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City Eyes Plan To Deal With Condemned Properties

Pictured are members of the Jamestown City Council Housing Committee and Crystal Surdyk, city director of development. P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

The number of condemned properties in the city was discussed during a 2021 yearly recap presented at Monday’s meeting of the city Housing Committee.

Crystal Surdyk, city director of development, said the city saw a large number of “condemnations.” She provided the committee with a current list of condemned properties; the list wasn’t made available to the public due to the private information included in the documents.

“It’s really a lot,” she said of the properties, “more so than we’ve had since I started.”

Regina Brackman, Ward 3 councilwoman, asked if all the condemned properties were vacant. Surdyk replied that most were vacant. However, in some instances, there are multiple unit buildings where one unit is condemned, but the others are not.

“In most cases, it’s usually a vacant property that has become vacant because of the condemnation,” she said.

Surdyk added that once the new code enforcement officers finish their training, she hopes to develop a plan to deal with the condemned properties.

“We’ve been talking about some different ordinances, and vacant property ordinances are one of those,” she said. “Along with this and getting a really good handle on the number of condemnations and the reasons for condemnations, (we’re) just trying to develop some more tools to address it. Our goal is not to condemn — it’s to take those signs down.”

Two of the new code enforcement officers are slated to finish training by March of this year, while the third has already completed the training.

In other news, the city reported that five properties required emergency demolitions in 2021. Those properties included:

¯ 255 Blackstone Avenue

¯ 300 Cresent Street

¯ 112 Tiffany Street

¯ 718 Cherry Street

¯ 116.5 William Street

The city is currently in the process of completing or has completed demolitions at the following addresses:

¯ 42 West 9th Street

¯ 343 Fairmount Ave.

¯ 19 Foote Avenue

¯ 94 Liberty Street

¯ 68 Linwood Ave.

¯ 617 Prendergast Ave

¯ 851 Spring Street

¯ 857 Spring Street

¯ 37 W. 13th Street

¯ 563 E. Second Street

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