City’s south side ‘hasn’t been forgotten,’ pastor says at demolition of blighted trailer park
An abandoned trailer park on Old Cusseta Road is now the first blighted property to be cleaned up using the $1 million demolition budget that Columbus Council approved earlier this year.
Local officials gathered at 4325 Old Cusseta Road Wednesday morning to witness the clearing of the five and a half-acre eyesore.
“Today symbolizes a commitment to try to reinvest in community,” said Mayor Skip Henderson. “So many of these properties that have been designated for demolition are just sucking the life out of neighborhoods. These trailer parks are symbolic because they’re just the tip of the iceberg: Think about all the people that ride by here, two and three times a day, how can you feel good about yourself and your community when you see these things sitting out here?”
After remarks, Henderson hopped on an excavator and ceremoniously delivered the first few blows to a mobile home so dilapidated it was classified by the city as solid waste instead of a structure.
The day was especially symbolic for one pastor whose church is located within a mile of the blighted trailer park.
David Stallion, pastor of Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, said that many of the members of his church are residents of the area, and didn’t feel the abandoned property represented them well.
Seeing city leaders make the demolition of blighted properties in the district a priority is a huge win, Stallion said.
“The south side hasn’t been forgotten. It sets a precedence to know that we have leadership in place that do care about Columbus and not just one part of Columbus,” he said. “Being a pastor I can’t just care about one area of Columbus, I care about Columbus as a whole, and so to see that efforts have begun on this side to do the cleanup it just gave me a great feeling.”
Over the next two weeks, the former mobile homes will be broken down and hauled off, according to John Hudgison, Columbus Building Inspections and Code Enforcement director. Overgrown bushes will also be cleared away to make illegal dumping easier to spot.
“The intent is to have a clean site all the way to the back, so therefore if there is police or anybody riding by they can see if there is any illegal activity, they can see if anything is going on,” Hudgison said.
A few buildings on the property still qualify as structures and were not included in the court-ordered abatement Hudgison’s office obtained from Recorder’s Court.
“We have to go to council to take care of those, but here in the next two weeks (all) these trailers will be gone,” he said.
The property owner will be billed for the cost of the demolition, and a lien will be placed on the property until the debt is paid.
Due to the cost of cleaning up such a large site and limited funding in the annual budget, it’s previously been impossible for the city to finance the demolition of the trailer park and others like it in the past. But now that he has the funding, Hudgison said the trailer parks will be the first to go.
After that, he’ll be coming before council to get approval to tear down individual homes in all of the districts, not just those in south Columbus.
View a list of every structure that’s been earmarked for demolition by visiting the city’s code case online dashboard.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 2:06 PM.