Jefferson City officials said $300,000 will make a significant dent in cleaning up dangerous buildings around town.
The Jefferson City Council approved $300,000 in additional funding for demolitions at its June 21 meeting. The city's demolition budget, which is $20,000 for the current fiscal year, was mostly used up in the April demolition of 1324 E. Miller St., which cost $12,372.
Property inspector Dave Helmick said the newly allocated money should cover demolitions of eight to 10 dangerous properties. He has nine properties approved for demolition and another six scheduled for hearings in July to be approved. Another 25 properties are in the process of being declared dangerous.
"The purpose of this is to get rid of life safety issues. We're not looking at just what looks bad," Helmick said when presenting the project to the council. "These are dangerous buildings. They're dangerous to life, limb, health, property, safety, welfare of the occupants and the people in those neighborhoods."
The cost of a demolition varies greatly based on the condition of the building, proximity to other buildings, and complexity of the structure, Helmick said.
Last year, the average of all city demolitions cost around $21.50 per square foot - and closer to $30 per square foot if it is a wet demolition, Helmick said.
Wet demolitions reduce dust and help control potential exposure to asbestos.
Those averages include everything with demolishing the property such as court reporters during trials to classify a building as dangerous and advertising for bids.
"It's really hard to say what an average demolition (cost) is because my demolitions are dangerous buildings. There isn't an average demolition," Helmick said. "If it's a fire burn where it's still filled with materials like furniture and clothes, there's more trips to the landfill. It's going to be more expensive. If it's one that's emptied out, it's going to be quite a bit cheaper."
Three of the four most recent demolitions cost $12,000-$13,000.
The most recent of the three demolitions took up the demolition budget for the 2021 fiscal year, Helmick said. The building at 1324 E. Miller was demolished for $12,372. It was deemed dangerous in November 2019 due to tornado damage and demolished in April. There is currently an unpaid tax lien on the property.
"The back half of that structure collapsed and actually fell onto the property that was located next door, which is a multiple-family home that's occupied," he said.
The fourth, 519 E. Capitol Ave., owned by Barbara Buescher, cost $87,849 to be demolished. It was demolished in January, and there is currently an unpaid tax lien on the property.
Buescher is the owner of multiple properties around Jefferson City, many of which the city has needed to abate or demolish over the years due to safety concerns.
The 519 E. Capitol Ave. property included several hurdles that brought the cost up.
To start with, Helmick said, it was near buildings on either side, with one 12 inches away and the other 18 inches. He said this meant workers needed to be more careful during the demolition to not damage either of those buildings.
"It was filled with materials, partially collapsed, and had to be a wet demo," he said. "That's going to be really expensive."
Why demolish
The city recommends demolition of a structure if it is considered a serious danger or if the estimated cost to repair it exceeds 50 percent of the structure's estimated worth, Helmick said.
A look at current properties on the list illustrate other factors in the decision to demolish.
One property on the list to be demolished is 108 Jackson St., owned by Buescher.
Helmick said the property is in a state of collapse in multiple places, it's been repeatedly broken into, and it has issues with illegal activity. It is on the list for demolition with the additional funding approved this month.
In May, when the project was presented to the city's Historic Preservation Commission on account of the home being built in 1900, Neighborhood Services Supervisor Rachel Senzee said the demolition would cost $80,000-$90,000 because of asbestos.
The full list of Jefferson City properties currently considered for demolition also includes 500 E. Ashley St.; 209, 307 and 309 Jackson St.; 405 and 528 E. Capitol Ave.; 622 E. McCarty St.; and 431 W. Miller St.
In order to be added to the demolition list, a property needs to go through a trial period. Those scheduled for trial this month include 320 and 1320 E. Miller St.; 410 E. Hess Way; 211 Jackson St.; 410 E. Capitol Ave.; and 1706 Christy Court.
Properties on the list may go lower or higher in priority based on changes in conditions.
For instance, Helmick said, 431 W. Miller St. was lower on the list, but the Jefferson City Police Department received several calls about break-ins and squatters.
"We entered the structure, and it's in a state of collapse," he said.
Helmick said 405 E. Capitol Ave. has a collapsed roof and the inside is collapsed as well. It's also had issues with people breaking in.
On Jackson Street, 209 has interior collapse and the brick chimneys are falling, he said.
"We have issues with that one getting broken into, and it's also (a high traffic area) and right behind Ivy Terrace, where there's a lot of folks that walk right next to this structure," Helmick said.
On Miller Street, the building at 320 is next to a multi-family, occupied home. The west wall is collapsing all the way down, which includes two chimneys.
"If it collapses any further, it will fall toward the occupied structure," he said.
Funding options
Helmick plans to bundle some of the easier properties together for bid, hoping it will lead to a lower cost. But some on the list are too complex to bundle together, he said.
"They're different areas, and they're different styles of demo," he said. "You have ones where it's a central location, the same style (of demolition), then we'll be pairing them up. But what we don't want to do is get so many combined together that if an emergency arises, we've already spent all the funds and it's tied up in this project."
The to-demolish list is fluid, Helmick said, with properties moving on it as conditions change, they deteriorate or people break in.
If police officers respond to a break-in at a property lower on the list and realize when they respond that the second floor has collapsed, the property will become a higher priority.
At that point, he said, it's a higher risk for the community and city staff who have to stop people from breaking in or secure the property again.
This is the same reason the full $300,000 won't be used right away, Helmick said. He said he needs to keep some in reserve in case of emergency with either one of the properties on the list or potentially a new one that isn't going through the dangerous buildings process yet.
Along with this initial funding boost, Helmick is pushing to start out with a larger demolition budget next year so he can keep taking buildings off his list.
Planning and Protective Services Director Sonny Sanders said the department is looking into other funding options as well, such as federal grants.
The city expects to receive around $7.06 million between 2022-25 in disaster recovery funding from the May 2019 tornado and spring flooding the same year. One of the allowed uses for the funds is demolition, and officials are still considering what that could look like.
Not all of the properties declared dangerous are demolished by the city. Helmick said property owners have until the demolition happens to make repairs or demolish it themselves. They can also be donated to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.
"We've been successful with that," he said. "Since I've been here in the last five years, we've had 14 properties that were dangerous and that would have been on that list, that have been demoed by other organizations. We really push that angle as well, but this (city-funded demolition) is the last resort."