Sikeston plans to raze 106 condemned structures

SIKESTON, Mo. — City officials are planning to demolish 106 condemned structures deemed to be health and safety hazards.

During a special meeting Thursday, the Sikeston City Council directed Trey Hardy, community redevelopment coordinator, to work with Department of Public Safety director Drew Juden on declaring these properties to be health and safety hazards.

Council members and city staff recently paired up and toured 186 condemned properties. During Thursday's meeting, they then compared notes to come up with the number of structures that need to be taken down.

Mayor Mike Marshall said he toured a list of 32 condemned properties with city manager Doug Friend and found only four they considered to be worth rehabilitation.

"All the rest of them need to be taken down," he said.

Council members Sue Rogers and Jim Terrell said only one out of the 28 properties they looked at could be rehabilitated.

The yards had "a lot of trash and rubbish and the weeds are really tall," Terrell said. "And 99 percent of them have been vandalized."

Councilman Mike Bohannon said many of the houses he looked at looked as if someone had been camping or partying in them.

By declaring the structures to be health and safety hazards, the process of arranging demolition can be accelerated since a title does not need to be acquired first, Friend said.

The cost for demolition on a house is roughly $5,000, according to Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority commission members.

Dan Marshall and David Ziegen­horn, chairman of the LCRA commission, advised the council the LCRA could allocate about $100,000 of its budget to help demolish these 106 structures.

Bohannon said that leaves about $400,000 the city would need to come up with. He said he would like to set a target date — something like within 90 days — to get all 106 houses leveled.

"The time of playing footsie with them is at an end," Bohannon said. "We've got to move now."

Ziegenhorn said for the LCRA, tearing houses down is not the problem. "It's the paperwork involved in getting to the point of demolition," he said.

The downside of getting all 106 structures leveled, Ziegenhorn said, is that the mortgage companies that own most of them will abandon them, leaving the LCRA to maintain the empty lots for about five years before it can get the titles through tax liens.

Dan Marshall said banks and mortgage companies will not sell their condemned properties for fair market value now because they want to be able to show them on their books as assets.

Councilman Jerry Pullen suggested the city also file lawsuits against the mortgage companies for demolition and maintenance costs.

"If you guys want me to file suit, I'll file suit," said Chuck Leible, city counselor. Leible said it is possible that by filing the lawsuits, "you'll get somebody to talk to you."

Dan Marshall said they need to keep in mind that structures on the other 80 condemned properties, while they can possibly be rehabilitated now, are "getting in worse shape every day."