30 properties in poor condition to be demolished in East Liverpool
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio (WKBN) — The city of East Liverpool has been working hard to solve a housing problem. A plummeting population has left an overwhelming number of abandoned or unoccupied houses.
On Tuesday, the city got a little help in their battle.
"We'll take empty lots over a crumbling house any day," Mayor Bobby Smith said. "Crumbling houses create so many problems."
But East Liverpool isn't exactly equipped to tackle problems like that on its own. They're getting help in the form of funding.
The Department of Development's Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program supports tearing down commercial and residential buildings to create new opportunities in areas that can't be re-purposed because of vacant or dilapidated structures.
"It's monumental," Smith said. "If we didn't receive the funding, we could never do this ourselves. There's 39 in the county that was awarded. We're going to get 30 of those to tear down."
Since taking office in January after winning the election last year, tackling excess housing has been a priority for Smith.
"The focus on east Liverpool is to get these down and move on," Smith said. "We've lost a lot of population. From 27,000 to 9,500, so we obviously have a lot of housing stock that we don't need."
Aside from the eyesore, Smith says the city has real concerns about a number of safety problems surrounding the structures.
As recently as Sunday , firefighters were called out to two fires, sparking an arson investigation .
"The other day we had five buildings on fire at one time," Smith said. "I believe four of the five were empty and had been empty for years."
Mayor Smith says the city had been working with the Columbiana County land bank, submitting a list of condemned properties to tear down. The funding helps speed that process up.
"In anyone's neighborhood if you sit on your porch and look out through your neighborhood," Smith said. "You can see about 20 homes from anyone's neighborhood. Think about 30 homes being removed. That's a big deal."
