CROTHERSVILLE
Two neglected vacant properties on Crothersville’s watch list have gone through the legal process of court orders and the property owners being given a certain number of days to clean them up.
Now, it’s time to take the next step to “put boots on the ground” to demolish the homes, said Crothersville Town Council Vice President Jason Hillenburg, who also is a member of the town’s unsafe building committee.
During a recent meeting, the town council gave the committee approval to proceed with taking action on the homes at 301 E. Main St. and 105 Marshall Drive.
“You have to move for the court to approve demolition before it can actually happen,” town attorney Matt Lorenzo told the council.
After going on both properties and looking at them very closely multiple times, Hillenburg said he received estimates from Kelley Albertson to demolish the homes for $5,800 apiece.
Hillenburg said there are several issues with the home at 301 E. Main St., which is owned by Mary K. Kelly, according to the county GIS map.
“I’ve not been inside, but the best I can tell, there is no rehabilitation or any structural integrity that can be gained,” he said. “The stench around the property is awful. There’s water in the basement, walls are falling in, broken windows, so on and so forth.”
A couple of months ago, a former resident reached out to Hillenburg and said he would like to be a part of the demolition of the home.
“I understand there’s a log home that’s the original two-story part, supposedly the oldest house in town, and he would like to try to preserve those logs if possible,” Hillenburg said.
The home at 105 Marshall Drive is in worse shape than the one on East Main Street, Hillenburg said. It’s owned by Roscoe and Kayla Peacock.
“They have been contacted multiple times by our attorney, they’ve been sent letters for court orders, have not appeared, and so the town is going to move forward with removing these properties as eyesores and unsafe buildings within our community,” Hillenburg said.
He also discussed two other properties that are going through the legal process.
The property at 423 S. Armstrong St., owned by Grover and Sondra Stacey, has a trailer with a semitrailer behind it. The court order date and number of days have both passed, and it already has been condemned by the Jackson County Health Department, Hillenburg said.
The other property is at 101 S. East St., owned by Shandy Miller and Richard and Jacqueline Allen.
“We all know that property well,” Hillenburg said. “It was on council’s table before I joined council and has continued to be on the first year of my tenure here, and it needs to be dealt with.”
Hillenburg hasn’t received demolition estimates for those two properties.
He and Councilwoman Katie Masters, who also is on the unsafe building committee, both said there are other properties in town on the watch list. These four currently are going through the legal process, which takes about four months, Hillenburg said.
Once the court grants approval, the committee will ask the council for money to cover demolition, and then a lien will be placed on each property for that amount.