Kudos to Lorain for commitment to cleaning up nuisance properties | Editorial

The city of Lorain has shown the past year it is serious about cleaning up abandoned lots and dilapidated properties, and residents should commend City Hall for keeping its promise.

In October, the city hired Euclid’s ANT Professional Services to help beautify some areas one building at a time.

After a successful round of trash pickups, the city went back to the well this month calling on ANT to continue its citywide cleanup efforts.

On Dec. 18, Maggie Haas, operations manager for ANT, along with city housing inspectors Juan Cortez-Ruiz and John Berrios, started their second round of efforts.

This time, they descended on a property in the 500 block of West 18th Street.

City officials generated a list of several locations in need of cleaning, but the West 18th Street required immediate attention.

The company, with a four-person crew, collected all of the debris that was dumped at the abandoned lot.

During the first round of cleanups, crews from ANT collected and disposed of over 300 tires that were abandoned.

Also, the company gathered an astounding eight tons of garbage off the ground and hauled it to a dump.

But, there’s another issue when it comes to cleaning up properties.

This involved crews tidying up occupied homes where owners and tenants have excessive trash and debris in their yards.

Berrios pointed out that the homeowners or occupants have been notified and received plenty of prior warnings by the city to clean up their properties.

But, as one would guess, some don’t.

Oftentimes, the initial warnings are sent out a month in advance.

If lot owners do not heed the warnings, lots are cleaned and the property will have a lien as part of its annual property taxes.

In fact, the city has a “clean and lien” program built into its ordinances.

For occupied property, Berrios noted the city is understanding if the owners are elderly or do not have the finances to get everything cleaned up.

While the city inspectors are willing to work with the homeowners, there are some properties that are too far gone to fix.

In those cases, the city razes the buildings to eliminate nuisance properties, which can breed criminal activity.

During 2023, Lorain has authorized the tearing down of several nuisance houses.

On Sept. 11, a crew from All American Demolition shredded the dwelling at 783 W. Sixth St., a stone’s throw away from the Lorain Public Library System Main Branch Library, 351 W. Sixth St.

Jennifer Black, director of marketing and public communications for the Lorain Public Library System, recalled that for many years, the house was known around the library as the “cat house” because of the number of felines sheltered by the previous owner of the home.

After the pipes burst last winter during an ice storm, the house fell into such disrepair the owners moved out and sold the house to the library.

On July 21, the city continued its ongoing series of demolitions and razed the abandoned building at 1039 Streator Place.

Don Buchs, owner of All American Demolition, handled the duties of tearing down the dilapidated dwelling, which only took 15 minutes.

It was in such bad shape that even Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley called it an eyesore.

The house presented a danger to children attending Lorain County Community Action Agency Head Start at Hopkins-Locke, 1050 Reid Ave.

And for people who think the city is not moving fast enough to demolish blighted houses, Bradley wants to assure them his administration is tearing them down and improving Lorain.

On April 5, the city authorized the demolition of the former Lorain Products building on F Street.

However, before demolition could start, crews had to drain the entire basement of the building because it contained over 1 million gallons of water from years of flooding.

And on Feb. 15, Jon Veard, president of United Property Management, authorized the razing of the century-old building on the northwest corner of Denver Avenue and East 28th Street in South Lorain.

The structure that was torn down was next door to Mariotti Printing, 513 E. 28th St., which Veard owns.

The demolition was necessary for the city’s revitalization plans, and Veard just wanted to clean up the neighborhood as well as that block.

So, the city and Veard deserve credit for their efforts in getting rid of the properties that possibly could hinder redevelopment or a spirit of caring to neighborhoods.

The city is doing a pretty good job of cleaning up the worst properties.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more work to be done.