More demolitions begin in three different Mercer County communities
Feb. 9—By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Dilapidated structures were being torn down Thursday in three locations as the drive to remove as many of Mercer County's decaying and burned-out buildings as possible continued.
Structures coming down along Athens Road near Princeton, Beeson Road in the Lashmeet area and another on Browning Lambert Mountain were among the 54 structures in Batch 4 of the demolition schedule, according to Lori Mills, dilapidated structures officer for Mercer County.
"It's going pretty well," Mills said while she was visiting one demolition site. A power line running to a house still had to be disconnected. "We're close to halfway through Batch 4 and we still have Batch 5 to go. Right now we have multiple demo (demolition) sites going on. We've actually done as many as three demos in one day."
Batch 5 demolitions will remove even more decaying structures from Mercer County's landscape.
"Hopefully we'll have the green light by the first of the week and there will be 33 structures in that batch," she said.
Last year, Mercer County was awarded a $1.5 million demolitions grant from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). When the Batch 5 demolitions are finished, it will bring the total number of dilapidated structures torn down across Mercer County to around 175, Mills said. The last of the $1.5 million grant is being spent on completing Batch 5. Those demolitions must be finished by March 31.
More state funding will pay for what Mills had dubbed the second round of Mercer County's demolitions.
On Jan. 31, Gov. Jim Justice and the WVDEP announced that 69 communities were receiving more than $15.6 million in grant funding as part of the second phase of the state's Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties Program (DLAP).
In this second phase, a total of 69 communities, including towns, cities and counties have been approved for grants amounting to $15,662,25.
The Mercer County Commission is being awarded a new $750,000 grant for demolitions. The city of Bluefield is receiving $650,000 and the city of Princeton will receive $78,000, according to the WVDEP announcement.
Many of the structures torn down during Mercer County's first round of demolitions belonged to property owners who could not afford the cost of getting them torn down and hauled away. Grant money paid for these demolitions after the owners submitted applications to the county.
Mills said Thursday the public will have the opportunity to submit applications during the county's second round of demolitions, but these applications will have new terms. These terms are still being drafted.
It will likely be mid-April before the county can accept new applications, she said.
While visiting a demolition site Thursday, Mills said there is more to demolishing a structure than having a contractor arrive with heavy equipment and start tearing it down. First, workers have to make sure the electricity, water and/or natural gas utilities have been cut off. Abatement work to make sure hazardous materials such as asbestos have been removed must be done, too.
"There is a lot of prep work that goes into tearing one down," Mills said.
Other southern West Virginia counties and municipalities were awarded new WVDEP demolition grants when the governor announced them Jan. 31.
The Raleigh County Commission will get a $494,000 WVDEP demolition grant and the city of Beckley will receive $487,000, according to the governor's announcement. Another grant worth $201,000 will go to the Summers County Commission and the city of Hinton will receive $481,000. The Wyoming County Commission will get $234,000 for demolitions.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
