Land Bank gets state funds for eyesore demolition

FREMONTTo spruce up some of the city's neighborhoods and eliminate blight, Mayor Danny Sanchez had hoped to start an ambitiousbuilding teardown program in 2020.

COVID-19 derailed the mayor's plans.

But now Sanchez and city officials hope, with help from a new Sandusky County Land Bank-administered program, they can tear down 10-12 dilapidated houses this year.

Brian Woods, the land bank's coordinator, saidThursday the land bank was awarded $500,000 in grant funds through the state's Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program for residential buildings and $1 million for commercial sites.

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Thestate program is designed to provide grants for the demolition of commercial and residential buildings and revitalization of surrounding properties.

Blighted, vacant or abandoned structures are eligible for demolition.

Woods stressed theprogram is for all of Sandusky County's cities, villages and townships, as well as individual landowners.

He said the land bank heard about the state program in December.

The land bank held a meeting with city, township and village officials within Sandusky County to explain the program and its process.

Cities, villages and townships will give the land bank a list of qualifying structures.

Woods said municipalities must file a nuisance order against blighted properties.

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Earlier this month, Fremont City Council approved an ordinance to authorizeSafety Service Director Kenneth Frost to enter into a contract with the Sandusky County Land Bank for removing, repairing, or securing defective, abandoned, deserted, or open and vacant buildings or other structures within the City of Fremont.

Jim Melle, the city's law director, said the city hadbeen working to get money to take down dilapidated buildings and homes.

Frost released a list this week to the News-Messenger of 14 houses the city has identified as blighted.

All of the homes are listed as vacant.

Some of the owners, like the one of a house at 504 Morrison St., live out-of-town and owe several thousand dollars in back taxes.

Six are identified as a "public nuisance," with the others falling under "owner agreement" or "to be determined."

Frost said, with the owner agreement sites, city officials have spoken with the owners and received verbal permission to raze the properties.

"We're ready to roll on these properties," Frost said.

With properties identified as public nuisances, the city has to follow Ohio Revised Code statutes and give appropriate notice to property owners before it can be demolished.

Sanchez said at the council's Jan. 6 meeting the city is approachingowners of blighted buildings and trying to acquire those properties.

"We think it may be a stress relief for some of these property owners that are behind on their taxes," Sanchez said.

The mayor said the city's goal is to not use general fund money for acquisition or demolition unless it's an absolute emergency.

Woods said theland bank has agreements in place with Fremont and most of the county's cities, villages and townships.

He said eight individual land owners have already submitted requests to the land bank to demolish blighted, vacantstructures on their property.

There also have been applications submitted to demolish two vacant commercial properties, Woods said.

One of the commercial sites is the old Atlas building on Ohio 20 near Woodville.

"That's been an eyesore for 20 years," Woods said.

The other commercial site is on property on North Street in Fremont near Dickinson Street.

"We're excited about it," Woods said of the new program. "It gives us different avenues we've never had to help communities with their blight."

Landowners with questions about the program and eligibility can contact the land bank at 419-334-6414.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7

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Fremont hopes to get moving soon on blighted home teardown program - The News-Messenger

Jim Whelan was once described as "the most destructive man in Melbourne".

Over almost a century, the demolition firm he set up in the 1880s pulled down thousands ofbuildings, including some of the largest and grandest ever built in the city.

Before his death in 1938, when his sons took over the business and kept it going through a third generation right up until the early 1990s, Jim was said to have pulled down more than 1,000 buildings by his own hand.

But perhaps ironically, as the structures were pulled apart piece by the piece, the act of destruction led to some buildings being fondly remembered in a way they had never been while standing.

The firm made money from salvaging and selling off the materials from the demolition, so crews were scrupulous in taking apart the old buildings.

Inevitably, Jim's Brunswick scrap yard became a treasure trove that told the story of Melbourne and its growing pains, with periods of rapid expansion and changetempered by protractedlulls, like the one brought about bythe Second World War.

Author Robyn Annear, who researched and wrote a book about the family, said despite being associated with all the demolitions, in some ways the Whelans were "into heritage before heritage was a thing".

The family nameand the signs that boasted the firm's work became so ubiquitous thatthey entered the lexicon of the city's residents.

Jim wasin his 20swhen he made the tripto Melbourne from his western Victorian hometown of Stawell, in 1884.

By the time he reached his 60s, the small-scale operation he had started, mainly to turn a profit fromsellingmaterial salvaged in demolitions, had expanded enormously, and he had developed a considerable profile and a nickname to match.

An article in the 1929 edition of the The Weekly Times described him as, "a big man with a stoop".

"Whelan the Wrecker is themost destructive man in Melbourne," the article read.

"Though living in continual danger from falling debris, Whelan the Wrecker never gets worried."

The article went on to describe 11 serious accidents he survived, including being "smothered underan avalanche of bricks from a falling wall" and abrick falling from a height of 45 feet (13.7 metres) onto his head.

A few years earlier, in 1921, a member of his demolition crew had chiselled words into a stone wall that firmly stuck: 'Whelan the Wrecker is here'.

At its height, the firm had 100 employees, all extremely skilled and often working in treacherous situations long before worksitesafety standards were developed.

A 1932 article in The Herald describedthe firm's work demolishingthe Stewart Dawson Building to make way for the Manchester Unity Building that now stands as a celebrated art deco structure on the corner of Collins and Swanston streets in Melbourne's centre.

A crew of 15 experienced wreckers wastasked with pulling the iron roof off thefive-storey building, built in1884, and they had 18 days to finish the rest of the job.

Jim was quoted describing his starwreckers including JackThorpe, whose skills earned him the moniker, The Cat.

"There was a time when I wouldn't go 10 feet in the air myself," Jim reportedly said.

"When you go higher, you begin to lose your nervousness."

He downplayed the difficulty of the work he had gained recognition for.

"Pulling down is nothing," he said. "It's the taking away that wants careful organising."

Ms Annear said by the 1960s, watching demolitions taking place in the CBD by Whelan crews was a popular pastime, like a "free circus act".

"They played up to that, because these were the days when you didn't have to work with scaffolding and lots of protective gear," she said.

The researcher, who remembers watching the crews work as a girl, said the men would be high up on top of freestanding walls knocking out bricks with sledgehammers.

"People just couldn't get enough of that," she said.

"They would flock at lunchtime to eat their sandwiches and watch them do their high-wire act.

"Right from their really early days, Whelans really played up to that."

She said their antics were regularly featuredin the city's newspapers.

"I'd read about them in the papers, about the possibility of all sorts of treasures they'd uncovered and their acrobatics and so on," Ms Annear said.

"They just seemed like glamorous archaeologists or something to me as a child."

Over the decades,the slogans plastered across signs at the firms job sites, 'Whelan the Wrecker is here' or 'Whelan the Wrecker was here' crept into people's conversations.

"They had that great name that almost had a musical quality to it," she said.

Ms Annear said the name Whelan became a colloquialterm forsomeone or something messy, clumsy, or chaotic.

"You'd walk into your kid's bedroom and say 'oh Whelan the Wrecker was here!'" she said.

"It was really just part of Melbourne's language."

When the imposing graniteColonial Mutual Life, or Equitable Building, was opened in 1896, those who had designed and built it imagined it would define the corner of Elizabeth and Collins streets for many generations to come.

Instead, the hulking structure, wrapped around an iron frame, was brought down by Whelan the Wrecker less than 100 years later, in the early 1960s.

By this time, the next generation of Whelanswasrunning the business and young Jim, named after his father, was said to have calledthe 14-month job of dismantling the Colonial Mutual Life Building asone of the toughest the firm ever faced.

Ms Annear said that the demolition of the building that "everybody said was meant to last for thousands of years" actually brought its story to life.

She said many accounts point to the building being a "fairly dark, brooding, monolithic thing" at the corner of the two major streets.

"It was a landmark, but it wasn't especially beloved," Ms Annear said.

"It became so again only in the act of disappearing."

The involvement of the Whelans didn't always mean complete demolition.

In the firm's early days, in 1913, the Whelans were tasked with dismantlingone of Melbourne's earliest buildings so it could be put back together on a new site.

A foundation stone was laid for St James Old Cathedral in1939, but a few decades on, a flurry of construction fuelled by the wealth the Gold Rush brought to the city meant the small church was out of place and overshadowed in its central city location

As Jim and his workers pulled the building apart, they numbered each slab of stoneso the church could be put together again at a site on King Street, opposite Flagstaff Gardens, where it remains today.

The last relative at the helm of the wrecking business, Myles, died in 2003, and before then he donated many materials acquired by the family over the decades for preservation.

The business itself quietly went bankrupt during the early 1990s recession, a year shy of a century, with a legacy of having leftMelbourne completely transformed.

"In their promotions of the jobs they were doing, the things they were pulling down, they focused with such loving detail on how beautifully made the buildings were," Ms Annear said.

"They treasured and respected the quality of the buildings and the fixtures, which they then went on, of course to sell that's how they made a lot of their money.

"But they really had an eye for history and the bricks and mortar of Melbourne that made it a special place."

Ms Annear said rather than lamenting the loss of particular buildings, her research has led her to believethat their demolition providedan opportunityto appreciate and understand the past.

"I have this idea that nothing is ever really lost if we remember and celebrate those things," she said.

"I don't mean, by that, to justify the wholesale pulling down of everything and anything.

"But just that we do have to let go of some thingsand let the city grow and change, not necessarily for hard-edged economic reasons, but just because that's what cities do.

"That's how cities continue to survive and it's the difference between a city and a museum."

Link:
'Whelan the Wrecker is here': The demolition firm that transformed Melbourne over a century - ABC News

The former White Lakes Mall spent years falling apart.

Still, Topeka city officials didn'tseek to have it demolished.

They waitedin hopes it would berehabilitated, saysMike Haugen,director of the city's property maintenance unit.

"We would much rather see properties be rehabbed and remainviable," he said.

Then fire seriously damaged the former mall 13 months ago, at a time of rising public support for demolishing it.

The city's mayor and council voted last year to raze the building, and the city administration is "working through the process" to have that done this year, said Gretchen Spiker, the city's communications director.

More: White Lakes Mall was to be destroyed in 2021. Here's why not, how arson case was resolved.

The city of Topeka currently plans to raze 14 buildings in coming months.

Built in 1964, the former mallat 3600 S.W. Topeka Blvd. is the second youngest of the 14 buildings setto be razedby Topeka's city government.

Spiker recentlyprovideda list of those buildings in response to a request from The Capital-Journal.

That list evolves constantlyand sometimes increases by as many as four properties in one week, Haugen said.

In addition to the White Lakes Mall, the list currently contains the following:

The house at 828 N.E. Monroe, which Shawnee County Appraiser's Office records say was built in 1887.

The building at 1016 S.W. 17th, which appraiser's office records say was constructed in 1890.

The fire-damaged house at 218 S.W. Topeka Blvd., built in 1900.

The fire-damaged house at 1600 S.W. Clay, built in 1910.

The house at 1418 S.E. Lake, built in 1920.

The house at 415 N.E. Strait Ave., built in 1930.

The house at 611 S.E. Market, built in 1930.

The house at 1216 N.W. Harrison, built in 1932.

The house at 635 N.E. Poplar, built in 1940.

The house at 1900 S.E. Michigan Ave., built in 1951.

The fire-damagedhouse at 1008 S.E. Powell, built in 1972.

The fire-damaged house at 2619 S.W. Murrow Court, for which the date of construction is not listed on the website of the appraiser's office.

And the vacant former business building at 911 N. Kansas Ave., built in 1920.

More: Developers want to turn NOTO building with collapsing roof, floors into rock-climbing site

Its owners hopeto savethe building at 911 N. Kansas Ave., where the roof has fallen in and its second and third floors are collapsing.

But the Topeka City Council tentatively plans Feb. 8 to consider authorizing the demolition of that structure, which is estimated to cost$200,000, according to a document in the packet for the agenda posted online Friday on the city's website.

The mayor and council plan to discuss but not act on the matter at their meeting Feb. 1, according to that document.

More: Next-door neighbor concerned about building falling apart in Topeka's NOTO district

One reason the building at 911 N. Kansas Ave. hasn't been torn down is because of thehigh cost of doing that, Haugen said.

The city generally budgets $200,000 to $400,000 annually to razebuildings, he said.

Haugen said he seeks to be a good steward of those funds.

They tend torunout quickly, considering the average cost to raze a house is $15,000 to $25,000, and sometimes higher, he said.

The White Lakes Mall and the buildings at911 N. Kansas Ave. and 1016 S.W. 17th are consequently "budget busters" expected tocost considerably more than averageto demolish, Haugen said.

More: Fire at Topeka's former White Lakes Mall rekindles memories

The investigations that lead todemolitions are conducted by the city's special structures unit, which was created in 2016 to address properties deemed unsafe, Spiker said.

The primary goal of the unit is to encourage owners to rehabilitatethe properties, make them safeor remove them through demolition, she said.

"In each of these cases, the owner has an opportunity to bring forth a plan for repair, and if the plan is viable, the special structures unit will work with them to accomplish the goal," Spikersaid. "Ultimately, a hearing officer determines if the demolition process should proceed, or if the owner has presented a viable plan to rehab the property."

The special structures unit includes positions for nine inspectors and one supervisor, with five of those currently being vacant, Haugen said.

He encouraged anyone interested in applying to fill one of the vacancies to go to the city's website. Starting pay is $19.31 for a property inspector I and $20.49 for a property inspector II, that site says.

The city last year demolished 19 properties,Spiker said.

The process to raze a house takes six months to a year, on average, Haugen said.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, the special structures unit had inspected a total of 1,207 properties for potentially unsafe conditions, Spikersaid.

She said 179 of those properties were rehabilitated by their owner, 162 demolished by their owner and 142 demolished by the city.

Of the other cases, no violation was found in 306 andthe case was closed for various reasons in 364, while 54 cases remain open, Spiker said.

The owners of properties for which the special structures unit pursues demolition sometimes save those buildings by successfully rehabilitating them, Haugen said.

Locations where that's happened include710 SW. Polk, 1117 S.W. Saline, 1908 S.W. Van Buren and 5811 S.W. 20th, he said.

Haugen voiced concern that publiclysharing the list of houses slated for demolition might bring an increased potential for fires and criminal activity to occur at those addresses, due to the vulnerability of the structures.

Houses on the demolition list tend to be vacant, with homeless people often spending the night there and sometimessetting fires, he said.

More: Four houses have burned within 250 feet of Topekan's home. Area looks like a 'war zone.'

Severe fire damage is already present at several houses on the current list, Haugen said.

For the city to convince an administrative hearing officer to have a house demolished, he said, the city must demonstrate thatthe cost to repair the propertyamounts to more than 30% of its value, at which point the law considers the propertyto be unsafe.

But any house that's been destroyed by fire has already exceeded that standard by being declared a total loss, Haugensaid.

He encouraged the public to call 785-368-3161 or to use the city's SeeClickFix application to report to the city any potential violations of itsproperty maintenance codes.

Visit link:
These 14 buildings have been declared unsafe and are set for demolition by Topeka's city government - The Topeka Capital-Journal

Fulton city officials hope to fund 43 voluntary demolitions through state funds, local money and in-kind materials this year.

Fulton City Council members approved an application for $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds at Tuesday's meeting, which would go toward demolition of dilapidated buildings -- if awarded by the state.

The city will also dedicate $308,216 in local funding and $57,313 in in-kind materials and labor for the project.

Dennis Houchains, director of planning and protective services for Fulton, said property owners will contribute $500 each to the project. Each provided $100 up front.

"With that money, the grant money and then the cash money the city has budgeted, hopefully that will be enough to take down all 43 structures," Houchains said.

This project comes as a result of a survey Fulton conducted into the condition of buildings around the city.

"Basically, we went around and looked at all the structures and then the structures that fit the requirements for the grant, we contacted those individuals to see if they are interested in participating in the grant," Houchains said. "From there, they signed up and put money down toward the grant."

Originally, he said, 44 property owners agreed to participate, but one dropped off after doing the demolition on their own.

CDBG funds come from the Missouri Department of Economic Development. While some communities receive money through the program annually, Fulton doesn't and needs to apply if it wishes to use CDBG funds.

These funds must follow criteria by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and focuses on providing decent housing and expanding economic opportunities for low- to moderate-income individuals.

Fulton is working with the Mid-Missouri Regional Planning Commission on the application.

Houchains said its due by the end of the month and he's hoping to get a response during the spring or early summer.

See the rest here:
Fulton to apply for $200k in demolition funds for 43 properties - Fulton Sun

Realty developer Supertech has signed an agreement with Edifice Engineering for demolition of twin tower in Noida, days after the Supreme Court pulled it for delay.

The company said that advance payment has been made to Edifice engineering for mobilization of men, materials and machine to site as per this agreement.

A copy of the demolition agreement executed and dully signed by Supertech and Edifice Engineering has been submitted to the Authority. For the safe demolition of twin tower, the company has submitted requests for issuing of required NOCs with intimation to the Noida authority to various departments, a company spokesperson said.

The two towers, Apex and Ceyane of Emerald Court Project of Supertech, together have 915 apartments and 21 shops.

On April 11, 2014, the Allahabad High Court had ordered the demolition of the two buildings within four months and the refund of money to apartment buyers.

Read the rest here:
Supertech signs agreement for demolition of twin tower - Economic Times

The war of words between Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party escalated on Monday as the leaders of the two parties traded barbs over Hindutva, Babri Mosque demolition and renaming cities.

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's comments on Hindutva, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday claimed that Sena's Hindutva did not translate into its policies and was thus losing ground in the state. Fadnavis also attacked Shiv Sena over delay in renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar, and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. The BJP leader also claimed that Sena had little contribution in the Ram janmbhoomi movement.

In his reply, Sanjay Raut claimed that for claimed that for Shiv Sena Hindutva was a matter of faith not politics.

"Hindutva is not a political issue. It's a matter of faith and culture. If BJP feels that they are the proprietors of Hindutva then they are mistaken," Sanjay Raut said.

ALSO READ | Ram Kadam questions Sena's ideology after Uddhav Thackeray's 'wasted 25 years with BJP' remark

Earlier in the day, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that Shiv Sena was losing electroral ground after breaking ties with the BJP. He was referring to the recent local body polls where the Sena bagged fourth position.

To this, Raut said that Hindutva was a tool to gain political victories. "Fighting elections, winning or losing are not certifications of Hindutva. Savarkar was the biggest champion of Hindutva. But his Hindu Mahasabha never got success in electoral politics. Yet his thoughts on Hindutva continue to shine," Sanjay Raut said.

The latest battle between the former allies was sparked after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that his party wasted 25 years as part of alliance with the BJP. "My only disappointment is that once upon a time, they were our friends. We nurtured them. As I said earlier, our 25 years in alliance with the BJP were wasted," Thackeray told his party workers on Sunday.

Stressing that Shiv Sena had not let go of its Hindutva stand, CM Thackeray said, "Shiv Sena pramukh had told us about Hindutva. We wanted power for Hindutva. What we are seeing now, the Hindutva that is practiced by these people (BJP), is only a pretence. Their Hindutva is for power. They are only wearing fake skin of Hindutva. People ask us whether we have left Hindutva. But we have left BJP and not Hindutva. BJP does not mean Hindutva".

Reacting to the speech, Fadnavis on Monday said that Shiv Sena's Hindutva is merely on paper and doesn't go beyond speeches. Fadnavis credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for building the Ram temple in Ayodhya and said that it was the BJP workers who died during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Fadnavis also claimed that Shiv Sena had failed to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar, and Osmanabad as Dharashiv while BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government had renamed Allahabad as Pryagraj.

Dismissing Fadnvanis' claims, Sanjay Raut said that Shiv Sena's contribution in the Babri mosque incident was evident from the fact that Balasaheb Thackeray was summoned by teh CBI.

"If we had no contribution in Babri [mosque demolition], then why was Balasaheb summoned in CBI court? Our leaders were in jail. There were people from all parties; I won't say that it was just Shiv Sena... Weren't Shivsainiks karsevaks?" Raut questioned.

"If Shiv Sena was not there then why did riots take place in Mumbai? Shivsainks were martyred in those riots. We saved people for protecting Hindutva," Raut said.

On the issue of renaming cities, Sanjay Raut said that Devendra Fadnavis was also a chief minister then why did he not rename the cities during his tenure.

"Devendra forgot that he was also the CM. Why didn't he change the name of Aurangabad then? We will do it. We have already passed a resolution in the legislature. It requires permission from the Centre. Devendra should check where the file is stuck," he said.

ALSO READ: Why is Uddhav Thackeray targeting the BJP?

ALSO READ: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray skips meeting with PM Modi, health minister not allowed to talk

View post:
Shiv Sena, BJP spar over Hindutva, Babri demolition and renaming cities - India Today

Thursday, January 20, 2022

GoLocalProv News Team

View Larger +

The demolition of three structure on Gano street took place this week

This week, three buildings were torn down on Gano Street next to a city park including the now-former Holy Rosary Band masonry hall and a multi-story structure that previously housed a hair salon.

By the end of this week, the existing structures at 157-163 Gano Street will be gone and a new proposal for a residential real estate project is expected soon.

Owner and developer Bahman Jalili confirmed to GoLocal that he plans to go before the City Plan Commission in the coming weeks with his plans.

We have some preliminary drawings, he confirmed to GoLocal on Wednesday.

The Holy Rosary Band Society sold the 5,760-square-foot masonry building for $1 million in 2021. According to Societys Facebook page, they are moving to a new location on Taunton Avenue in East Providence.

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The now former location of the Holy Rosary Band Society -- and a 5,700 masonry building. PHOTO: GoLocal

Jalili, who owns Pizza Pie-er on Wickenden Street, owns a number of developments in the city.

The location has the potential to be one of the largest upcoming real estate developments on the East Side.

As GoLocal reported in July 2021:

In May, GoLocal first reported that Monahan Drabble Sherman Funeral Home on the East Side of Providence, which has handled the funeral arrangements of many of Rhode Islands most wealthy and influential over the decades, was sold to a developer.

The history of the funeral home goes back over 140 years. The Victorian home on the corner of Waterman Street and Wayland Avenue will be demolished as part of the development plan.

Now, developer Steve Lewinstein has submitted plans to the City of Providence to demolish the funeral home and build a significant five-story residential and retail structure.

Read the original here:
Demolition on GanoIs This The East Side's Next Big Residential Real Estate Project? - GoLocalProv

Miriam Postigo and her children outside their home / Sur

Two families, with three children between them, face being homeless if an order to demolish their semi-detached houses in Benajarafe is acted upon.

Ral Postigo, who is married to Miriam Medianero and their two school age children, Miriam, 12 and Samual, six, live next door to their aunt Miriams sister Cristina and her six-year-old son Juan Antonio.

They built the semi-detached houses in 2004 in the Los Puertas area of Benajarafe Alto on a plot of 13,000 square metres. In addition, they planted about 300 mango trees. There has been an order to demolish the homes in place since 2018.

"It is very unfair, that 18 years later they tear down our houses when we are surrounded by hundreds of houses built without a licence," said Ral who added that the local council is trying to help the family as much as possible.

The families were informed on 3 January that they have six months to demolish the houses and if they do not comply could be charged with a crime of disobedience against judicial authority.

"In 2018 the town council paralysed a demolition order because three children live in the houses, Social Services are helping us, we need the court to pay attention to our situation," said Ral. Both families have been paying property tax for years, he maintained.

With the new Andalusian urban planning law, LISTA, we believe that the houses can be legalised, he added.

More:
Demolition of rural houses in Benajarafe will leave families homeless - Surinenglish.com

Video: We spoke with residents about the report and the issues that go beyond this one event. (Produced by Joanna Hernandez)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday rejected calls to release the full investigation completed by Chicagos former inspector general into the botched implosion of a smokestack in Little Village.

The implosion at the former Crawford coal power plant sent a plume of dust over six blocks of homes in April 2020.

Lightfoot did not respond to a question from WTTW News about whether she thought it was appropriate for her appointees to reject the inspector generals recommendation to fire an employee of the Chicago Department of Public Health and punish two other employees of the Department of Buildings responsible for approving and overseeing the implosion of the smokestack.

City health officials were warned 213 days before the demolition that the dust from an event like this is almost cataclysmic, according to the summary of the report released by interim Inspector General William Marbeck. Fifty-one days before the demolition, health officials were told that dust would be an unpreventable byproduct of the operation, according to the report.

In addition, senior officials in the Chicago Department of Public Health predicted that the demolition would be a disaster, according to the report.

One senior official in the Chicago Department of Public Health will be reprimanded in writing, according to the Chicago Department of Public Healths response to the inspector general.

Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward) told WTTW News that a single written reprimand for one employee seems light given the great tragedy of what happened after the smokestack was imploded. The full report should be released to the public, he said.

Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, echoed Rodriguezs call for the full investigative report to be released in the interest of transparency.

The Lightfoot administration has not fulfilled its promise to ensure that Little Village residents get justice after the incident that turned the sky over Little Village gray with dust, Rodriguez said.

Their salaries are paid for by taxpayers, and they deserve more accountability, Rodriguez said. This doesnt restore justice to my community.

During the 2019 mayoral campaign, Lightfoot vowed to root out corruption at City Hall while increasing transparency. Her campaigns commercials vowed she would bring in the light.

In July, the City Council approved an ordinance backed by Lightfoot that gave the citys top lawyer the power to release investigations from the inspector general about cases involving deaths or felonies. However, Lightfoot has released no reports that detail misconduct during her time as mayor.

After the incident, city officials did a very thorough deep dive and updated inadequate and antiquated rules, Lightfoot said.

City officials took the steps necessary to prevent another implosion from traumatizing a community and imperiling their health, Lightfoot said.

The inspector generals probe found Hilco at fault for failing to ensure that the implosion did not endanger the health of the public and faulted officials for not taking steps to ensure a plan to protect the surrounding neighborhood was in place and would be followed.

Hilco has not been held accountable by the Lightfoot administration, Wasserman said.

Three firms involved in the implosion of the smokestack at the former Crawford Power Plant paid $370,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. In addition, city officials hit Hilco and two other firms involved in the implosion with 16 citations, which officials told the news media came with $68,000 in fines.

Hilco paid $19,500 to resolve five citations, city officials said.

That is only a slap on the wrist, Wasserman said.

Two other firms MCM Management and Controlled Demolition Inc. each paid an additional $17,000 to resolve citations related to the implosion.

In all, the three firms paid $53,500 to resolve 11 citations in connection with the implosion, officials said.

Initially, the city levied an additional $17,000 fines against HRP Exchange 55, the subsidiary created by Hilco to handle the demolition of the coal plant and construction and operations of a new warehouse, now leased to Target,

However, Hilco and HRP Exchange 55 are the same corporate entity and could not be fined separately, so five citations were dropped, said Cesar Rodriguez, Lightfoots press secretary.

In addition to paying its fines for violations of the public health code, Hilco was required by the city to pay for state-of-the-art measures to monitor and assure air quality on and around the site going forward, Cesar Rodriguez said. The costs of these measures, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, was borne by Hilco.

After the incident, which touched off widespread outrage, Lightfoot crafted new rules governing the rarely used demolition method to require community meetings to take place before permits could be issued as well as increased monitoring during the work by a variety of city agencies.

Note: This story was originally published Jan. 20. It has been updated to include our Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices conversation.

Contact Heather Cherone:@HeatherCherone| (773) 569-1863 |[emailprotected]

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot Rejects Calls from Little Village Leaders to Release Full Probe of Botched Smokestack Implosion - WTTW News

Highlights

After an over four-year low in September, demolitions resumed in October, albeit at a rate below this years monthly average.

Some 20 per cent more structures have been demolished or seized in the first ten months of 2021 compared with the equivalent period in 2020; with almost 25 per cent more people were displaced.

Two EU-funded structures were demolished this month, and five others are at risk of demolition.

In October, the Israeli authorities demolished, forced people to demolish, or seized 43 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Thisresulted in the displacement of eight people, and affected the livelihoods, or access to services, of about 2,000 others. All the structures were targeted due to the lack of building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in Area C and East Jerusalem.

The number of structures demolished or seized, and people displaced in October remains one of the lowest recorded months since the beginning of the year. So far in 2021, the number of structures demolished or seized and people displaced has recorded an increase of 19 and 23 per cent, respectively, compared with the equivalent period in 2020. Also this year, 328 structures, or 56 per cent of all structures targeted in Area C, have been seized without, or with very short, prior notice, utilizing various military orders, effectively preventing people from objecting in advance.

Two structures funded by the EU or its member states were demolished or seized in October, both in Area C. These included a water network in the Massafer Yatta area, which destruction resulted in cutting off access to piped water for over 1,100 people. The other structure is part of a school providing education to around 50 students from five Bedouin communities in the Jorday Valley. Five other EU-funded structures, at a value of about 9,700 Euros, received warning or stop-work orders. Additionally, dozens of trees and saplings provided by the EU, were reportedly vandalized by settlers, ahead of the olive harvest season.

Also in Area C, two agricultural roads were demolished, which undermined the access of 470 people, including farmers and their families, to their land, in Tayasir (Jordan Valley) and in Yabad (Jenin). Five of the total structures were demolished on the basis of Military Order 1797, providing a 96-hour notice only and very limited grounds, for legally challenging a demolition.

Twelve structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, of which nine were demolished by their owners, including a house in the Wadi al Joz neighbourhood, displacing a family of four. Since the beginning of the year in East Jerusalem, 77 structures have been demolished by their owners.

Excerpt from:
West Bank demolitions and displacement: An Overview | October 2021 - occupied Palestinian territory - ReliefWeb