Housing authority awards contract for demolition work at housing project
The Fayette County Housing Authority board approved a $174,000 demolition contract Thursday that sets in motion a plan that should see bulldozers razing half of Lemon Wood Acres in January. Ritenour & Sons Construction Inc. of Connellsville was awarded the contract as low bidder. Andre Walters, the authority’s director of technical services, said 75 units comprising 10 buildings will start coming down as soon as some routine matters are ironed out.
Walters said those include holding a pre-job conference with the firm, waiting for it to secure a performance bond and issuing it a notice to proceed.
After that, Walters said, the walls of the public housing project, long associated with being one of Fayette County’s top crime areas, should start tumbling rapidly.
“Demolition is what it is,” said Walters. “All you’ve got to do is bring your bulldozer in and smack them down. Weather does not play a role in knocking this stuff down.”
Walters said the authority is also moving forward with plans to gain federal approval to shift additional HOPE VI grant money so it can be used to demolish the other 75 Lemon Wood Acres units.
The authority plans to raze the entire North Union Township site, resurrecting in its place a mixed-use residential neighborhood built in conjunction with a private developer partner.
In another move related to the authority’s master plan, the board awarded a $37,750 contract to Xpert Environmental Contracting Co. Inc. of Wilmerding for asbestos removal at Dunlap Creek Village.
That 100-unit public housing project, located in Redstone Township, is also slated for demolition in the authority’s long-range downsizing and makeover plan. However, the authority plans to sell the property outright and plow the proceeds back into speeding the redevelopment of other sites.
In a separate matter, board member Angela M. Zimmerlink asked the board to hold off on paying any legal or financial fees regarding the ramping up of the authority’s dormant private nonprofit corporation.
That entity, known as Fayette Housing Development Corp., was formed in 1993 to apply for seed money for a certain type of housing for the Perryopolis area. Solicitor John M. “Jack” Purcell said the authority never received the funding so the private corporation never recorded any activity.
However, Purcell said the corporation’s board membership has changed over the years, as voted on by those board members. Purcell said the corporation board is composed of housing authority Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless, board member Nancy Sutton, former Uniontown Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Stephanie King, noted Uniontown social activist Randy Murray and a fifth member whose identity he isn’t sure of.
Harkless wants to revive the nonprofit so it can be used to redevelop the authority’s existing but cash-strapped State Housing Program, which has 100 units, and to develop new one-bedroom affordable housing for the elderly throughout the county.
In his executive director’s report, Harkless said the authority has had numerous requests for this type of housing from various municipalities.
When Zimmerlink asked which municipalities had made the request, Harkless answered with the names of four boroughs: Perryopolis, Fairchance, Smithfield and Masontown.
The State Housing Program has been used as the primary source of the nonfederal funds required whenever the authority needed to make punitive payments as ordered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.