A man recently announced plans to remodel this home at 105 Marshall Drive, Crothersville.
Tribune file photo
CROTHERSVILLE — A neglected vacant property in Crothersville that was set to be demolished will stay standing after all.
During a meeting earlier this month, Travis Jones told the Crothersville Town Council he was waiting to receive a recorded deed on the property at 105 Marshall Drive so he could begin remodeling the home.
The Jackson County GIS map shows the 0.58-acre property is still owned by Roscoe and Kayla Peacock. Jones said he bought it from the Peacocks, but a neighbor bought it on the county commissioners’ certificate sale and has until July 17 to redeem it.
“We’re just going to redeem it. Whoever bought it at the certificate sale will get their money back within 10% of it,” Jones said. “I don’t even know which neighbor bought it. I was at the certificate sale, so that’s why I know one of the neighbors bought it.”
Once Jones pays to have the property redeeded, his plan is to begin remodeling July 1.
“We’ve already been in it. We’ve been under it. We’ve been on the roof,” he said. “We’re going to remodel it and sell it. We’re not going to rent it. We want to flip it. We’re going to do the outside first so it doesn’t look like an eyesore before we start on the inside. We’ll have a roof put on it, a new overhead door where the garage door is … new siding, everything.”
Jones expects the work to cost around $35,000. If needed, he said he has a company in mind to do the plumbing and electric work, which would be another $10,000 or so.
“The outside will be done in two weeks. We’ll have (the remodeling) done by mid-August for sale,” he said. “Everything has got to be done or you’re not going to sell it.”
In February, the council approved a $21,000 request to demolish the home and another long-neglected property at 301 E. Main St. The plan was to use $16,000 of the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds and the remainder coming from the unsafe building fund.
Since Jones is in the process of buying the property, though, the town won’t have that expense, and the matter can be taken off of the court docket for the home to be demolished.
“Anybody from this town can inspect, tell me what to do. We’ll let you in before we sell it, whatever you guys want to do. We’ve got nothing to hide,” Jones said. “If you want to come over and make sure everything is being done correctly, we’re going to replace every floor joist in the entire house, the roof is going to be new, the garage door has got to be replaced. We’ve already looked it over.”
The council thanked Jones for being willing to improve the property.
“Sounds good, Travis,” President Jason Hillenburg said.
“It’s good to hear. Thanks, Travis. I appreciate that,” Vice President Terry Richey said.
When the two properties were discussed at a council meeting in early 2021, Hillenburg said there were several issues with the Main Street home. At the time, he said no rehabilitation or structural integrity could be gained, and the stench around the property was awful. Plus, there was water in the basement, walls falling in and windows broken.
The home on Marshall Drive was in worse shape, he said. The owners had been contacted multiple times by the town’s attorney and sent letters for court orders but had not appeared.
The council gave the unsafe building and hearing board approval to proceed with taking action on the two homes, but it had to move for the court to approve demolition before that could actually happen.
Once the court granted approval, the unsafe building and hearing board could ask the council for money to cover demolition, and then a lien would be placed on each property for that amount.
During the meeting in February, Curt Kovener made the council aware of the Marshall Drive home being listed on the certificate sale. He said if someone bought it and tore it down, the town wouldn’t have that expense.
Now that Jones has taken action to claim the property, improvements are on the horizon.
The Main Street home has yet to be demolished. Hillenburg said that cost is higher due to the extra time it will take to tear down the two-story part of the structure that’s part of the oldest home in Crothersville.
“I’ve had discussion with the company that bid on this about the fact that the old Hamacher home, the logs are underneath that exterior structure, and they are going to take great care to remove those as gently as possible, and there will be people onsite to make sure that that’s done,” he said during the February meeting. “Those that are salvageable will be kept. Those that aren’t will be disposed of.”
Councilman Chad Wilson asked if the logs would be in the town’s possession. Town attorney Matt Lorenzo said technically, those will be the property of the homeowner, which is listed on the GIS map as Mary K. Kelly.
“We discussed in the unsafe building committee meeting that if she wanted to keep them for whatever reason that we could negotiate with the lien going against the property to demo the structure as some payment for the logs,” Hillenburg said.