T-L Photo/J.D. Long Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies was contracted to tear down the old Cravat Coal building in Bridgeport after it burned recently, but he said there are other structures in neighboring Martins Ferry that could be targets for razing as well.

BRIDGEPORT — Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies has been a busy man sitting inside the cab of his backhoe.

Contracted to tear down the old Cravat Coal building that stood just above Wilson Furniture along U.S. 250, he spent a good part of the week doing just that. Under the name of his business, Trucks ‘N Tracs, Davies by Friday had largely taken the building down for Jason Wilson of Wilson Furniture. Wilson, who purchased the blighted building and land before the structure caught fire and was destroyed a few weeks ago, will use the property for extra parking space for his businesses. He also has a U-Haul business at the Bridgeport site.

“We’re improving the property and expanding,” Wilson said. “It gives us more room to accommodate our customers.”

He said a double-wide trailer had been occupying the space along U.S. 250 for the past 20-30 years and it was time to make this move.

As far as cleaning up Martins Ferry in the name of city business, Davies said there are about three more buildings he has his eye on after knocking down a house back in August and another one more recently. One possibility for financial help to support the efforts could come in the form of grant programs to help clean up blighted or hazardous properties.

The “Brownfield Remediation Program” is aimed at any site that is intended to be repurposed but is contaminated, hazardous or contains pollutants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About $350 million is available with $1 million being set aside “per county” until June 30. Davies said he doesn’t know of any Brownfield properties in Martins Ferry, but a second program could apply to the sites he hopes to target. That is the Demolition and Site Revitalization grant.

This program “provides grants for the demolition of commercial and residential buildings and the revitalization of surrounding properties,” the EPA states. Close to $150 million is available through this program, with $500,000 set aside per county until June 30. Both programs’ funds will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Davies said Martins Ferry Service Director Andy Sutak has been made aware of the programs’ existence. The villages of Scio and Cadiz in Harrison County recently discussed the programs briefly, and Bellaire officials are aware of the programs.

Cadiz Councilman Dan Ossman recently raised the issue of some properties that needed to be cleaned up, which led to Village Administrator Brandon Ludwig noting the grant programs recently signed into action by Gov. Mike DeWine. Ludwig said he would be looking into the issue. Village Solicitor Costa D. Mastros noted that Cadiz also doesn’t have many Brownfield sites, “but we have plenty of abandoned properties.”

“I reached out to Representative (Don) Jones (R-Freeport) about this also a few months ago when it came out. His people are working on finding out what we need to do,” Cadiz Mayor John Migliore said.

He told council he hoped those funds could be used to tear down the old post office, which sits at the end of South Main Street and is being bought by Cadiz Community Improvement Corp. for the village.