Neighborhood Stabilization Program

At last week's Council meeting a Main St. resident spoke up about the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. He expressed concerns that Village officials are not being as aggressive as officials in East Liverpool pursuing available funds from this program.

The program provides money for the demolition or rehabilitation of neglected properties in communities in both Columbiana and Carroll Counties. Many of those properties have long been abandoned just sitting vacant falling apart. There is no question that they are an eyesore and a blemish on the appearance of the various communities.

This program first came to light months ago but as they say the wheels of government move slow. So far we haven't seen any of the available grant funds come out of Lisbon. With what we see in the papers maybe that is changing. East Liverpool began running notification ads last week and has even looked at contractor bids to tear their target houses down. Our own Village officials have been actively pursuing this program from the get go. WFD Chief Bill Smith is spearheading Wellsville's participation in this program.

From what we learned East Liverpool & Salem are in the first round of this program. They will get a lump sum of money and will be responsible to line up contractors of their own choosing. Wellsville is in the second round. Unlike the other two cities mentioned county officials will handle the bidding and award the contracts for these jobs.

Chief Smith has not been idle while waiting. So far there are seven properties ready to be torn down. These seven have all been approved by their owners to have them demolished. With that accomplished there is no need to run expensive advertising to locate the owners. The agreements are signed and sealed. All the time consuming investigation and legal work has been accomplished. At this point Village officials are at the mercy of the county for them to decide when we begin. The first seven properties in the ville are 917 Commerce, 801 Wood, 924 Wood, 2017 Nevada, 530 Washington, 1037 Main and 1315 Main Street.

In addition to those seven there are eight more that Village officials will begin the advertising process starting Tuesday of this week. The ads will run in the newspaper once a week for six weeks as required by law. The ads are an attempt to notify the owners that either refuse to come forward or are unknown. Some of these owners simply don't respond to mailed notifications. They are being advised that the properties have been inspected and found to be dilapidated, unsafe, unsanitary, unfit for human habitation or occupancy and have been deemed dangerous.

At the end of six weeks of advertising the owners or those responsible have ten days to come forward or appeal. If that doesn't happen the next step is to go to Common Pleas Court to have the judge decide. Once a decision is handed down on the properties another six weeks of ads have to run advising the owners of the judge's decision. It will be early next spring before the next step can be taken on these eight if no one comes forward.

Since last checking there have been two additions to the list pictured above. The eight properties the ads are running for are 226 Eighteenth, 327 Highland, 1421 Center, 640 Henry, 734 Main, 315 Ridge, 428 Broadway and 310 Aten Avenue.

The whole process is lengthy and involves hours upon hours of legwork to get just this far. It doesn't happen overnight. Village officials have been actively after this since it was first announced that grant money would be available for this program. They're ready to go on the first seven and have eight more in the process. It can't be said that they are sitting on their hands.

Thanks to Chief Smith for bringing us up to date on this.

ole nib