MT. VERNON - Demolishing dilapidated structures is becoming a priority with the City Council as it works on budgeting costs for demolition into the 2012-13 budget.
"We have 30 to 50 properties in the pipeline at this point," City Manager Ron Neibert said. "We'll be carrying over some demolitions scheduled from this fiscal year into next year."
During a budget session on Monday, councilmen David Wood and Dennis McEnaney both expressed a wish to revisit the amount budgeted for demolitions, stating all council members had been receiving calls about wanting to clean up neighborhoods.
The council budgeted $118,000 this fiscal year for demolition of dangerous and dilapidated structures, and $50,000 of the funds will be carried over into the next fiscal year, which begins on May 1. For the previous year, $100,000 was budgeted, going up from $50,000 in the year before that. At this time, $120,000 is being budgeted for demolition in the 2012-13 budget, for a total of $170,000 with the carry-over from this year.
Council members decided to keep the $120,000 in the budget at this time for demolition, however, monies from capital improvements may be used to increase the demolitions to alleviate the back log of properties - a decision that won't be made until the capital projects budget for the next fiscal year is presented for review.
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