Demolition begins for Macon-Bibb blight removal plan

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - 7 blighted properties are marked for demolition on Wednesday.

Office cleared the other employee, deputy brian horvath, after reviewing the g-b-i report.

Macon-bibb officials have started the blight initiative mayor lester miller has been talking about since taking office.

41nbc's peyton lewis went to the demolition of two properties to learn more about the blight plan and what residents can expect next.

*nat pop of house being demolished* macon-bibb community leaders turned words into actions by officially starting their blight removal plan.

The mayor, commissioners, and crews met in front of two houses wednesday to celebrate the demolishing of the properties.

After months of research and letters, code enforcement director j.t.

Ricketson says he and his team are happy to revive these areas of macon-bibb.

"when you walk around these properties and you see the trash, you see evidence of syringes, or where someone has smoked marijuana or some other drugs and you see that drug paraphanalia just tossed to the side.

Kids walk up and down this road, there's a school nearby here and neighborhoods around this, it is a public neusance and a public health hazard and we are doing something about it."

Several weeks ago, mayor miller deemed 57 blighted properties unsafe and a nuisance.

County officials gave the home owners written notice... providing a chance to respond and start working on the homes... 37 of those owners never responded, which means the county now has free reign to test them for asbestos and begin demolition as soon as they'd like.

The county planned to take down a total of 7 properties on wednesday, starting in commissioner bill howell's district on houston avenue.

Howell says he wants to bring this area back to it's former glory.

"i grew up in this area, i remeber coming to new way to eat, or coming to finchers to eat and for way to long i've watched this whole area become so run-down and blighted."

Another 70 properties are currently being reviewed by the county to see if they meet the criteria to be torn down.

Code enbforcement says each demolition costs around 12-15 thousand dollars.

The mayor says the county is using funding from the sale of these properties, and code enforcement after the 30 house project is complete, mayor miller says the county will adress commercial blight.

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