Fighting Blight Throughout Broome County
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Vacant buildings and creeping blight are a serious threat to our neighborhoods.
Every year Broome County is forced to foreclose on abandoned buildings for unpaid taxes. The owners have disappeared or died and there's little or no hope of ever getting the back taxes paid. So, Broome County takes possession. (FYI: Broome County is the centralized tax collector for all towns and villages within its limits.)
I wish we could rehab or demolish every blighted building in Broome County, but we can't - there just isn't enough local money to handle the backlog of abandoned buildings. Worse yet, the way things are setup, it's often easier for towns and villages to request help from the state and federal governments, than it is for the county.
Broome County is partnering with towns & villages to demolish more blighted buildings.
Basically, when the county takes possession of a blighted building, it will be assessed for demolition or rehabilitation. If demolition is the choice, then the county will pay for asbestos screenings and then ask the town or village if they'd like to demolish it. If the answer is yes, then Broome County will sell the property to the town or village for nearly nothing (often $1). Once the town or village has demolished the structure, then Broome County will waive the tipping fees on the refuse at the dump, thus making it as easy and inexpensive as possible for towns and villages to eliminate blighted buildings.
Look - there are way too many unoccupied, blighted-buildings in Broome County. If they're privately-owned then government needs to tell their owners to clean them up! If they're no longer owned by a solvent entity, then we can't just sit and watch them rot. Rotting buildings destroy neighborhoods and hurt our community's self-esteem.
I'm working hard to have Broome County government step-in and remove blight whenever & wherever it occurs. It's rarely as straight-forward as it sounds, but I've to rolled-up my sleeves and I'm getting dirty doing it.
Check out the success I've had eliminating two abandoned buildings in Endwell.