City tear down project temporarily on hold
The City tear down of dilapidated properties continued with the latest demolition of the house located at 122 S. Bullitt on Monday morning, August 17. City Inspector Mike Dockrey explains that this demolition was originally scheduled for right after Christmas, but the ground was too saturated from rain for the heavy trucks to dump at the landfill. The unusually wet year had kept the project from moving forward until Monday. The continuing
The continuing tear down program is funded with a $2 fee that is included on City water bills. An attempt is made to choose houses from all areas of town so the improvements are distributed equally. Having these unsightly structures removed helps raise property values in the surrounding area.
Dockrey explains that the fireman that has been inspecting the homes that are placed on the tear down list for asbestos recently retired. The class to become a certified asbestos inspector in only available twice a year – in March and August. The class in March was cancelled due to the COVID 19 virus. A Hughes county resident is scheduled to take the August class and receive their license, which will put the program back in action once again, and the City has a growing list of houses they would like to tear down but are waiting for a certified asbestos inspection. Once this certified inspector collects samples they are sent in to the tested. If these samples show no asbestos Dockrey will contact the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and they look over the test results before sending their inspector to look over the houses that have been tested. This may take some time, since there is only one DEQ inspector in the state that takes care of all 77 counties.
Once this is finished the paperwork begins. Dockrey states that the last batch of ten houses required sixty-eight pages of paperwork. This paperwork is then sent to the DEQ office in Oklahoma City. If they are satisfied, the paperwork is sent back for the mayor to sign, and then the paperwork is returned to the DEQ. The DEQ’s attorneys then review the paperwork, and if they are sign off on them, they can finally start making plans to do the actual teardown.
Part of the process is so the City of Holdenville can dispose of the rubble from the tear down at the Holdenville landfill. If they dumped the rubble at Wewoka there wouldn’t be as many restrictions, but it might cost $5,000 - $6,000 or more or each house.
The option to dump at the Holdenville landfill instead of having to haul it to Wewoka gave the program a boost when it was approved by the DEQ in January, 2012. This program allows small municipalities such as Holdenville to use the suitable portion of dilapidated buildings (such as lumber, rock, sheetrock, brick, shingles, etc.) to reclaim damaged land. The process includes submitting a plan from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) showing that the area where the materials are dumped is not in a 100-year floodplain and detailing how the materials will be covered and the land will be reclaimed. Some hazardous items, including asbestos, paint, aerosol cans, etc. will not be allowed in this program. After all of the requirements are met these structures will be torn down and the materials transported to the landfill.
Dockrey states that he tries to have ten houses ready when the DEQ inspector visits so they can take advantage of his visit. However, ten is about all the houses he has time to inspect during the limited time he has.
The tear down on Monday was contracted out to P & H Construction, Inc., who began the project at 7:00 a.m. and were loading trucks to carry the rubble to the landfill by 10:00 a.m. This was an extremely short amount of time compared to the long process needed to get started. This is the last house in the batch that was most recently approved. The program will resume a soon as the next batch of houses can be approved by the DEQ.
