By Kara Linaburg
Shinnston City Council is working on plans to demolish dilapidated properties, potentially take over a water system, and make a temporary change to a parking lot closed when it was determined city officials hadn’t abided by Division of Highways guidelines.
discussed the possibility of making the project for the demolition
of dilapidated properties a county-wide project that reaches
beyond Shinnston. Photo by Kara Linaburg.
During the March 13 City Council meeting, Mayor Rodney Strait reported attending a county commissioners meeting, along with some of the mayors and city managers from the surrounding area, including Lumberport, Clarksburg, Bridgeport, Lost Creek, and Salem. “Mainly everyone was given the chance to tell what was going on with their towns and cities; what issues they had, what projects…,” he said.
Among one of the discussion topics was the demolition of dilapidated properties. “We talked about seeing if we could get together with other cities and put out a bid for demolition of buildings. Instead of doing them one, two or three at a time, we can get several of them torn down.” Strait went on to say that if this idea comes to fruition, it would be a county-wide project.
Also on the topic of dilapidated properties, City Manager, Chad Edwards confirmed that with the $112,000 set aside for the project, the City plans to submit more than one property at a time to demolish. When asked by the Council who would do the demolishing, Edwards said, “We’re not just bidding out one house, we’re going to bid them all… that way we can get a better deal.” There are a total of 11 properties on the list to be demolished this year.
The Council requested from Edwards a list of the addresses of said properties to ensure the money is used where it is needed, and the project will be discussed in an upcoming work session.
Strait also shared updates on the potential take-over of the Hutchinson water system and a meeting he’d had with Hutchinson concerning their system. “In the end we are going to go for six months, and we are going to collect the money, read their meters, and pay their bills. They are going to maintain the system; they are going to do their own testing… and (for) additional help they are going to call us… and they are going to have to have a whole new board since all their members quit… They are going to make the proper motions for all of this to happen.”
Edwards stated that the work on the app for citizens to keep track of water usage, their water bills, etc, is still in the trial period. “We should be releasing that the beginning of April,” Edwards said.
The audit that was scheduled to take place this month of Shinnston finances has been canceled due to an oversight of the state auditor. The auditor mentioned returning to complete the audit if possible, and Edwards is confident they will get the results on Shinnston’s last two years shortly.
Edwards also reported updates on the closed parking lot along Main Street. “We looked at it… and it looks like, and I hate to use the word temporary, but what we’re going to do is… .. We will have to push the parking in a little bit, maybe three feet. And once we do that, we’re out of the right-of-way. The parking lines will end where the sidewalk is supposed to be… and you’ll back out into the road. If the DOH approves of it, we’re doing it,” Edwards said. He said he planned to have the project in progress as quickly as possible.
The city had not yet received the clearance from the DOH. Until then, Edwards said he wishes to get the parking lot opened up for businesses as soon as possible.
