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Marietta City Council's Public Lands and Buildings, one of three committees that met Thursday evening, discussed the possibility of the purchase of three forfeited tax properties for housing development purposes.
Wayne Rinehart, code enforcement officer for the Marietta Property Maintenance Department, discussed three properties up for grabs for the city of Marietta.
The three properties, 914 Emerson St., 101 Oak St., and 708 Eighth St., were up for auction but no one wanted to bid for them, therefore due to Ohio Revised Code, three separate entities are able to purchase them, one of them being the city.
"We received one on Dec. 8 and two on Dec. 11," said Rinehart. "708 Eighth Street has paid all of their taxes, but has not paid any since it was demolished."
The three properties are valued at $3,907, $3,693, and a little over $2,000. First Ward Mike Scales discussed using a loan of about $10,000 to purchase the properties, and would be discussing that possibility with Budget Director Mitch Dimmerling.
Council Member At-Large Harley Noland asked if the properties were buildable, to which City Development Director Geoff Schenkel said that due to them only finding out about it earlier that day, they had to do some more research about their ability to be built upon.
"I know that a couple of them had really nice houses on them when I was growing up," Paul Bertram, City Law Director said. "They're definitely not slanted properties, so you'd be able to build on them."
Schenkel discussed that through the city's relationship with the SouthEastern Port Authority through the Residential Revitalization Program, they would decide how they should go about the properties.
"Through Ordinance 300, the city allocates money to a special fund known as the Residential Revitalization Program and obtains funding through a joint effort with the SouthEastern Port Authority," said Schenkel. "Through that effort we can eradicate slum and blight properties and help develop and benefit the city."
Due to the short timing of the properties being up for grabs, the city would have to state their intentions of buying the properties through a resolution by Dec. 18 and 21 because of the ten-day window from when the properties became first available after bidding.
Schenkel also mentioned another source of funding could be through the brand new Welcome Home Ohio Program, a program designed to provide grants for the purchase of qualifying residential properties, the cost of construction or rehabilitation, or a nonrefundable tax credit for qualifying activities. This funding, however, is not available for this situation because the City Council is still discussing it for approval.
Also discussed Thursday night was the Marietta Tree Commission wanting to pursue an Ohio Urban Forestry Grant to address disadvantaged and underserved parts of the city with the planting of trees as well as community education partnering; citizen Eric Brant discussed some parking issues on the 300 block of Fourth Street; Engineering Director Bob Heady discussed additional professional liability insurance to the city's insurance policy to cover Engineering and Surveying professional services; and there was an executive discussion held to talk about contract negotiations, tuition reimbursement, vacations, and insurance.
Gretchen Dowler can be reached at gdowler@newsandsentinel.com