For Evangelina Hernandez, it was good news and bad news that the empty house next to her home on Victoria Avenue in Arnold could be gone soon.

It’s good, she said, because the house at 1908 Victoria Ave. attracts raccoons who try to get into her garbage. But it’s bad, because stray cats hang out in it. Their presence doesn’t bother Hernandez.

All in all, though, Hernandez will be glad when it’s torn down.

“It’s really more of a nuisance at this point,” she said.

That house was one of three Arnold Council approved buying last week from Westmoreland County’s property repository for $500 each.

The others are at 1522 Fourth Ave. and 1430 Third Ave.

The three are among 10 buildings the city plans to tear down this winter, City Manager Mario Bellavia said. The work will be funded by a $300,000 blight remediation grant the city received from the state earlier this year.

Among the other seven buildings, three are on Third Avenue and three are on Fourth Avenue, according to Rick Rayburg, the city’s community development director. Their addresses are 1374 and 1419 (front and rear) Third Ave.; 1339, 1362 and 1524 Fourth Ave.; and 1905 Leishman Ave.

The owner of 1374 Third Ave. has given the city a release to tear it down, Rayburg said. The other six properties are owned by the city.

Rayburg said the city plans to seek bids and award a contract to tear down all 10 by the end of January. A contractor should start work within two weeks of getting the contract and would need to complete the work within 60 days.

11 slated for summer

Rayburg said Arnold has identified another 11 properties for a second phase of demolitions in the summer or fall of 2022. How many more could be torn down will depend on how much the first phase costs and how much of the grant funding remains.

There are at least 20 to 25 additional buildings the city would want to demolish, Rayburg said.

“Our goal is to tear down everything we can,” he said. “We’ve been aggressive in tearing them down, and we want to continue that trend.”

In selecting properties, Bellavia said the city’s intent is often to connect vacant lots, making larger areas available for people to buy and redevelop.

Eddie Taylor and Karen Lawrence live across from the empty building at 1522 Fifth Ave. Like the Victoria Avenue house beside Hernandez, it draws raccoons and cats, they said. Taylor said it has been empty for at least 10 years.

But their home is practically surrounded by vacant and abandoned buildings, with broken and boarded-up windows. They can point to ones across the street and behind their home that they’d like to see torn down.

Taylor said they were told not long ago that a couple of them would be coming down, but they’re still standing.

Chrissie Chambers lives across the street from 1430 Third Ave., where the first-floor front windows are boarded up but those on the upper floors are broken and jagged. It has been like that since she moved in four years ago.

She was glad to hear it could be gone soon.

“Obviously, it’s an eyesore,” she said.

Her landlord has looked inside the house, she said, and found its interior is in pretty good shape despite how bad the exterior looks.

So, in that regard, she said, “It’s a shame.”

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