The town of Wadesboro is working to make the town more appealing to the eye, and councilmen unanimously approved a new process of house demolition.
David Edwards, town manager, has compiled a list of 50-75 abandoned properties that are “clearly a abandoned, clearly a nuisance, clearly a safety hazard, and have the probability of being attractive for nefarious activities.”
Those properties are scheduled to be demolished over time.
“The way that we deal with it now is one at a time,” Edwards said. “We find the house through observation or a neighbor’s request; and we go through the entire process from start to finish, and we move on to the next house.”
Edwards said that the town will focus on seven houses to start the process of completing the list.
“We’ll do it all at one time,” Edwards said.
According to Edwards, seven houses would all get inspected, and the town would call one company to come and give the seven reports; followed by one company that will eventually come to demolish all seven properties.
“Instead of calling them every time and having that cost be handled individually, I’m hoping we can get a little efficiency out of our money,” he said.
Edwards gave the councilmen a packet that included the first seven houses; three on Sikes Avanue, three on Maple, and one on Grant.
“If and when these houses are through their proper notification procedures, and selected to be condemned by building inspectors, three of the houses would be a part of a fire safety class,” Edwards said.
Fire Chief Scott Martin is hoping to get a class started for the fall, and the houses would be used for teaching purposes.
“They will be burned, which is a completely acceptable means of demolition,” Edwards added.
For the past few months, the town has also been reaching out to businesses to keep their property clear of anything that is against zoning ordinances. This includes tires, trash and cars.