Arnold acquires 6 properties with plans to tear them down

With work to demolish 10 buildings underway, Arnold Council has set its sights on six more that city officials want to tear down.

The city bought the six parcels from the Westmoreland County repository for $500 each.

Repository properties are unsold pieces of land offered by the county. The parcels are available after the county executes judicial and bid-off sales. When the parcels are in the repository, anyone except the property owners may bid on them.

The six properties Arnold has acquired are at 302 18th St., 1396 Fourth Ave., 1720 Third Ave., 1607 Victoria Ave., 1739 Woodmont Ave. and 1410 Taylor Ave.

Arnold is using a $300,000 state blight remediation grant to pay for building demolitions. Rick Rayburg, community development director, said he hopes to add more properties to these six and seek bids this fall for their demolition.

How many more buildings the city will be able to tear down will depend on how quickly the city can acquire them and the cost of demolition, Rayburg said.

A portion of that grant is paying for the demolition of 10 buildings. On Tuesday, Rayburg said three were down with seven left to go.

The work is being done by A.P. Wise Excavating, which bid $75,840, the lowest of seven bids the city received.

Of the 10, four are on Third Avenue — 1374, 1419, 1419½ and 1430 — and another four are on Fourth Avenue — 1339, 1362, 1522 and 1524.

The other addresses are 1908 Victoria Ave. and 1905 Leishman Ave.