East Toledo home long overdue for demolition

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Residents of Seaman Street in East Toledo have been working to revitalize their community, however, a vacant house on the block is hampering progress.

Residents said the orange demolition notice had been posted on the home for three years, but the structure is still standing.

“It is empty, it has been emptied inside. They put that plywood up there and closed all the windows, that’s it and the demolition never happened,” said Al Manteuffel, who has lived next door for 85 years. Manteuffel said the house started falling apart six years ago.

Some houses on the block are close together and Manteuffel fears a fire is spreading.

“I don’t want it to be another fire trap or something, because they’re burning down houses. How long is it going to be before it happens,” Manteuffel said.

Another neighbour, Barb Groll, said her son-in-law mows the lawn from time to time because no one else does.

“Yeah, I’ve been calling engage Toledo all the time, and they say they’ll come out and cut him on a certain day if not the week later. The week later comes and that’s never cut either,” Groll said.

13abc contacted the City of Toledo Demolition Department to determine what the problem was. Stephanie Beebe, demolition coordinator for the city of Toledo, said “it’s a long process”

“Especially if we are dealing with around 1,000 properties. It takes a long time to get over all of that,” Beebe said. It is not uncommon for this to take months from when the initial posting occurred. This is a normal delay. Years can also happen when we’re dealing with a jackpot,” Beeb said.

The demolition department said there were more than 1,100 properties on the same demolition list as this one. Additionally, the department is still awaiting state funding. Representatives are asking people to be patient and to continue to contact Engage Toledo to keep them informed of ownership conditions.

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