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- West Virginia town gets $1.5 grant to bring down dilapidated buildings
Mount Hope, West Virginia, is set to receive a $1.5 million Neighborhood Stabilization grant that will allow the town to remove a number of dilapidated buildings located in the community.
The Register-Herald reported that 34 derelict buildings have been identified throughout town and officials there are in the process of notifying property owners about the planned demolitions.
The presence of asbestos in building materials used in older buildings is also a concern because the mineral is a health hazard that has been linked to diseases such as
asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma and lung disease.
Asbestos exposure has been the focus of many
asbestos settlements and
mesothelioma lawsuits that have been filed in recent years.
"Without the dollars to go into a project like this, you’re going to eventually be responsible for tearing that property down, hauling it to a dump," said Mount Hope Mayor Michael Martin. "And that’s after you’ve had it examined by an asbestos inspector, and you have mitigated all the asbestos problems it might have had - [by then] you’re into some dollars."
In addition to $3 million in Neighborhood Stabilization funding received by the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority, Mount Hope's grant has the potential of creating new housing once the derelict sites have been cleared, the newspaper reported.