“There could be one or two more properties to be demolished through this grant by the end of the year,” said Susan Cohen, administrative services director.
She said the properties slated for demolition are being funded through the Neighborhood Initiative Program, an ongoing program that the Butler County Land Bank has been working on.
“The city is working with the land bank to optimize funding available” Cohen said.
MORE: Butler County land bank ‘racing to beat the clock’ to demolish grant-eligible blight
Properties being targeted in the latest round of bid solicitations are located at:
- 3116 Rufus St.
- 1803 Flemming Road
- 1613 First Ave.
- 1511 Fairfield Ave.
- 915 Fourteenth Ave.
- 811 Sixteenth Ave.
- 408 Young St.
- 1503 Flemming Road
- 1329 Woodlawn Ave.
Butler County was awarded $4.3 million in Neighborhood Initiative Program monies beginning in 2014 that targeted preventing foreclosures and stabilizing local property values through the demolitions Hamilton and Middletown, the county’s two largest cities, had until Dec. 18 to spend $3.2 million. Last year, $620,839 was not spent, largely due to a lag in Middletown’s property acquisitions, according to county officials.
The final deadline to spend the remaining $1 million of the grant money is December, and the land bank has already demolished and been reimbursed for $600,000. Kathy Dudley, land bank executive director, expects the rest of original grant will be spent by June. Then she said they can try to recoup the lost funds. All tolled the county has been reimbursed almost $3.3 million for demolishing 220 properties as of late April.
Middletown City Manager Doug Adkins previously told the Journal-News when the grant was partially lost his city has been razing ramshackle homes according to the Middletown City Council’s direction, as part of a plan they are developing to transform the city’s housing stock. He noted the city knocked down more than 500 blighted homes during the Great Recession but that it can’t act on others identified in the grant application.
“The vacant, blighted houses in those neighborhoods are mostly down. The remaining blight in those grant-eligible neighborhoods is with occupied houses, which are not eligible under this grant,” Adkins told the Journal-News. “I fully understand the county’s and the land bank’s concerns in returning grant funds, but Middletown only had so many qualifying properties to work with.”
This story contains information previously reported by Staff Writer Denise Callahan.
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