Jeannette eyes 6 properties for demolition

Six properties in Jeannette are slated for demolition as the city continues its fight against blight.

Council unanimously accepted the lowest bid Thursday for the project from Lutterman Excavating of Greensburg for $62,000. Chief fiscal officer Ethan Keedy said the money will come from the city’s 2019 and 2020 Community Development Block Grant funding.

Some of the structures have been blighted for years and clearing them out will help improve the neighborhoods, he said.

“It’s the start of many demolition projects in the future,” he said.

Some of that future funding could be coming from the county’s American Rescue Plan allocation. County officials on Tuesday released an initial phase of their plan to spend the $105.4 million received from the covid relief package approved by federal lawmakers in 2021.

The commissioners said $10.4 million will be directed to the county’s Redevelopment Authority to remove vacant and dilapidated structures in Arnold, Greensburg, Jeannette, Monessen, New Kensington, Penn Borough and Vandergrift.

Specifics on what blighted structures will be demolished have not been decided, but officials said they hope to take down about 300 buildings. Mayor Curtis Antoniak said the potential impact on Jeannette neighborhoods will be huge.

“If you have one bad place on a block, it really takes the whole area down,” he said.

The demolitions through CDBG funding will take place at: 730 and 734 Sellers Ave., 610 Jefferson Ave., 501 and 506 N. Third St. and 125 N. Fifth. St. The neighboring properties on Sellers Avenue are covered in overgrown brush amid a neighborhood of neatly kept homes. All are residential except the Jefferson Avenue site.

City officials said they may try to recoup demolition costs by placing a lien on the Jefferson Avenue property which was used last year for commercial building fire training at the former Jeannette District Memorial Hospital site. The building was donated to the fire department for the training.

“I think we should lien the property because we’re paying for the demolition,” Keedy said.

The building is on property that has been up for sale for $1.5 million since the fall. The parcel includes a 41,000-square-foot medical office building, a five-story parking garage and another building and parking area.