BROOKE AND HANCOCK COUNTIES ADDRESSING ABANDONED AND DILAPIDATED HOUSING: The City of New Cumberland may soon have a new weapon in its ongoing battle with absentee property owners over their derelict buildings. The Hancock County seat was one of 12 communities chosen to participate in the West Virginia B.A.D. Buildings Summit in Huntington, a city known for its innovative approach to demolishing and rehabilitating unkempt properties. B.A.D. stands for brownfields, abandoned and dilapidated buildings. The conference is for municipalities that are seeking creative solutions to problems caused by abandoned and dilapidated structures. New Cumberland, selected in a statewide competitive process, will be part of a team made up of other Northern Panhandle communities, said Patrick Ford, executive director of the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle. The team attending the conference is expected to include New Cumberland Mayor Linda McNeil, Ford, BDC Assistant Director Marvin Six and Weirton Mayor George Kondik. Other potential attendees are Beech Bottom Mayor Rebecca Uhlly and Bethany Mayor Jay Eisenhauer. Its our hope, through attendance at this summit, that we find out ways to access funds to do the demolition and/or rehabilitation of the properties (identified as nuisances), she said. McNeil and other city officials have identified unkempt properties as one of the biggest impediments to economic development facing New Cumberland. In the past year, New Cumberland has reorganized its Building Enforcement Agency, razed two buildings, added a jail time penalty to its nuisance ordinance and gone after property owners who refuse to clean up vacant or unkempt buildings. The city has pursued property owners in both New Cumberland Municipal Court and Hancock County Circuit Court, asking for nuisance findings and the permission to raze condemned buildings.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 23:44:18 +0000
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