By James Massara
With multiple city officials and residents present, Bucyrus City Law Director Rob Ratliff announced two new properties were acquired by the Crawford County Land Bank.
Two side-by-side houses in the 900 block of Rogers Street were signed over to the land bank to be demolished in the next year.
Land Bank Project Director Cory Estes said he hopes to have the project completed by April or May. He said a number of steps go into the demolition, including receiving bids for contracts, testing the houses for asbestos and clearing it out and then finally the demolition and removal of the house materials.
Estes said everything all the way down into the basement gets removed from the structures. He added the lumber, stone and brick are all removed and disposed of at various locations. The sewer line is then sealed off before dirt is brought in to fill the hole. The land is then leveled and seeded with grass.
Though previous land bank projects saw all trees removed from the properties, Estes has since learned not all trees must be removed and plans to leave ones he can in place.
Estes assured a concerned resident of the neighborhood that the crews on the project fully restore any damage caused on neighboring properties as well.
Ratliff said the demolition of the houses was a long-time coming.
“I wasn’t city law director for more that 24 hours before someone asked me what I was going to do about the two houses on Rogers Street,” Ratliff said. “This is something many local residents have wanted for a long time.”
Ratliff said he apologized it took so long to accomplish, but the homeowner, who did not live at either property, was not willing to work with local officials. He added the houses’ owner, Randolph Strauch, was served with a civil complaint for demolition and still has a statewide warrant for a criminal case for property maintenance violations.
Strauch signed over the properties to comply with the civil complaint.
Bucyrus City Council President Sis Love shared her joy with the step toward the demolition.
“I live here too, in this neighborhood,” Love said. “It’s a shame what happended to the properties, but I’m happy that it is getting cleaned up.”
The futures of properties involved with the land bank are handled on a case-by-case basis and it is unclear what the land plots will be once grass is grown on the properties.
The land bank has properties set for demolition in Tiro, Galion, Crestline and Bucyrus.