Warmer weather sees demolition programs kick into high gear

PRINCETON As the weather warms, municipalities and counties across the region are moving forward with blight demolition programs, scheduling dozens of buildings to be razed by the end of the year.

Bill Buzzo, code enforcement director for the city of Princeton, said more than 450 structures have been demolished so far through the citys program.

To date we have completed demolition on 468 structures, he said. Of those, 99 were removed by the city funds, 294 by private owners, and 75 through grants. A lot of cities and counties think grants are the answer to funding demolition programs, but only 16 percent of ours are funded from grants. The majority are funded by private property owners, which is where the responsibility should lie.

Buzzo said there are typically 20 structures awaiting demolition at any given time.

We have 22 buildings currently on the list, though we usually have about that many on the list at all times, he said. We might tear one or two structures down and then two or three more will be condemned that same week. Its a never-ending process.

Buzzo said demolition can be a costly process.

The average cost of demolition per building is right at $4,000, he said. The most expensive single-structure demolition we have done was almost $59,862 for one building, but that was a two story house with asbestos. We have done $1.9 million worth of demolition work in 20 years, which is almost $100,000 a year spent on demolition, though not all of that money comes from city funds.

Not all condemned structures end up as vacant lots, Buzzo said.

We have 33 lots where a house was built back after one had been demolished, he said. The project has also seen a lot of structures renovated. A lot of absentee owners move out of state and sometimes you will hear they are planning on coming back and retiring. Some have no idea the house they own has decayed so badly.

Bluefield City Manager Jim Ferguson said more than a dozen structures have been demolished by the citys public works department this year alone.

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Warmer weather sees demolition programs kick into high gear