LEWISTON — Councilors added seven more buildings to their list of properties due for demolition Tuesday, including the dilapidated and cluttered 245 Lincoln St. property where a man was discovered dead last June.
Most of the buildings that councilors reviewed Tuesday had been abandoned by owners for years and set upon by vandals and copper thieves. They included several single-family homes and a series of garages.
The 245 Lincoln St. property was very different, according to Code Enforcement Officer Tom Maynard. The house was so full of debris, trash and human waste that emergency responders could not get inside on June 9.
Rescue crews had to climb in through a second-floor window, throwing debris onto the street to get inside. They found a dead man and his companion, building owner Lisa Courtenay, inside.
Courtenay is living in a nursing home, Maynard said.
“It qualifies as a dangerous building for the following reasons,” Maynard said. “It has an increased fire hazard due to the extraordinary amount of combustible fire-loaded materials and its proximity to nearby inhabited structures. It is a threat to health because it is unsanitary, filled with garbage, feces and urine.”
Councilors unanimously agreed.
The condemnation is part of an ongoing effort to remove old and unsafe buildings, and councilors have been reviewing one or two buildings per meeting this summer.
But Tuesday’s hearings regarding seven buildings was the result of months of negotiations with land owner Franklin Property Trust. Franklin owns the land under the dilapidated buildings, while the buildings were owned by different people.
“We’ve been trying to negotiate with Franklin to come to an understanding with about how to share those costs,” Planning and Code Enforcement Director Gil Arsenault said. “We said we are willing to work with them, but we did not feel the taxpayers should fund the whole demolition.”
City Administrator Ed Barrett said the city and Franklin are still working out the details on cost sharing for the demolitions.
“But we felt it was important to move the project along,” Barrett said. “Obviously, there is a period between now and the demolitions to continue negotiations.”
Property owners have 30 days from Tuesday’s meeting to either take down the buildings themselves or come up with a plan to make repairs.
Lewiston began the demolition program in 2012 to get rid of dilapidated, dangerous buildings and improve the city’s housing stock. The city had budgeted $1.2 million for the demolitions, and councilors added another $400,000 to that budget this year.
Norm Beauparlant, Lewiston’s budget and purchasing director, said that money has let the city demolish 38 downtown buildings since the program began in 2012, with another five set for demolition.
But that doesn’t count the Franklin Property Trust properties. Councilors agreed to condemn buildings on five Franklin-owned properties at their Sept. 2 meeting: 233, 248 and 390 Lincoln St., 66 River St. and 2 Summer St.
Councilors approved seven more Tuesday: 245, 251, 267½ and 398 Lincoln St., 7 Lincoln Dr., 162 Oxford St. and 7 Willow Circle.
“Some are just garages, others are structures that caved in on themselves,” Beauparlant said. “The demolition will not cost must for those. Others have environmental issues and we’ll have to deal with those. So it may chew up a chunk of our budget, but I think we’ll have enough.”
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- A condemned property at 398 Lincoln St. in Lewiston.
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- A condemned property at 7 Lincoln Drive in Lewiston.
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- A condemned property at 7 Willow Circle in Lewiston.
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- A condemned property at 251 Lincoln St. in Lewiston.
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- A condemned property at 267½ Lincoln St. in Lewiston.
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- A condemned property at 162 Oxford St. in Lewiston.
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- A home at 245 Lincoln St. in Lewiston has been condemned by the city and will be demolished.
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