×

County gets $1.6M more for land bank

LISBON–Columbiana County’s land bank program will receive an additional $1.6 million in federal funding to acquire and demolish another 100 abandoned and dilapidated homes in East Liverpool, Salem and Wellsville.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced Wednesday the county was being awarded $1.6 million in demolition money under the federal Neighborhood Initiative Program, which is in addition to the $1.6 million in NIP grant funding already received over the past two years.

County Development Director Tad Herold, who oversees the land bank program, would like to believe the additional funding is an indication of the state’s faith in their ability to achieve results in a timely manner based on how the initial $1.6 million has been spent.

“I’d like to to think so.” Herold said. “Two years ago we were competing for $500,000, and now we’re going to have $3.2 million. That’s more than I could have ever imagined” when the land bank program was first created by county commissioners in 2014.

Commissioner Mike Halleck believes the state also looked favorably on the county’s application for additional NIP funding because of their decision to start using a share of delinquent property tax collections (DTAC) to help fund the land bank program. “I think it helped tremendously that we did that,” he said.

Like the initial $1.6 million in NIP funding, the additional $1.6 million can only be spent in the targeted communities of East Liverpool, Salem and Wellsville. One hundred homes are to be razed in those communities with the initial $1.6 million, and Herold hopes they can do the same with the extra funding.

To date, 34 homes have been demolished in the three communities and the rest of the money has to be spent by Dec. 31, 2017. Herold believes the deadline for expenditure of the additional $1.6 million will be Dec. 31, 2019.

“What is clear is they are rewarding land banks that are making progress on meeting their land bank goals,” he said.

Halleck would like to start demolishing homes in other communities that have needs. “My personal opinion is I would like to expand that. We’ve done a lot to help (East Liverpool, Salem and Wellsville) and we will continue to do so, but we’d like to begin helping some of the other communities.”

Herold said the latest influx of money has to be spent on the targeted communities. “If the need begins to dry up in our target area, we can modify the target areas. I just don’t know if they (state) would allow that,” he said.

The new DTAC fund created by commissioners is expected to generate $50,000 to $100,000 a year the land bank can use to demolish homes outside the target area, Herold added.

tgiambroni@mojonews.com

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today