Southern Illinois Towns Determined to Stop the Decay
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Three years after the last recession officially ended in June 2009 the nation's slow economic growth hasn't helped economic recovery in many Southern Illinois communities. Derelict homes and buildings plague villages and cities - even in the few that do show signs of growth.
It's not just unemployment and foreclosures that cause the conditions. There have been decades of declining population in many areas as mining jobs have disappeared and farms have consolidated, providing a foundation for issues facing much of the area today.
Just as cities and counties focus on ways to build up their local economy they're often forced into a parallel effort to tear down derelict properties that contribute to their blight.
Derelict Homes
Marion, which boasts the region's largest retail trade center, is not exempt. That city also has to deal with blighted structures. They've demolished 28 abandoned homes in the past year alone.
"These old vacant houses run the neighbors down and are unsafe," exclaimed Jim Phemister, the city's director of code enforcement.
"It takes you forever get them down (when you're) going through the court system. You almost get discouraged sometimes, but you can't do that," he said.
In Harrisburg, the city budgets $30,000 a year for dilapidated properties explained Fire Chief Bill Summers.
"The average cost of demolishing a house is $3,000 to $4,000. It's not an easy process," he said.
For landowners who can't afford to demolish a structure some cities will do it for free. Harrisburg has a program targeting abandoned trailers. If the owner can present the title the city will pay the owner $100 and charge nothing to haul the trailer away.
In Eldorado the city will tear a house down free of charge if the owner will pay to rent the Dumpsters. That usually costs around $1,500, Billy Bradley, that city's code enforcement officer, said.
"We try to help people," Bradley said.
In difficult situations, he explained, the city attorney will begin condemnation proceedings.
"In those cases we have to go to court and it takes time," he said. "It's a battle we normally win."
Commercial Buildings
Derelict homes become a problem, and at times the trouble grows in size for small communities. Commercial properties can become an eyesore, particularly after a fire.
In Grayville the charred remains of the town's original Dairy Queen, last operated as a Mexican eatery, has become an eyesore. A problem with the electrical system sparked a fire 15 months ago that left the building a complete loss.
"It's been a very slow process of getting it cleaned up," said Mayor Joe Bisch. "We had someone hired to clean it up and he failed to follow through, so we had to start over."
Like many communities facing blight, he said while the community has an ordinance against properties in disrepair, they've been "a little too lenient" in enforcing it.
Other communities take a proactive approach packaging loans, grants and other incentives to spur downtown redevelopment.
Du Quoin has used the federal Champion Communities initiative to leverage more than $5 million in investment to its still-vibrant downtown.
Investors saved the historic St. Nicholas Hotel from the wrecking ball three years ago with a $600 minimum bid to the city. By the end of this year it's expected to re-open as a restaurant and micro-brewery.
Marion established its latest tax increment financing district, "The Hub," to include the downtown and older commercial areas. It's designed to specifically spur redevelopment with an emphasis on renovation and restoration of older historic buildings.
A number of other communities have developed their own tax increment financing districts to combat the derelict issue. In Saline County both Eldorado and Harrisburg are moving toward establishing TIF districts that would include their downtowns and older retail centers.
For communities looking to clean up derelict buildings - whether homes or commercial property - tax sales and subsequent sales in error rulings can prove to be a speed bump in the process. "Basically, a sale in error occurs when a person buys a property with delinquent taxes and between the time they purchase the property and the time the tax deed is issued, the value of the property changes," Saline County Circuit Judge Walden Morris explained.
The trouble begins when bidders at tax sales bid on multiple properties and haven't spent the time researching what they're buying, Richland County Treasurer Sheila Ritter said.
Buyers can legitimately go back to the court to ask for a sale in error ruling if there were unseen problems with the property such as an underground gas tank or if there's "boatloads" of liens against it.
It becomes a problem for communities when the buyers should have known better.
"If we have proof of (the property) was in that shape when they bought it, we fight it," Ritter said. She noted that if asked in the first place she'll warn bidders of problems.
Normally city officials try to work with the property owner in fixing the problem.
Less than four years after a Marion man paid back taxes on a West Frankfort property, a Franklin County judge ordered the sale to be vacated and the purchaser reimbursed.
Franklin County Treasurer John Gulley said this is a common occurrence in the county and around the nation.
"If the taxes are not paid on a piece of property, it goes to the annual tax sale," he said. "A buyer comes to the tax sale and bids on the right to pay taxes for the property owner. The buyer is bidding on the interest rate to charge the tax payee.
"In this case, the tax payer paid the taxes in 2009 at the original 4 percent interest," Gulley said. "There are circumstances in the law where the buyer can go to court, get the sale thrown out and get their money refunded."
In this case, the petitioner purchased property for $642.12 during the annual tax sale held in November 2008. According to a copy of the case filed in Circuit Court approximately three years later, the petitioner purchased the same property in December 2009 in the amount of $608.46, paid $526.18 in September 2010 and $546.40 in June 2011.
The petitioner filed a petition for declaration of a sale in error saying the property became uninhabitable in the summer of 2011 due to water damage from the holes in the roof. According to the case file, owners vacated the property because it was unfit for occupancy.
Gulley said if property becomes uninhabitable after the sale, the buyer is eligible to get the sale revoked. "But the buyer has to go to court to do it," he said.
"What Eldorado does a lot is to try to get the owner to voluntarily consent that the property be demolished," City Attorney C. Mart Watson said.
If a court rules a sale in error on a tax deed, "then nobody can consent to the 'demolish,'" he said. In those cases the city has to go back to court.
West Frankfort tries to avoid the sales in error by bidding on the properties themselves at tax sales.
The city actively tracks delinquent tax sales for derelict properties. When they find a problem property with taxes owed, the city often bids itself on the property. The non-profit West Frankfort Community Council then picks up the tab.
"We want to make West Frankfort a better place to live and raise a family. That begins with a cleaner, safer environment," explained George Tomlinson, community council president.
The Community Council is a volunteer group that uses funds raised from donations for the cleanup efforts.
In neighboring Perry County, officials hired a tax sale agent to manage the adverting and sale of surplus properties that had been overlooked at previous tax sales. The agent targeted the often-empty lots for sale to neighboring homeowners.
-- Tammy Knox of the Carmi Times, John H. Croessman of the Du Quoin Evening Call, Christy Stewart of The Daily Register, Bill Swinford of the Marion Daily Republican, Kevin Ryder of the Olney Daily Mail, Mona Sandefur of the Benton Evening News and Bob Ellis of The Daily American contributed to this report.