A Danville City Council committee is recommending the city purchase over 120 parcels of land from Vermilion County’s Delinquent Tax Agent. All of the property is located in Danville and was going to be auctioned because of delinquent taxes.
Logan Cronk, Community Development Administrator for the City of Danville, says the purchases will help restock the city’s list of properties to be demolished…
{AUDIO: ‘’The City of Danville is running-out of the legal authority to demo properties, and we’re just injecting the ability to use taxpaying dollars and grant funds – the majority of them will be demolished with grant dollars – to clean-up the city.’’}
Cronk was asked how long it will take to get all those properties cleared…
{AUDIO: ‘’Last year we were very aggressive. The Public Works (Department) was. It (demolished) around 110 properties. So it’s not going to take the City of Danville more than a year, a year-and-a-half to demolish these. It just depends if we have enough dollars or grant funds to demolish all of them in one year.’’}
If the full city council approves the list the city will pay $750 for each parcel, plus a $50 recording fee for each – for a total of $96-thousand dollars. The property is scattered at locations across Danville.
Also during Tuesday evening’s meeting a proposed $1.26 million dollar contract for improvements along portions of Lafayette, Robinson, and North Streets was forwarded to the full city council for consideration with no committee recommendation. The bid came in over the estimated $1.1 million dollar cost. The work is in the area where the Carle and Christie at the Riverfront developments are occurring and is expected to be completed by early December.
The committee also recommended a contract be awarded for resurfacing East Gate Court – in the area where Danville’s new Golden Nugget Casino is being built.