City continues efforts to demolish dilapidated structures

BENTON — City officials are making good on their promise to tear down at least two dilapidated structures per month in an effort to beautify the city.
Excavation crews from Marion were at the former Lincoln School property on Tuesday — a property originally targeted by city officials — in which the property owner absorbed the costs for the demolition of the structures.
"We had been in contact with the owner (Trecie Loyd) since July asking her to clean up the property. We originally gave her until the end of December and we were preparing to file a complaint to clean it up ourselves," explained Chris Flener, the city's zoning administrator. "Over the past week or so, we noticed more activity and all of a sudden earlier this week buildings started coming down. We're pretty excited about that."
Construction crews were also in the process of tearing down an old house in the 400 block of West Church Street on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Terra Pro Excavating was the lowest bidder for excavation of that property.
"They have some large equipment and they were concerned about some of the weather we had with all the extra rain so that's what delayed them in doing it. They finally got up here this week. The back third of the house was taken down Tuesday and they probably had most of the rest of the house down Wednesday. They expect to be done by the end of this week," Flener said.
Flener said the city's next projects include houses at 108 N. Stotlar St. and 403 Huddleston St.
"Our goal is to take down two per month. It obviously helps whenever residents step up and take care of the properties themselves like they did at Lincoln School," Flener said. "We also look to turn to neighbors to see if they are interested in the property. If I can work out a deal where the neighbor buys the property and they take care of the house themselves, that's great."
Flener said one example of how this benefits the city is that a neighbor became interested in property in the 500 block of Stuyvesant, the location of an old burned out house.
"I've got their demolition permit. They're going to tear the house down and put a new house or mobile home in its place. It's going to turn into a nice property …. it will fit into that neighborhood really well."
He added, "Any time a property owner takes down a house for us, that's a huge benefit for the city because we don't have to expend any costs, we don't have to spend time and resources, etc., and we still get the beautification aspect."