Once upon a time (somewhere back in 2008) in a land far away (Washington D.C.) the fairy godparents (legislators) set a plan to save the country from all that was evil. This plan was called the Neighborhood Revitalization Act of 2008, All the details are available here if you wish to read up. From the guidelines given the city and county of Marion then formed Neighborhood Stabalization Program (NSP) to access, review and eventually demolish. The city and county of Marion were provided $1.1 million to complete this project.
A few months ago I posted a brief paragraph that I had received a list of the properties that were under review, that list has now grown to over 100 properties. From this original list there will be 24 properties presented this evening at 5:00pm. The NSP will be presenting these to the city’s board of building appeals to request funding from that allocated for the Neighborhood Revitalization Act.
If you believe a property in your neighborhood is , abandonment, unsecured or in an unmaintained state contact the mayor’s assistant, Janell O’Neil at 740-383-5816. Once a property is referred it will be presented to the NSP board at their monthly meeting for review.
*UPDATE* This morning’s Marion Star reports that 16 of the 24 properties the board was dealing with have received consent from the current owners to proceed with the project. These 16 just need approval from city council to be demolished 119-123 Blaine Ave., 1009 Bryant St., 131 Canby Court, 130-132 Canby Court, 136-138 Canby Court, 275 Cass Ave., 125 Cayuga St., 391 W. Columbia St., 257 Owens St., 161 N. Seffner Ave., 412-416 Silver St., 422 Silver St., 601 Wood St., 393 Fies Ave., 356 Monroe St. and 770 N. State St.. Of the eight remaining, five of the owners have made arrangements with building appeals to make improvements to their properties in order to avoid demolition.
