'Making great strides': Jeannette IDs 12 more blighted homes for demolition

Twelve homes in Jeannette were deemed public nuisances and ordered demolished Monday, adding to the city’s list of blight proposed to be removed through Westmoreland County American Rescue Plan funding.

Fire Chief Bill Frye said he hopes to push as many as 100 properties through what can be a time-consuming process toward ordering demolition to capitalize on $10.4 million the county has set aside for blight removal in Jeannette and six other communities.

“We’re trying to target the long-timers,” he said, referring to properties that have been deteriorating for years. “We’re far ahead with our code enforcement process.”

Many of the properties brought up during a public hearing Monday are in the West Jeannette area. To qualify for demolition through the county’s ARP funding, a property must be south of the railroad tracks that run through town, he said.

Mayor Curtis Antoniak said the demolitions would go a long way toward improving that neighborhood, and others, where residents take care of their homes but are dragged down by encountering blight on a daily basis.

“That’s going to clear that area up nice down there,” he said.

All of the properties are vacant and have had years of code enforcement issues, Frye said. Notices about the proposed demolition and Monday’s hearing were sent to property owners and posted at each parcel. Sometimes, the notices were returned to the city. In other cases, the certified mail was received, but no one showed up at the hearing to contest it.

Properties deemed public nuisances were:

• 1056-1058 Penn Ave., which is across the street from the former Fort Pitt Brewery, another property that is slated for demolition. Frye said the duplex home has been broken into multiple times.

• 1704 Penn Ave., part of which has collapsed.

• 110-112 S. 17th St., which has been the site of break-ins and squatters.

• 1513 Tennessee Lane. “This property has been an issue for at least five years,” Frye said.

• 18 S. 13th St., where code issues date to 2015.

• 1211 Penn Ave., which is owned by a rental company that Frye said he hasn’t been able to contact. It was operating as a rental without a permit seven years ago.

• 1205 Penn Ave., where there have been problems with illegal dumping of tires and garbage, as well as a person using drugs squatting on the second floor.

• 718 Chambers Ave., which has been boarded up since being damaged in a fire at a neighboring structure in 1999.

• 1708 Penn Ave., the site of a break-in this summer.

• 511 S. Fifth St., which has been unoccupied since it flooded in 2010.

• 122 S. 11th St., where a tree is growing through the garage.

• 123 S. 16th St., which is in the flood plain and could be acquired by the city.

Owners can appeal within 10 days. Frye will turn over the properties to the county for a title search. If there are no appeals, he will give the green light to continue with the process.

With the 12 from Monday’s hearing, that makes nearly 20 properties so far that Jeannette has submitted for demolition through the ARP funding, Frye said. There are about two dozen more on the radar that could come up for similar hearings in the coming months. Frye said he hopes to conduct hearings monthly.

“We’re making great strides,” Antoniak said.