The City of Danville is continuing its quest to demolish blighted houses and other properties in the city this year.
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. says that 46 city- or county-owned properties are set to be demolished, and there are another 35 properties that will be demolished once this year’s demolitions have been completed. The city has leveled 355 structures in the past five years.
A team from Owens Excavating spent Wednesday morning demolishing the only house in Ward 7 on the list, a structure located in the 1400-block of Golf Terrace in the Denvale West subdivision. Tracy Craft, the Program Compliance Coordinator with the city’s Public Works Department, says the once grand home had been abandoned for more than a decade and was filled with mold. Several neighbors watched the demolition take place.
Owens Excavating will also be demolishing a vacant house in the 1100-block of Sherman Street, just north of Lincoln Park, that has been condemned because the foundation is collapsing. It is the only house in Ward 5 on the list. They will then tear down two properties on Seminary Street near Danville Fire Station #1.
Money for the project is coming from two city funds as well as grants. Logan Cronk, the city’s Grants and Planning Manager, tells VermilionCountyFirst.com that Danville will be receiving a little more than $1 million in total for a Community Development Block Grant this year. Of that, $260,000 has been approved by the city council for blight reduction.
This year’s demolitions broken down by ward as as follows:
- Ward 1–18 properties (39 percent)
- Ward 3–13 properties (28 percent)
- Ward 4–seven properties (15 percent)
- Ward 2–six properties (13 percent)
- Wards 5 and 7–1 property (two percent)
No properties are set for demolition in Ward 6.
Williams says that the list does not include commercial properties that could come down this year, such as the former Pizza Hut building on North Vermilion Street or the former dry cleaners on Hazel Street. He also says hundreds of other privately owned properties will still need to be demolished in the future.
