By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph city councilmembers are aware of a large number of abandoned buildings in the city, including some former retail business buildings along the city’s main commercial road.
Councilmember Madison Davis, in response to a caller on the KFEQ Hotline, says the council is aiming to do something about these buildings.
However, for many of those buildings along Belt Highway, Davis says it's a fine balance between doing something about them and having to deal with property rights.
"We as the city sent at least two or three times a letter to the registered owner of the address asking what their intentions with the property was, if anything what they planned to do," Davis tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And often times we received little response, if any response."
Davis says there is a process to everything and the council is just as worried about getting things done with these buildings as citizens are.
But Davis says he agrees with many citizens that something needs to be done with those vacant buildings.
"You know, you look at the Kmart structures and I imagine in five or six years it will be the same situation if nothing changes," Davis says. "But it's a delicate balancing act, there's a process for most everything."
Davis says people should take the time to call the property maintenance department and detail the issues with an abandoned home that you may know of, so the city can send an inspector out to get something done about it.
Davis says the needle is moving on solutions of what to do with these buildings.
"When you have four or five hundred abandoned homes, it doesn't make it seem like it's moving, but the needle is moving, it could be moving faster," Davis explains. "But we are making progress, it took us a number of years for it to look like this."
Davis says there are many members of the council that are here now and are working hard to find solutions of how to improve these situations.