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Athens County Commissioners Select Blighted Homes For Demolition
By: WOUB Staff Writer
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The Athens County Commissioners have selected more than a dozen blighted homes to demolish in Athens County.
At their meeting Tuesday, commissioners chose 13 homes from a list of more than 100 properties deemed unsanitary by the Athens City-County Health Department.
Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said the county hopes to demolish homes in Nelsonville, Trimble, Glouster, Millfield and Albany in the next six months.
He said the demolition project will not begin until the negotiations take place between the homeowners, the county and the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action group.
"It's going to be up to the grant implementer which is the [Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action] to negotiate and make sure that all those meet all the criteria available and the money that we have available that will be allocated, but we don't have final numbers until we go out and sign a contract for them," said Eliason.
Eliason said the consent of homeowners is essential for the county to proceed with the demolition process.
"Well what we decided was to put a stipulation on the property that if the property was sold within five years, they would have to pay the county back the cost of demolition," he said.
Eliason said the homeowners have six months to bid to reclaim their properties before demolition starts.
He said he expects the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action group to approve the demolition of the 13 homes by that time.