By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Tuesday was a beautiful spring day with a bluebird sky and the landscape on West Mansfield Street in Bucyrus was being improved even more – by wrecking crews.
Two condemned houses were in the process of being razed, although one in a much quicker and more decisive manner. The destruction brought a smile to a neighbor who asked not to be identified.
“I think it’s a good deal. I mean this is a blight on the neighborhood,” the woman said. “It is a shame though. These were some of the nicer older homes, but they’re falling down.”
They were certainly coming down on Tuesday morning. A two-man crew from Park Enterprise was busy with heavy equipment tearing through the roof and walls at 241 West Mansfield St. A pair of matching leaded windows were at least saved from the house owned by Patrick Kinley of Upper Sandusky.
“He (Kinley) was ordered to tear down the house. It was condemned a couple of years,” said John Rostash, zoning administrator for Bucyrus.
Rostash said the house was condemned because the foundation and the front porch were collapsing. Rostash said although the house had two addresses, he believed it had been converted into as many as three or four apartments.
Rostash said once the lot at the southeast corner of West Mansfield and Spring streets is vacant, another structure could go up in its place.
“Theoretically he (Kinley) could,” Rostash said. “It’s still a buildable lot.”
Across the street, the demolition of a smaller home in the 200 block of West Mansfield Street was ongoing. The owner, Ed Gingery of Brokensword, was tearing the house down himself after the city had it condemned and obtained a court order to immediately tear it down.
“Right now these homes are a liability. They are not an asset to the property owner,” Rostash said. “Getting them down opens up the property for new development.”
Rostash said the house owned by Gingery had been divided into a duplex, but had four gas meters at the time it was condemned. He said the owner could rebuild again on that site, but because of the lot size would likely need some zoning variances to do so.