New life for old building

CELINA- A Mercer County agency is targeting a new state grant program to help some property owners get their downtown Celina building up to code.

County community development director Jared Ebbing said he is writing a grant application for $250,000 through the Community Development Block Grant's Target of Opportunity Program. If received, the dollars would go toward addressing structural issues of a prominent building at 202 S. Main St, which is owned by Amber, Holly and Brenda Lefeld, according to county records.

Brenda Lefeld would be required to put up a $62,500 match, Ebbing said about the estimated $312,500 project to stabilize the building and improve its facade. The estimate is based on a structural report, he added.

"The big thing would be fixing that so it doesn't continue to be a structural issue and obviously replace the windows," Ebbing said.

Lefeld on Wednesday said plans for the building are unclear and contingent upon their receiving the grant.

The Target of Opportunity Program was introduced last year, replacing the former downtown revitalization program. The funds are designated for "worthwhile projects and activities that do not fit within the structure of existing (CDBG) programs and to provide supplemental resources to resolve immediate and unforeseen needs," according to the Ohio Development Services Agency.

Ebbing said a public hearing about the grant application likely will be held in the coming weeks. If commissioners sign off on it, Ebbing will then submit the application to the state.

Celina City Council members over the last year or so have brought up concerns about the building, most recently at a commitee meeting earlier this year.

City safety service director Tom Hitchcock sent a letter dated Feb. 26, 2019, to the Lefelds notifying them that the building is unsafe, citing violations that included interior or exterior walls or other vertical structural members that list, lean or buckle.

The owners were ordered to make necessary repairs to render the building safe or to raze and remove it. Failure to do so would result in the city's assumption of repairs or demolition.

The city has since granted extensions of the order.

"We've given them enough opportunity to decide how they want to go forward, now let's get this done because we're going to have a whole different discussion if part of that building falls on somebody," councilman Eric Clausen said at a January commitee meeting.

"And we've given them more extensions than we've ever given anybody else," Hitchcock said.

"Only because they've been working with the state, with an engineer out of Dayton," mayor Jeff Hazel added.

At that meeting city officials briefly discussed potential actions if the deficiencies of unsafe properties - including the one at 202 S. Main St. - go unaddressed.

"It's going to take money for us to do it. If we're going to go in there and fix it or tear it down," Hazel said. "I'm not a real big fan of tearing down a downtown building, but it also can't be unsafe."

Councilors in 2012 approved legislation to strengthen city administrators' ability to deal with owners of unsafe buildings.

The policy authorizes Hitchcock to act as building inspector and deem structures dangerous and unfit and require repair or demolition. It explicitly lists several defects that would define a dangerous and unfit structure, such as leaning or buckling walls; damage by decay, deterioration, fire, wind or other elements; and unfit conditions for habitation.