The City of Knox is adding another house to its blight elimination effort. Mayor Dennis Estok told the city council Tuesday the owner of 202 North Pearl Street has agreed to sell the home to the city for eventual demolition. “We are going to have to go in there and probably trash it because it’s super bad in there and take a lot of the stuff out and then board the windows up, until we get it approved through the blight elimination [program],” he said.
Meanwhile, Estok said the board of works will soon solicit demolition bids for two other houses, as part of the program. That will use up the rest of the city’s blight elimination grant and bring the total number of houses demolished as part of the program up to 13.
Estok said it appears the grant will not be renewed for another round, but that doesn’t mean the city is done fighting blight. “Just driving around town, is there some more? Yeah, there’s still some blight left, mostly down in the Parkview area,” he said. “I do know if they would ever fund another round, I’ve had ask people ask me down in Parkview, ‘You wanna buy my house?’ So we would be able to do some more, if they do the funding.”
He added that code enforcement in the Parkview area remains a challenge. “You’ve got some good people down there. You really do,” Estok said. “But then, I mean, we’re dealing with a landowner right now, and he’s a slum lord. He’s just a slum lord. And I can tell you right now, I would love just to close the house down. I would love to do that. And if he doesn’t work with us, he’s not going to rent it back out until he gets everything done because there’s no sense in having people live in an unsafe house. And we’re not done down there.”
On the other hand, Estok said the city is willing to work with residents who want to fix their houses. “We’ve been going out of our way to help people accomplish what they want,” he said. “We’re dealing with a house right now that, basically, is going to come up to the board of works, unsafe structure. The guy doesn’t make much money either, doesn’t have the money to fix his roof or do anything. So the USDA does have a grant system and also a low-interest loan.”
The mayor said Director of Building, Planning and Code Compliance Kenny Pfost has been working to gather information to help the homeowner find funding to fix his house.
