Arnold expects to start demolition process on 10 abandoned houses soon

The planned project to demolish 10 abandoned houses in Arnold could begin by the end of the month.

Community Development Director Rick Rayburg hopes to take the first step, advertising for contract bids, to take place by the end of April or beginning of May.

Rayburg has started the city’s acquisition of the target properties from the Westmoreland County Real Estate Repository.

“I went down and purchased the first six properties that we are proposing to demolish,” he told council.

As for the other four, Rayburg said he is waiting a bit because he didn’t want to expose the city to additional liability since the city takes on that responsibility when it acquires the properties.

Rayburg also told council he has requested the release of federal Community Development Block Grant money that has been earmarked for demolition.

Meanwhile, he said lengthy reviews of the properties to confirm that they should be demolished are underway.

“I have to do a review of the fair market value of the properties to make sure that it is lower than the cost of rehabilitation,” Rayburg said.

In addition, one of the properties located closer to the Allegheny River also is undergoing an required environmental review by the state’s Fish and Boat Commission. He said it’s required to ensure that the demolition will not have a detrimental impact on the river and riverbanks.

Rayburg declined to provide an exact amount of CDBG money available, saying that he did not want that to adversely affect the bidding process by contractors bidding up to that amount.

However, he did say that the project will have at least $70,000 to work with.

Rayburg added that he could expand the project if the 2018 CDBG funds are released by the federal government.

At the same time, he is hoping to get owners of deteriorated properties that are facing fines for numerous code violations to take advantage of the demolition project by working out their own deal with whomever the city’s contractor is.

“As we get closer to our demo project, we’re going to start putting pressure on the owners of some of these other properties,” Rayburg said.

Rayburg said the idea is that it would be advantageous to the contractor to give a better price to such property owners since they will already have their equipment positioned in the city. Also, demolitions done by private citizens are not required to do asbestos testing and abatement on the structures as municipalities are under law.