FAIRMONT – Monroe Street is a key marketing artery in Fairmont these days, as the site of several events, including the town’s signature Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival every December.
This past October, though, a portion of Monroe was closed, while city crews tended to the partial collapse of an already condemned building on adjacent Adams Street.
A wall gave way in the middle of the night and the city issued an emergency order to fully demolish it.
“The structure poses an immediate threat to public safety,” City Manager Travis Blosser said then.
Tear-down and cleanup came to $415,888 – but the city is getting more than $300,000 of that back, courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
DEP Secretary Harold Ward said the dollars are coming from the agency’s Dilapidated Properties Program – monies, he added, that are just as much about developing the economy as they are maintaining quality-of-life environments.
“This reimbursement recognizes Fairmont’s complete demolition of an unsafe property and supports the city’s broader downtown improvement efforts,” he said.
Efforts, he added, that could clear the way “for new economic growth and prosperity.”
Right now, the city is trying to clear some paperwork with the building’s current owner, who was issued a raze or repair order in August.
Said paperwork comes in the form of an ordinance to transfer the property from said owner to the city, which council will vote on during its Jan. 27 meeting.
Blosser, meanwhile, was appreciative to Charleston for the Adams Street outlay.
“I want to thank Gov. Patrick Morrisey and the West Virginia DEP for the funds to clean up this structure, which posed a real threat to our historic downtown,” the city manager said.
