SitemapWilie Joe Ford is glad to see the house that, until yesterday morning, had been located at 2717 Reel Ave., come down.
“It’s cleaning up the neighborhood. It’ll look better,” Ford, who lives with his aunt and uncle in the neighborhood, remarked. “It won’t have all those rats and rodents and dogs.”
The abandoned house, at the edge of the city’s Idora neighborhood, was demolished Monday morning through a collaboration led by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. Demolition services were donated by Wolford’s Rolloff Inc. in McDonald and Republic Waste Services of Ohio.
“We’ve been working with residents and community members to get this property addressed for a number of years,” said Jack Daugherty, program coordinator with YNDC. “This was a serious problem-property in the neighborhood that residents have been complaining about and trying to get addressed for years. So we’re really happy to see it come down.”
The lot will be cleared, graded and seeded this year.
To prepare for the demolition, community volunteers from the neighborhood, Youngstown State University and Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church cleaned out the building and removed tires around and inside the house that had been thrown in through the windows, Daugherty said.
Monday’s demolition is the third that Wolford’s has donated over the past two years. At first YNDC had requested that the company donate a container that YNDC volunteers would load the demolished building into, said Paul Wolford, president and CEO. Wolford decided it would be cheaper to have his company demolish the building and load the debris into a container than to tie up a container at the site for several days.
Wolford’s Rolloff works with the city frequently and supports YNDC’s efforts, Wolford said. “We’re trying to help them take down more houses,” he said.
“It’s worked out fine,” he added. “We do demolitions all the time that are paid for.” YNDC is “very flexible” so Wolford’s is able to come from paid sites to unpaid ones for demolitions, he said.
“We think it’s always important to try to upgrade and enhance neighborhoods for the good of the community,” remarked Mike Heher, division manager for Republic Waste Services’ Carbon Limestone Landfill in Poland Township. “We’re glad to help out and let their money stretch so they can do more.” The donation is Republic Waste's second one for YNDC this year, he said.
“A lot of progress has been made in this part of the city, particularly along the Glenwood Avenue corridor, Daugherty commented. Demolishing problems properties like these is the “first step to getting the neighborhoods on track,” he said.
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