The remaining $106 million in demolition and $262 million for brownfields will be disbursed “first come, first served.”
“We will be very proactive and very aggressive in looking for that kind of funding to be used here in Middletown, for clean-up, remediation and demolition to the extent it can be used on some of these old blighted, abandoned vacated sorts of properties,” Middletown City Manager Jim Palenick told the Journal-News. “So whether that’s us working with the land bank or directly with the state or whatever it takes I guarantee you we’ll be at the front of that line.”
The state tried to pass similar legislation a few years ago that targeted commercial demolition that failed. At that time Tom Vanderhorst, Hamilton’s executive director for external services, said he was hoping the funding came through, because the city had numerous blighted commercial structures but the county’s funding to that point had only been for residential.
The new funding can be used for residential or commercial and industrial but Vanderhorst told the Journal-News the private sector has been doing a good job in that regard.
“Believe it or not yeah,” Vanderhorst said about private companies repurposing old buildings. “It’s different than it used to be because there is so much momentum in Hamilton, we’ve seen that with people being engaged here. And the other part is with COVID and the way housing prices have gone up, it makes sense to sort of start looking at repurposing some of the existing building stock. It’s sort of an unintended consequence, who would have ever thought that was going to happen.”
Spooky Nook is a prime example of the city’s rebirth, the former Champion Paper Mill is being transformed into a massive sports and convention complex along the Great Miami River in Hamilton.
He said they are not eschewing the new money by any means, the brownfield remediation dollars can be put to use because that is the expensive part of handling blight, that has been plentiful in the county’s two largest cities. They still have residential properties that need downing, too.
“We could potentially need funding to address residential properties and for brownfield development,” Vandehorst said. “Because we have a couple of exciting redevelopment opportunities such as the Cohen Scrap facility, Mohawk Paper and the Benninghofen Mill, that could potentially have environmental needs where the brownfield monies would make the projects more feasible.”
The county has spent about $7.4 million in state and federal money tearing down approximately 750 eyesores since 2012. Those demolitions have been almost entirely in the two big cities and grant restrictions excluded commercial demolition.
During a Land Bank board meeting this week County Treasurer Nancy Nix, who chairs the land bank, asked Middletown Councilman Joe Mulligan if the city is potentially eyeing the new money to demolish the Middletown Paperboard complex or if they have identified other funding sources. She said they are looking to spend the first allocation quickly so they can get in line to compete for the larger pot of money.
“We have some other requests to the county commissioners, but if you need any projects to quickly spend that $1.5 million we could take it all,” Mulligan said.
The land bank board has about $950,000 in unencumbered funds — from delinquent tax assessment collections funds (DTAC) — to help communities across the county demolish eyesores, in addition to the new money.
Fairfield Twp. has received some of the federal money in the past and Township Administrator Julie Vonderhaar said they are ready for more funding.
“We have identified about five properties in the Five Points area that currently meet criteria to qualify. We are continuing to look,” Vonderhaar said. “The program has been highly successful for the township.”
Several jurisdictions — Fairfield, Oxford, Trenton and Liberty, Hanover, Ross and West Chester townships told the Journal-News they don’t have any properties ripe for razing at the moment but will certainly keep an eye out for future opportunities.
“Personally I do not see anything we can qualify for at this point ...” Liberty Twp. Trustee Board President Tom Farrell said. “At this point I see nothing which isn’t a bad thing, but it is something we have to continue to look at, we have to keep our eyes wide open at all times, we can’t operate with blinders on.”
Kathy Dudley, who ran the day-to-day for the land bank until the commissioners eliminated the position last year, was rehired part-time by Nix in March. She and newly named Executive Director Seth Geisler have been reaching out to all of the jurisdictions. They have also developed some new policies and parameters for the board to consider in awarding project cash from the new funding.
Under the previous programs Hamilton and Middletown handled demolitions themselves and were reimbursed through the land bank. The board members acknowledged there are many smaller jurisdictions that don’t have staff to handle a demolition program, so Dudley and Geisler will be more involved in the actual projects.
About the Author
