As the latest in the city of Lorain’s ongoing series of demolitions, the abandoned building at 1039 Streator Place was demolished July 21.
Don Buchs, owner of All American Demolition, handled the duties of razing the dilapidated dwelling.
The demolition project was relatively easy, Buchs said, and the entire house was down in about 15 minutes.
The house was an eyesore, Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said.
More than that, Bradley said the house presented a danger to local children attending Lorain County Community Action Agency Head Start at Hopkins-Locke, 1050 Reid Ave.
“It abuts the Head Start program, and it also is across the street from our Lorain Historical Society,” he said. “I think it’s important to try to improve these areas in the city.
“I know many people think that we’re not moving fast enough, but we’re trying to tear down as many houses as we can that are blighted.”
Matt Kusznir, director of the city’s Department of Building, Housing and Planning Department, said the property was in bad condition.
“This is just a residential home that fell into disrepair,” Kusznir said. “(It’s) behind a lot of back taxes, and just negligent property owners, so we’re going to take care of it.
“We followed the local ordinance to condemn the building, and to go through the process to make sure we do it legally.”
According to Kusznir, this particular demolition made its way through the city’s systems for quite some time.
The housing department made a list of the “worst of the worst” abandoned properties in Lorain, and 1039 Streator Place was near the top of that list, he said.
“We had funding provided by City Council earlier this year, and right after, we got that funding, we added this house to our demo list,” Kusznir said. “Now, we’re moving forward.”
Chief building official Dave Faciana said the city’s demo list has a total of about 30 more properties scheduled to come down this year.
This was the final house on Streator Place that needed to come down, Faciana said.
“There’s going to be quite a bit of activity as far as demolition goes of blighted properties,” he said. “Being that it’s an eyesore, it’s by the (Lorain) Historical Society, and you have a school right here.
“It’s the last one on this block that needs to come down.”
The house’s owner still legally owns the land, and that all costs from here on will be assessed to the owner’s taxes, Faciana said.
As for future plans, there is hope to turn the plot into a playground for Head Start students, according to Kusznir.
“I think at least for this property, there’s actually an opportunity to really add these vacant lots to the school … to increase this footprint of services for citizens in Lorain,” he said. “Throughout the city, we’re doing a lot of slum and blight demos.”
As for now, simply having the old house out of the way will be a morale boost to this area of the city, Bradley said.
By getting rid of the house, property values around Streator Place are likely to rise, he said.
“We’re doing it one house at a time,” Bradley said. “I think we did four houses last week, two this week.
“It does take time, and it takes getting the funding.”
