Demolition progress has been made in the city, with all of the current ones on the list on track for completion by the end of the year. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Demolitions continue to be a big focus for the city, and City Development Director Crystal Surdyk has reported to the City Council’s Housing Committee that current planned ARPA-funded demolitions are on track to be completed by the end of the year.

At Monday’s meeting, Surdyk provided the committee with an updated demolitions list that included 28 demolitions already completed through the Chautauqua County Landbank and 29 emergency demolitions. This includes the building at 612 Prendergast Avenue that had a fire.

“Just as a reminder, this is done in partnership with the Land Bank,” Surdyk said. “They are administering American Rescue Plan funds, so a lot of these that have been completed were done with American Rescue Plan funds, the majority.”

With ARPA money running out at the end of the year, Surdyk said the focus has been on getting those specific demolitions done first. ARPA funds were also used to leverage some additional state funding, and demolitions were also funded through the Land Bank Initiative, which was done through the state.

“So those are also slated for demolition and are at various stages of the project,” Surdyk said. “Every single one is in process in some phase of the process. So, when this list is complete … there will be a total of 48 demolitions from this list that will have been completed. By the end of this year we should have all of them done, if not more like fall ish.”

A few are set to come down by the end of the month, including some on Willard Street and Fulton Street. A few more have been awarded their demolition contracts, and Surdyk noted that contractors are squeezing the demolitions in when possible, as contractors also do paving work. Two new contractors recently received their demolition permits and will be able to get started in the future.

One other emergency demolition was done on 19 W. Seventh St., due to structural concerns.

“Structural concerns are common, but the nature of the structural concerns were so severe; it didn’t suffer a fire, it was just really dangerous,” Surdyk said. “We determined that it needed to be taken down immediately.”

A few other required precautions are also taking place for that demolition, including requiring it to sit with a covering to contain any potential airborne asbestos. Four other demolitions not on the list are in the demolition process on Howard, Willard, Hallock and Caitlin. It was noted that a big dent has been made on Fulton Street in regards to demolitions as well. At one point in time Surdyk said there was one owner who owned several of the Fulton Street properties and was a significant contributor to the neglect the properties suffered over the years.

A demolition order was received in court recently for Lakeview Avenue, and one on Charles Street is set to come down soon as well.

“There’s a lot that goes into demolitions,” Surdyk said. “I know it can be frustrating. It’s an average of four months per demolition, but oftentimes it takes several months longer than that given the small pool of contractors that we have and the small pool that is actually eligible to do the asbestos part of the work.”

Surdyk said they are trying to get more contractors trained to increase the pool, but that can be an expensive process. The average cost of a demolition has also increased. A question was raised about insurance, and Surdyk said by the time these properties get to this point most of the time they are not insurable, and funding often comes from CDBG for emergency demolitions. It was noted that great progress has been made on demolitions in the city, and that the speed of them does not necessarily matter as long as they are happening.

“As we hear often, it doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like it to, for all kinds of reasons,” Surdyk said. “But, there is good progress being made, and we will just keep at it.”