By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The City of Parsons unanimously voted to demolish three dilapidated properties within the city. Agnes Arnold, City Administrator presented bids from four companies for consideration at the meeting, with winning bids going to two West Virginia contractors.
“On May 31we had our bid openings on the three properties,” Arnold said. “I do appreciate having four companies bid for these.”
Arnold told the council that the city did not have enough grant money to demolish all three properties. “In order to do all three properties, we needed $130,640. So, this made us short about $20,640 to do all three properties.” According to Arnold, the initial grant from DEP was in the amount of $110,000 for the demolition and reclamation of dilapidated and abandoned properties. The money was issued through the WVDEP Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties (REAP).
Arnold said there was a discussion to figure out the best course of action considering the financial shortfall to complete all three properties with this round of grant funding. “We had another discussion to see what we were going to do because we were short monies. I mean we can’t do all three of them because of being short in the monies. We wanted to fill out what our greatest need was with the lowest bids and what we are going to get in return with the demos. So, we talked about it. We thought the Main Street one because it was low at $91,890 and then the other one at Pennsylvania Avenue was $18,950. Still put us a little bit over.”
Arnold recommended to the council that a contingency fund be added to the amount allocated for the project in case of any unforeseen costs during demolition. “What Shane had said would probably be best is to do some contingency because if something would happen, we need to have some kind of backup,” Arnold said. “Not knowing what can happen. So, we had to allot a little bit of that.”
Arnold presented the proposal from the series of talks to the council. “We proposed what I want to present to the council that we propose to the city council that you allocate $100,000 to the Main Street building,” Arnold said, “which is $91,890 to cover the bid and $8,110 for the contingency fee and $10,000 for the Pennsylvania Avenue building. However, the $10,000 allocation for the Pennsylvania Avenue will be contingent upon the obligation of matching funds from the property owner. If there are contingency monies remaining after the completion of the Main Street building, said funds would be used towards the Pennsylvania Avenue building and subtracted from property owner’s match obligation.”
Arnold explained to the council what she learned from talking with DEP who funded the grant concerning the expectations for the grant spending. “That would just be those two,” Arnold said. “When we talked to DEP, what they were saying, you wanted to go with as much that’s going to start giving you future revenue back. And the next phase of monies handing out, you can do three homes or four, or whatever could be given.”
City Code Enforcement Officer Ricky Rosier was on hand during the meeting to help explain the program and his opinion on the properties slated for demolition. “They (DEP) want it to be where people are going to see so they can see that this pilot program is going to actually be where the public and the funding that they gave to these projects are being used where they can be seen,” Rosier said.
Councilman Timothy Auvil said he wanted to use demolition fund money to complete all three homes slated for the demolition. “I did a little rough math there – and you’re probably all thinking the same thing – we have $33,500 in the demo fund.”
Arnold brought up the issue of liens to the properties should city funds be utilized. “Then there is also putting liens on those properties that are going to take time to do those if you did that, if you put liens. I mean you can give it, if you’re wanting to put liens you’re going to have that cost, too.”
Rosier said he expects the next round of money will have a quick turnaround due to the way municipalities are utilizing the current pilot program funds. “The state’s allocated a pretty good bit of money for the next round and they are seeing the communities are utilizing it,” Rosier said. “So I think it is going to be extremely fast to be able to get the next amount of money for more projects then the ones we can complete.”
Auvil informed the council how the city could complete all three properties with existing money. “All I will say was if you take the three lowest bids, the 110,00 and 20,640 out of the demo fund, we still have 13,000 still in there.”
Council members Melissa Jones and James Humphrey said they were not aware the city would be placing liens on the properties. “We wouldn’t,” Arnold said. “If you give that money and you request liens that’s again delays. That’s where we are up against the timeline.”
Rosier said the deadline for the existing grant is September 30 “We have to have our money spent by September 30 or we lose it,” Rosier said. “We can maybe request for some extensions, but its coming at the end of the whole program and we want to be able to jump back in again and say, ‘Hey, we completed our projects, we used our funding, can we get some more and what houses or projects we can do again.’”
Councilman Timothy Turner said he was a proponent of issuing liens should city funds be used in the demolition projects. “We can’t start putting city money into this because if we put city money in this, then the next people come along and say, ‘We want city money because you gave city money the first time.’ That’s why I said that if we use city money, we have to put a lien on the property in order to recoup our money.”
“And you may never recoup the money,” Arnold said, “even putting liens…It could really still be years and that’s why I didn’t know if we wanted, you know we have that said about of money.”
Rosier said that currently the property owners are allowing access to the properties, but voiced concerns over the issue of potential liens affecting that access. “When you put a lien on the property, how does this lien work?” Rosier said. “Right now, the property owners are giving us voluntary access to the property and they get the property and everything back free, square, nothing against it. If it’s something they’re not going to be able to – it has to be theirs or they may not – and I’m just thinking – they may not be willing to voluntarily give us the property and we don’t have enough time to.”
Humphrey said, “If we try to put liens on everybody’s property that’s going to drag this out.”
Jones said she wanted to see the house on Spruce St. demolished due to continuing problems with the property. “We’re also talking about a house that should be completely condemned because its unfixable from a fire. We’ve had drug problems in that area and people moving in and out of there without any utilities in there and they’re selling by one of the major churches in town.”
Rosier clarified the reasoning behind the suggestion to demolish the Pennsylvania Ave property first. “The reason I’ve suggested the Pennsylvania Ave property is it’s the first thing you see when you come into Parsons and you see it from our parks. The Spruce St. one is top on our list as soon as the funding – we are going to get more funding if we utilize our funding correctly.”
Auvil said he thought it would look better on the application for the next round of grant money if they spent city money along with the grant to demolish all the properties on the list. “If utilize the money we allocated in the demo fund for that purpose and that is how we did the other demolitions that we’ve done. That will look even better on an application. What I’ll say and I think we are overthinking the thing because there is enough money there in the demo fund and in the grant to do all three and still have 13,000 leftover. And there is a couple of line items on here…that could be allocated to additional contingency…I just think we should do all three. We have the money in the bank.”
“There’s no good reason why we can’t do all three,” Acting Mayor Bruce Kolsun said.
The city council decided to move forward without placing liens on the properties. Reclaim Company, LLC out of Fairmont won the bids on two of the three properties: 170 Spruce St and 110 Penn Ave. Smokey Joe Enterprises, LLC of Beverly won the bid on the property at 193Main St. There is no timeline for the demolitions as of yet, but approval from the state is expected soon, according to Rosier.