Plum seeking bids to tear down 4 houses

Plum resident William Sexton will be happy to see the rundown shell of a house that stands practically in his back yard torn down.

Sexton said the house, riddled with broken windows, on Siple Street near the turnpike has been an eyesore for several years.

“People go in and out of it all the time,” Sexton said. “We’ve had to call the police a few times.”

The house at 122 Siple St. is one of four single-family structures that the borough is seeking bids from contractors to demolish.

The others are at 708 Unity Center Road, 264 McKim Drive and 826 Garlow Blvd.

The property at 247 Francis Road was initially on the list, but borough council has given its owner more time to bring it up to code, community development director Heather Oravitz said.

The house on Garlow is replacing it. A hold over from last year, its owner also had been given time to fix it, Oravitz said.

The borough is accepting bids for the demolitions until 10 a.m. Oct. 26, when they will be opened and read aloud in council chambers at the borough office, 4575 New Texas Road.

Oravitz did not know when the borough would award a contract and the work would begin. After the bid opening, council meets for a work session Nov. 7, and its next voting meeting is Nov. 14.

The house at 708 Unity Center, between Down the Road Lounge and Plum Automotive, is almost completely obscured from view from the road by overgrown vegetation. A guardrail runs along its frontage.

Plum Automotive owner Steve Sciullo said he knew the previous owners of the house, who died. He boarded it up to try to keep people out.

“Over the years, I’ve had to chase kids out of there,” he said. “There’s nothing left to the place inside. Everything is torn out of it.”

The house at 264 McKim is near the end of a dead-end road. It looks more like a shack in the woods than a home with a front lawn.

Darlene Rauch, whose parents live next door, said the owner died two years ago.

“It’s in bad shape,” she said. “The whole foundation is really, really bad. It probably needs to come down.”

Back on Siple Street, Sexton said tearing down the house there will be nice for his kids and others in the area, giving them more room to play.

Although the building might offer some blocking of noise from the turnpike, Sexton said he would rather see it gone.

“It will be nice, to be honest with you,” he said. “It will be nice to get that out of there.”