Westmoreland County is taking bites out of blight in five communities.
The county commissioners this month approved spending up to $244,000 from Westmoreland’s Act 152 Demolition Fund to raze rundown buildings on four properties in Arnold, three in Jeannette, two in Derry Township and one each in Derry Borough and Monessen.
The demolition projects will be overseen by the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority, drawing upon funds raised through a $15 fee assessed on deed and mortgage filings in the county.
For each of the properties, it may take from four to six months to complete an assessment of the building, get a contractor on board and have the structure taken down, according to Brian Lawrence, executive director of the authority and the Westmoreland County Land Bank.
“It stays in our wheelhouse until the property is reseeded,” he said.
The 11 demolition projects include four properties that were acquired by the Land Bank: single-family homes at 511 Rostraver Road in Monessen, 112 E. First Ave. in Derry Borough and 105 N. Third St. in Jeannette, along with a multi-family Jeannette dwelling at 296/298 N. Ninth St.
The remaining properties were added to the demolition program as a result of applications by the municipalities where they’re located.
“We’re trying to do our best to get more applications,” Lawrence said. “We’ve identified almost 1,100 blighted properties (in Westmoreland) through a variety of sources, including municipal code enforcement officers.”
Identifying buildings that are in need of major repairs or are candidates for demolition has been easier in communities — including Greensburg, Latrobe and Monessen — that have completed comprehensive property condition assessments in partnership with the county planning department.
Arnold is among other towns that are following suit, Lawrence said.
“We’ve got to know where the (blight) problem is in order to solve the problem,” he said.
Jeannette City Manager Ethan Keedy said the county funding is critical to help the city tear down dilapidated buildings and clear space for construction of new homes.
“When I was hired in June 2021, I was overwhelmed by the amount of structures I knew eventually needed to be demolished, with the costs (per project) being anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. I knew there was no way the city would be able to tackle the blight problem on its own.”
With funding assistance, Keedy said, Jeannette has been able to demolish at least a half-dozen homes that were in bad condition over the past few years.
“On the low end,” he said, “there are another 30 to 40 homes we would like to get taken down between either the county fund or (pandemic recovery funding).”
The 11 new demolition projects represent the latest step in an ongoing, multi-pronged county effort to tackle blight.
The county also annually draws upon federal Community Development Block Grant funds to pay for some qualifying demolition projects in local municipalities.
Jeannette and Arnold are included among seven municipalities where a combined total of about 500 blighted structures are slated for demolition over five years under a separate Westmoreland program funded with $10.4 million in federal pandemic recovery dollars.
That program has paid for demolition of the former Advance Furniture building on Greensburg’s South Main Street and will be tapped for pending demolition of the former Fort Pitt Brewery complex in Jeannette.
So far, Lawrence said, his office has identified more than 30 blighted structures in Arnold that aren’t included in the federally funded, five-year demolition program; four of them are set to be razed through this month’s separate county authorization.
Those four Arnold properties include 1807 Kenneth Ave.; 1831 Kenneth Ave., a multi-tenant building; 1507 Victoria Ave., a commercial building; and 1377 Fourth Ave., a former church.
Derry Township properties slated for demolition are 5257 Route 982 and 212 Ravine Park Road.
Jeff Himler is a TribLive reporter covering Greater Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant Area and Derry Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on transportation issues. A journalist for more than three decades, he enjoys delving into local history. He can be reached at jhimler@triblive.com.