city for demolitions.

What has changed

The philosophy changed this year with numerous vacant and dilapidated houses — even those that cost more to take down — in the same neighborhoods being demolished in order to have a larger impact on improving those areas, said Carmen S. Conglose Jr., deputy director of the city's public works department.

At the beginning of the year, city officials identified about 800 buildings that needed to come down.

Through the year's first nine months, 250 structures have been demolished, another 25 are in the process of coming down, and the city's board of control will award an $85,000 contract next week to demolish another 25, said Mike Damiano, the city's demolition director.

The cost of demolition is about 15 percent below the city's expectations, Conglose said. Because the cost is less than anticipated, the city has about $195,000 left of the original $1.27 million, Damiano said. That should be enough to demolish 75 more buildings, he said.

Overall, Damiano says the city will demolish about 375 structures this year.

"Doing this makes it feel like you've done something important," he said. "It's very gratifying to improve streets and neighborhoods."

Nonresidential structures

While most of the work is residential structures, the city spent $85,000 to demolish the former Monroe School on Chalmers and Willis avenues on the South Side. Neighbors near the former school said they are thrilled that building is gone. The school closed in 1983 and had deteriorated to the point that portions of its rear side were missing.

Neighbors near the former Tod Vocational School on Dupont Avenue on the North Side say they are excited to know that demolition of that structure, closed in 1981, is slated to begin in a couple of weeks. The cost of demolishing that former school is $47,277.

Other nonresidential structures demolished this year include the former Ringside Tavern on Oak Hill Avenue, the former Red Carpet Lounge on Oak Street and the former Little Casino bar on Mahoning Avenue, Damiano said.

Similar amount needed

It is vital for the city to provide an amount similar to the $1.27 million given this year for demolitions in 2007, Damiano and Conglose said.

"If we get two good years, we'll put a serious dent in the number of structures that have to come down," Damiano said. Properties that need to come down "keep popping up every year, about 100 to 200 of them. We need to take down 350 to 375 structures next year. Then beginning in 2008, it will just be a maintenance thing where we take down 100 to 200 a year."

If the money for demolition isn't budgeted next year, Damiano said, "We'll be back to having the same problems again."

Williams plans to seek money in next year's city budget to match the amount given this year for demolition.

skolnick@vindy.com

Monday, October 2, 2006