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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

SALISBURY -- BEWARE ANOTHER BAD PROPERTY DEAL

The Council is being taken down the primrose path once again by the owner of a derelict property – the site of the former “Linens of the Week” (and other laundry operations) with the assistance of Louise Smith and Shanie Shields. This is a ridiculous proposition, what with major costs for property that is almost worthless.

If the Habitat for Humanity group wants it, let them take it directly from the owner.

As for the City, just say “No”!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

As for the City, just saying NO that will never happen. AS long as Louise Smith has her hand in the deal along with Shanie Shields. The City of SBY waste more money placing into the Church ST area and Dover Dale. The are might look good for about four weeks, and then the trash comes in and tears up what the Habitat for Humanity along with the City has replace.
When is the Salisbury City Council going to start to realize that any time a low income area has something new in the area, it will always be torn up and trash. It's like the trash that moves in there know that they are going to trash the area, for the hell of it.
As we all know that the City of Salisbury Council Members will vote towards this area again, and hand it over to the trash that will be living there.

A citizen that's lives in the area, and who's knows what will happen to the area.

Anonymous said...

The property is obsolete with respect to industrial functionality. The sewer lines from the facility have significant penetration issues on the outflow side. This was one of the main reasons LOTW left the facility as they were being continuously cited and fined for BOD overages in their outflow.

There is a significant amount of deferred maintenance to be attended to in the facility. If Habitat for Humanity wants to undertake this upfit why not let them?

Anonymous said...

Because Habitat for Humanity is used to having Barrie Tilghman get them or give them anything they want.
HFH needs to go back to their roots and start building houses for those in need and stop trying to recreate the organization into something it was not intended to be!

Anonymous said...

10:50 --

You forget that Ireton is now the mayor and if anything is worse than BPT in "feel good" things like this.

Anonymous said...

Louise Smith: I want my vote back!

PS - never again.

Anonymous said...

so are the budget cuts and talk of furlows for city employees are what is going to pay for this derelict property. Are we going to take even more away from our employees so that the city can get in the subsidizing business?

Anonymous said...

STOP spending money. We dont have any! We are broke..OR will Pam find the money in one of "those" accounts.? The magical appearing money we didnt know we had?

Anonymous said...

Although I agree that the city is financially strapped this project does deserve consideration. If a youth center could be erected in this neighborhood then the children would have a safe place to play along with an after school program. We have to start somewhere. As to Habitat accepting the gift the gift was not offered to them but to the city. We need to invest in our neighborhoods and citizens.

Anonymous said...

12:27pm- I agree- except that it doesn't mean that government should be obligated to always be the one to "invest in our neighborhoods and citizens".

Perhaps a community group could step in and pool some volunteers to do whatever needs to be done. Businesses might be willing to volunteer their services for a worthwhile project, if it is organized. Not to mention, there are always people in a community, outside of the respective businesses that provide a service, that have the knowledge and ability to contribute.

I'm all for kids having access to services and programs that might help them stay off the streets and do something productive with their lives- as a society, we will all benefit from that in the long-term. I just hate that there is an expectation that the government has to do it. What's wrong with citizen groups uniting for a common cause??? Are we really that dependent on our government?

Oh- and by the way, I'm a democrat saying all of this- probably a surprise to some. I suppose I might be a republican, except that I am pro-choice and their strict pro-life platform is an issue for me... It reeks of more government intervention, IMO.

Anonymous said...

Don't think the the "Bricks" deal was free. The city spent a small fotune torturing the propety owners with citations, fines Etc.They had their eye on that building for Neighborhood services but the other building became available.I feel sorry for the family who owned it many years. Then the invester who bought it cheap then gave up.Funny how the building is co existing in the area and it is about the same as when they owned it. It went from worthless to being worth 3 million in renovations..Seems nobody ever questions the citys actions..

Anonymous said...

12:27 --

Why would the City object if the property owner gave it to Habitat instead? The fact is that Habitat won't touch it without a ton of City money to demo. and clean up the site.

The property is now worth nothing - so the owner could not sell it -- but will probably get a big tax deduction by gifting it.

The whole thing stinks.

Anonymous said...

I have done several industrial market analyses on this building over the years. The original owner is dead, and IIRC it is currently held in a trust of some kind. If Habitat wants the building more power to them. The building has enough issues that even if it were being given away for free it is still no bargain.