T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Bellaire Police Chief Dick Flanagan, left, speaks Tuesday to Kathy Kelich, Belmont County treasurer and chairwoman of the land bank, about ongoing work to acquire properties in his community and demolish dilapidated buildings.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Land Reutilization Corp. is pursuing its mission of acquiring properties and taking down dilapidated buildings in 2023.

During a Tuesday meeting of the land bank board, Richland Township Trustee Rick Fererll, a board member, said they are making progress thanks to an influx of state dollars.

“With the funding we got from the state, we got $500,000 to take down dilapidated properties and we continue to work in that process. Winter provides us with some difficulties due to getting access to those properties,” he said, adding that the properties are often uninhabited and foreclosed on. “They’re great improvements. These properties are the worst of the worst around. … Every property that we get involved in is certainly a benefit to the community. No one wants to take ownership of these properties until these eyesores are removed.”

Treasurer Kathy Kelich, who also serves as chairwoman of the land bank, said there is no shortage of eligible candidates for demolition.

“We don’t know about more funding at this point. We are hopeful that they’ll add it onto the budget again for the half million, or even anything at this point we’ll take. However, for this year we are going to finish using all the funding we received from the state and demo the houses that we have on task,” she said.

Kelich said this would hopefully be completed by May.

“Then we’ll be looking at a new slate of houses to demo,” she said.

She said bids have so far been approved for a property on Jefferson Street in Martins Ferry, two on Barton-Colerain Road in the Barton area and one on Adolph Street in Bridgeport.

“We still have six more to go, but we can only do so much. We have six houses that need asbestos abatement, so before we can proceed to demolition or even a demolition contract bid, we have to have those abated. But everyone is so backlogged from every county. … We’re getting jammed up on time,” she said. “Especially with the asbestos evaluations and the asbestos abatements.”

She could not determine exactly what the land bank has to work with at the moment.

“They reimburse us as we go along,” she said. “We haven’t been reimbursed on some of our previous demolitions. … We still have a lot of money that’s still out, probably about $365,000, but some of that’s already been submitted for reimbursement.”

Bellaire Police Chief Dick Flanagan said he was working with the land bank on several projects and looks forward to tearing down more structures.

“We got one torn down on Franklin Street. Next week we’re going to start on another one in Franklin Street, and anytime before long we’re going to tear down three more,” he said.

The land bank meets at 9 a.m. the second Tuesday of the month at the county courthouse, 101 W. Main St., St. Clairsville.