May 3, 2004 By Paul Sunyak 3 min read

The Fayette County Housing Authority has begun tearing down the second of its two public housing projects slated for complete demolition: Dunlap Creek Village in Redstone Township. Workers from Dilapidated Demolition of Cumberland, Md., which won a $126,000 contract to raze 69 of the row-style housing units, are beginning preparations for the mass knockdown.

The housing authority has received federal approval to take out the remaining 31 units as well, and hopes to complete that demolition phase by October.

Also being wiped off the map of the site near Republic are the Dunlap Creek Village office building and package sewerage plant.

As occurred in North Union Township’s Lemon Wood Acres, which is also being demolished, workers from the contractor are removing roof trusses and plywood before they start knocking down walls.

The successful bidder on any demolition contract approved by the housing authority gets the right to salvage any materials it wants.

FCHA Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless said the authority’s board of directors would determine what to do with the 20-plus acre site, which is zoned residential. He said it’s likely that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would look more favorably on approving disposition of the property if the request includes a viable new use.

“Once the site is cleared, the board will have to decide what they want to do with it,” said Harkless, who noted that the “right way” would include looking at proposed new use along with purchase price.

“You can’t buy it just for speculation,” added Harkless. “Typically, HUD will not approve the disposition of land just for speculation.”

Unlike Lemon Wood Acres, which the authority plans to turn into a mixed-use housing community with the help of a private developer and tax credits, Dunlap Creek Village is considered an asset the authority will sell.

Watching workers cart sheets off plywood to a crane-type machine that lifts them off the roofs in stacks, Harkless said the authority would like to have all of Dunlap Creek Village demolished “by Halloween, so it’s just a field” by then.

Housing authority maintenance worker Dan “Moon” Mullins, who started working at Dunlap Creek Village when the authority hired him 27 years ago, said the buildings had flat roofs at that time. He said the exterior walls were made of concrete block that had to be painted white, and that a chain link fence once surrounded the 100-unit complex.

“There was a lot of good families in here at one time,” said Mullins. He added that the tenants included one man who “moved in here the day it opened (in the 1950s) and moved out the day it closed.”

Andre Walters, the authority’s director of technical services, said the authority was lucky in getting HUD demolition funds for Dunlap Creek Village on its first try. He said the demolition plan – which calls for taking down 255 units system-wide in phase one – is something few would have envisioned years ago.

“Nobody thought that this and Lemon Wood Acres would come to the ground,” said Walters. “They finally did. But it took a lot of planning. It takes a lot to put one of these demo packages together.”

Walters said the authority has some asbestos abatement to perform before the walls are knocked down. Harkless said the asbestos is appearing in “a little here and a little there” fashion as the contractors punch through walls.