For the City of East Liverpool and the Village of Wellsville, Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement on Monday of more than $55 million being made available for demolition and Brownfield remediation projects is long awaited news.

Of the $55 million, $33.2 million is going to the demolition of 1,091 vacant or dilapidated buildings in 65 counties. This is the seventh round of funding for the Demolition and Site Revitalization Program which set $500,000 aside for each of Ohio’s 88 counties with the program’s remaining funds being awarded on a first come first serve basis. The funds are pending final eligibility.

Both East Liverpool and Wellsville have struggled for some time to find funding to rid their communities of dilapidated, abandoned and unsafe properties.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Wellsville Mayor Bob Boley, who noted that the village has been waiting for two years for six of those houses to come down. “They are eyesores, and nobody has lived in the two in town forever.”

Boley also said that some of them are falling in on themselves or are falling down.

East Liverpool Mayor Bobby Smith said it is a bright note that out of the 39 homes they have hoped would be demolished, 30 of them will be. He also noted that a couple of houses were already demolished with previous funding.

“This is pretty exciting to see the effort at the county,” Smith said. This will change the perception of East Liverpool, which is what we are trying to do. The county is helping with that as they always have in recent years and I’m excited. I can’t be more thankful to have 30 homes out of 39 being done in your community is something.”

The Columbiana County Land Bank will receive $500,000 for the demolition of 39 properties, 30 of those properties being in East Liverpool, seven in Wellsville, one in Hanoverton and one in Salem.

Properties in East Liverpool to be demolished include: 820 Green Lane, 1612 Park Ave., 320 W. Ninth St., 206 Baum St., 1215 Erie St., 278 Haywood St., 529 College St., 415 Prospect St.,1052 Ephriam St., 1120 Avondale St., 1224 Saint George St., 809 Bradshaw Ave., 501 First Ave., 503 First Ave., 916 Saint George St., 1017 Monaca St., 1055 Monaca St., 1005 Church St., 1031 Monaca St., 1701 Alpha St., 300 Moore St., 878 State St., 521 Meakin St., 660 Riley Ave., 664 Riley Ave., 818 Daisy Alley, 1058 Saint George St., 1072 Saint George St., 1298 Beacon Way and 1166 Boyd St.

Smith said the big benefit to the city is that it won’t cost the city to have the buildings demolished. He also noted that if the ones that were burned in Sunday’s arson fire had been demolished that might have prevented something like that.

He also said that the demolitions would put a stop to thieves going into the empty houses and stripping them of copper wire and anything else recyclable, making the houses more expensive to rehab than to destroy.

Smith is hoping that the homeowners located next to the properties to be demolished will, if possible, purchase the empty lots to expand their yards. He noted this would then make their homes more valuable.

Smith said he is grateful for the funding to further improve the city and credits the city’s planning department for all the legwork it did to get the paperwork in place and the county commissioners for their assistance.

“This isn’t just a little bit of money pointed our way,” Smith said. “This took a bit of effort.”

Wellsville properties include 1611 Main St., 249 Highland St., 319 Highland St., 415 18th St., 1423 Center St., 409 Main St. and 1042 Hillcrest Road.

Boley noted that the demolitions will benefit the village as the village and school will get first chance at acquiring any of the properties that are tax foreclosures or sheriff’s sale.

Wellsville Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah said the village will have to decide what to do with the properties and there are many plans.

Other communities benefiting from the funding include Alliance, Canfield, New Middleton, Sebring, Damascus and more.

The property for demolition in Hanoverton is located at 11232 state Route 9 and the two properties in Salem are at 709 Newgarden Ave. and 14854 S. Pricetown Road.

There are four properties in Alliance located at 13568 Bandy Road, 22787 Alliance Sebring Road, 22775 Alliance Sebring Road, and 21113 Alliance Sebring Road.

Sebring has two properties on the list: 546 S. Johnson Road and 696 E. Ohio Ave.

Canfield has one on the list located at 9300 Columbiana-Canfield Road. The new Middletown property is located at 4819 E. Calla Road.