Commissioners Receive Bids

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Commissioners opened bids for a demolition project in Dresden. 

Muskingum County Land Bank Executive Director Andy Roberts talked about the demolition and why it’s being considered.

“The commissioners put out for demolition money last year, looking for some properties to possibly demolish. And this one at 25 West Fifth Street in Dresden came up. It’s an old barn right next to the hardware (store) in Dresden. Initially we did asbestos survey on the property. We were unable to get to all the areas to sample for asbestos. We did know there was asbestos in the property, therefore we had to run this demolition as a hot demolition, which means that they have to treat everything in there as asbestos,” Roberts said.

The commissioners received 6 bids which they took under advisement to inspect the details of the bids and verify if the estimates are accurate in determining the lowest and most accurate bid. 

“The commissioners put up $100,000 dollars every year for demolition monies,” Roberts said. “A lot of what we end up spending that money on or what they spend that money on is projects that won’t qualify for other state grants. So in this case, it was a barn. It’s an accessory structure. So underneath most of the state and federal grants we get, we can’t use those funds to take those structures down. So the commissioners use those monies to go after the properties that we have issues with there.”

Demolition expenditures are county funds that are allocated to help cleanup neglected properties and structures that diminish their surroundings.