The city of Springfield, Massachusetts is again highlighting efforts to remove blight from city neighborhoods.
A wrecking crew Monday morning began the demolition of a fire-ravaged two-story house on Terrence Street – a densely packed residential street in Springfield’s Old Hill neighborhood.
The fire in May 2020 burned the roof off the house and left the entire exterior charred. Neighbors made frequent complaints to City Hall about the eyesore, which according to city officials the property owner refused to do anything about.
Seeing the work begin to raze the house is a great day for the neighborhood, said Ward 4 City Councilor Malo Brown.
“This is very dangerous especially in this kind of congested area where we have family, kids, neighbors,” Brown said. “It is very very unsafe.”
Brown commended the administration of Mayor Domenic Sarno for what he said was its constant attention to blighted areas.
In 2015, Sarno announced a city-wide blight reduction strategy. Dozens of buildings were marked for demolition.
There have been few blighted properties razed recently, but that is not because the city has lost focus on the problem said Tina Quagliato Sullivan, Director of Disaster Recovery and Compliance.
“The city still continues to aggressively pursue blight issues, but we have been in an unprecedented situation due to court delays,” she said.
Obtaining a court order to demolish a property was always a lengthy and sometimes complicated process made even more so because of the pandemic that resulted in a backlog in Housing Court, said Springfield Code Enforcement Commissioner Steven Desilets.
“It’s been extreme,” Desilets said about the delays in getting requests for demolition orders heard in Housing Court. “They ramping up on the amount of cases we can get back in court, but we are not up to full speed.”
Demolishing the Terrence Street house will cost the city about $50,000. The money to pay for it comes from a $5 million bond bill approved by the City Council in 2014 to cover the expense of tearing down blighted properties across the city.
