Highland County land bank board opens bids for Building Demolition and Site Revitalization properties

The Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) board held a lengthy bid opening for the demolition of nearly 40 properties across the county Thursday, July 18, as they continue to await the release of guidance on state funding.

As previously reported, the HCLRC submitted 41 properties for the state Building Demolition and Site Revitalization grant program and is seeking both the $500,000 set-aside and an additional $150,000 from the state, committing a $50,000 match for a total of $700,000. As of Thursday’s meeting, the state still has not yet released the funding for the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization program, nor for the Brownfield Remediation Grant program, for which the county has a $1 million set-aside.

Prior to the bid opening, the board approved a recommendation from land bank coordinator Jason Johansen to remove bid package No. 10 and to re-bid that set of structures.

The package contained four different parcels, including 114 North Main and 124 North Main Street in Lynchburg, which are being removed.

“They’ve torn down the adjacent building there,” Johansen said. “It's all in one of the same building. They have intertwining bricks on the outside. It would be very costly.

“We’re still going to look, further evaluate it, see what we can do, but there's many contractors that have called about that package, saying they're staying away from it, just with the adjacent building. The building on the other side of that adjacent building has already been torn down, so it's just going to be a downtown building sitting by itself.”

However, Johansen said that the other two properties in that package — 205 South Broadway and 213 South Broadway in Lynchburg — can be rebid.

“The contractors said they would bid on that,” Johansen said. “I think it would be good to move to completely discontinue that bid package 10 and then rebid those two other projects separately.”

After that motion, the next hour of the meeting entailed Johansen reading bids from 18 different contractors on each of the other 11 bid packages.

Contractors submitting bids on some or all of the parcels, in order of how they were opened, were Dirt Slingers Excavating, John Roberts Excavating, Custer Farms Excavating, Banks Construction & Excavating, KMB Demolition & Excavating, Clear-It Ohio, Evans Landscaping, Reed Mechanical Construction, Tong’s Total Site Services, Lamb Brothers Trucking & Excavating, Rippstein’s Excavating, Dilley’s Excavating & Demolition, Kiley Construction, P.E.W. Demolition, Shepherd Mechanical Services, Mound Waste & Demolition, B. Vance Excavating and JWM Excavating.

Properties in each bid package included:

• Bid Package 1: 454 E. Walnut St., 464 E. Walnut St. and 167 Trenton St., Hillsboro (bids ranged from $13,300 to $42,600).

• Bid Package 2: 314 Bigelow St., 727 S. High St. and two lots at 352 Johnson St. (Lot 6 and Lot 9), Hillsboro (bids ranged from $25,000 to $67,300).

• Bid Package 3: 264 E. Beech St., 226 E. South St., 625 S. High St. and 112 W. Collins Ave., Hillsboro (bids ranged from $32,145 to $82,100).

• Bid Package 4: 8531 U.S. 62 N, 8701 U.S. 62 N and 4216 South St., Hillsboro (bids ranged from $17,700 to $77,900).

• Bid Package 5: 8264 U.S. 50 E, 8293 U.S. 50 E and 8321 U.S. 50 E, Hillsboro (bids ranged from $15,845 to $66,800).

• Bid Package 6: 6938 Beechwood Rd., 7377 Beechwood Rd. and 5109 Washburn Rd., Hillsboro, and 19 N. Main St., Sinking Spring (bids ranged from $26,999 to $60,000).

• Bid Package 7: 222 McClain Ave. and 651 Jefferson St., Greenfield, and 2501 Wilson Rd., Leesburg (bids ranged from $27,999 to $58,854).

• Bid Package 8: 419 Market St., 421 Market St. and 11884 S.R. 771, Leesburg (bids ranged from $11,700 to $41,558).

• Bid Package 9: 2580 S.R. 134, Mount Orab (Buford) and 2850 U.S. 50 and 2871 Sharpsville Rd., Lynchburg (bids ranged from $23,600 to $56,044).

• Bid Package 11 (all hot demos): 5700 Dawson Rd. (two dwellings), Lynchburg, and 4506 Sharpsville Rd., Hillsboro (bids ranged from $31,300 to $50,396.40).

• Bid Package 12 (all hot demos): 937 N. High St., 644 N. West St. and 6950 Pence Rd., Hillsboro, and 13535 U.S. 50, Bainbridge (bids ranged from $54,051.60 to $120,585).
   
“We’ll put these all in a spreadsheet with some recommendations,” attorney Todd Book told the contractors present at the meeting. “We’re still waiting to get guidance from the state.”

In other discussion:

• The board voted 4-0 to authorize the HCLRC to become the receiver of 21 South Fairfield Street in Leesburg.

As explained by Leesburg Village Administrator Amy Palmer in June, the parcel “had two different dwellings inside the one residence,” with an estimated demolition cost of $12,850. The matter is currently in court.

“A hearing has been set for July 23,” Book said. “I recommend that we go ahead and say yeah, we're willing to step in and be the receiver and act in that capacity.”

Board member Lauren Walker asked if there were any “shared walls” or similar issues with that parcel. She also asked what the village’s intent is for the property.

“It’s not touching any other building,” Palmer said. “It would probably be an extension of the parking lot to the grocery store because the grocery store’s right next door.”

Book said he was “not ready” to recommend the HCLRC grant the village’s request for the land bank to assume possession of another parcel, this one at 125-1/2 West Main St.

“There's a few pending issues out there regarding the trailer on the property,” Book said. “We want to make sure that we're all on the same page as it relates to the legalities of that, and we're trying to arrange a phone call early next week about that situation.”

• Johansen provided updates on several properties, including one parcel soon to be officially in the land bank’s possession.

In May, the board voted to move forward with potentially accepting a donated parcel on Elmhurst Trail in Paint Township. The land is valued at $12,600, and over $17,000 in back taxes are owed on the property. Johansen said in May the parcel also includes a “single-wide mobile home” that he does not think “would be salvageable.”

According to Johansen, the property’s former owner has signed the deed over to the land bank.

“It just needs to be taken up to the auditor's office and recorded, and I think we're going to do that today,” Johansen said. “There is $4,367.96 that we will pay, technically to the Highland County treasurer, and that's for the grinder installation and then the upgrade in 2014.

“It’s almost in a cul-de-sac, so it's at the end of the road and a pretty nice little lot.”

A title search was completed on a second property, at 326-1/2 North East Street in Hillsboro, which revealed two liens, Johansen said.    

“We're going to work to get those expunged and taken off there and see if we can get that into our name,” Johansen said. “It's a very small parcel, .1003 acres.

“It's valued at $3,700. The taxes [$2,307.89] aren't too high on it. It does have a structure on it, but all you’ll really see is vegetation grown up all over. You can't really see the structure, but there is a structure in there that would be taken down.”

The third and final property, which contains two parcels, was 10635 North Shore Road in Paint Township, for which Book said the board may be able to accept as a donation in August. Back taxes owed are $29,211.58.

According to Johansen, the land bank would be responsible for paying $11,228 to the county for the sewer grinder.

“It is almost an acre of land, and it's only valued, even with the two parcels combined, at $7,100,” Johansen said. “I think it's way undervalued, personally, and definitely with the grinder on there.”

• The board approved a change order for a previously awarded asbestos abatement bid, which in June was granted to H&H Environmental in the amount of $8,350.

According to Johansen, one of the parcels in that bid — at 2580 SR 134 in Buford — needed to be updated because “in the survey, it claimed to have 600 feet of transite siding” that needed to be abated. Johansen said the contractor determined it was actually 1,400 square feet, raising the price for that parcel from $1,050 to $2,450.

Another with that parcel that Johansen said he is going to “look into it” is that the property has become overgrown and will need the removal of “vegetation off of the structure so that they can actually get to the transite siding.

“I think that would be a reimbursable cost by ODOD,” Johansen said.

However, that bid package had the previously mentioned two North Main Street parcels from Lynchburg in it, and Johansen said the contractor has been “told to hold off” on those properties.

“They said they would honor their price if we do move forward with the demolition and the abatement of that structure, or those two structures,” Johansen said. “They will honor their price for the next couple of months.”

• Book said that he was working on recommendations for deed restriction enforcement.

“We're looking at that as we gather more properties that are in those various communities,” Book said. “We'll probably need to have a further discussion within the next meeting or so about how we want to move forward in that regard.”

• The board approved the financial report as presented. Johansen reported an end balance of $403,779.73 for June 2024. The land bank received $59,073.45 in state reimbursements for work at the Rocky Fork Truck Stop property, which were paid to their contractor, Tetra Tech, while they are still awaiting several outstanding reimbursements.

Checks issued in the month of June included payments for asbestos surveys, mowing, rent, utilities, office supplies and financial and legal services, as well as another payment to Tetra Tech.

• The board authorized payments for a list of unpaid bills, which included advertising, financial and legal fees, salary and expenses, rent, mowing and two $9.15 assessments to the Highland County Treasurer’s office for properties owned by the land bank.

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