Letters listing neglected properties needed for grant application

HALEYVILLE - The City of Haleyville is striving to remove abandoned, burned and/or neglected buildings within the city limits, but residents’ help is needed for this to become a reality.
The City of Haleyville is preparing paperwork and documentation to apply for a Community Development Block Grant, which will be used to tear down abandoned, neglected and or burned buildings on both residential or commercial properties.
“The grant would pay for the demolition of the building on the property.  The homeowner would be responsible for the upkeep of that property from that point forward,”  Mayor Ken Sunseri said.

The documentation that must be gathered  to apply for the grant is extensive, and will require input from just about every department with the city.  According to building inspector Tim Robertson, who has been helping Sunseri prepare the paperwork for this grant application, the areas where the city would concentrate with the demolitions would be the more traveled areas of Highway 13, Highway 195 and 20th Street.
“Those are the most traveled areas,”  Robertson said.  “We would like to start there first.”
Overall, more than 50 properties in need of demolition have been identified at this point.
“We have identified numerous places throughout the city that have created a problem for the neighbors because they are not being cleaned up,”  Sunseri said.  “A lot of these properties are to the point now where they need to be demolished.”
As a component of the background information for the grant, the city needs residents to submit letters regarding properties within their neighborhoods that they believe needs to be considered for demolition.  
“If you feel there is a home in your area that is affecting your property value that is abandoned, burned  or neglected, we need you to write a letter to the city telling us the location of the property and the name of the owner, if you know it,”  Sunseri said.
These abandoned properties must be shown to be bringing the resident’s property value down or be posing a significant risk to a resident.  Only letters with valid requests will be included, Sunseri noted.
Letters need to be mailed to:
 
Haleyville City Hall
Attn:  Property issues
911 21st Street
Haleyville, AL. 35565

Letters can also be emailed to Acting City Clerk Christy Harbin at charbin@cityofhaleyville.com.
The deadline to submit letters - either mailed or emailed - will be Tuesday, March 31.
The issue regarding abandoned and/or neglected properties is not new for the city.  Sunseri has been working for quite some time to get some of these properties cleaned up.  But just as every property is unique, every situation that has led to an abandoned or neglected property is also unique, often leaving the city wading through tangled trails to determine true ownership of the property in question.
“We are probably sending out five letters per week to individuals trying to get them to clean up their property.  We have to give them time to do it.  Sometimes the property has changed hands,”  Sunseri said.  “Some of the people we send letters to start to do something, then they leave it.”
Legal issues often arise when it comes to these types of properties, as well.
“It creates havoc for us. We hit snags because of these issues,”  Sunseri said.
“The city does not have the right to go on private property,”  Sunseri stated.    
Sunseri said that CDBG grants are competitive, so there is no guarantee that the city will be awarded the grant.  However, the city is and will continue to do everything it can to clean these properties up.