Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Blighted Property Review Committee chair Paul Pascuzzi, Sheffield Township Supervisor Jeff Labesky and Commissioner Jeff Eggleston examine property photos during Thursday’s committee meeting.

Officials are tackling blight in Sheffield Township.

Eight of the nine properties before the county Blighted Property Review Committee are located in the township and Sheffield Township Supervisor Jeff Labesky was on hand at Thursday’s meeting to provide updates to the panel.

The first four were before the committee for the first time and, as a result, the members agreed to invite the respective owners to the October meeting.

First up was a blue house on Route 948 where the house is falling down.

“The property has not been touched,” Labesky said. “It has not been maintained for a great many years.”

63 2nd Mill St, committee chair Paul Pascuzzi said, is owned by a firm out of Pittsburgh. Labesky told the panel that the property has been vacant for eight years.

The property at 209 Second St. is owned by an Ohio man and Pascuzzi said it is an “old trailer full of old paint cans…. This is an abandoned structure.”

Labesky noted it is also unsecured as the “doors are wide open,” hence the knowledge about the contents.

The last property where the owner was invited is located at 89 Cottage Age.

Committee members heard that there is a bid working through the repository process for that property.

“This location was damaged by fire,” Pascuzzi said. “The property is wide open” and “is an absolute health and safety risk to the people in that neighborhood.”

He said the panel’s “obligation” is to invite the owner – whoever it may be – to the next meeting. “I don’t want to inch this stuff along,” he added.

The panel took action to deem three properties blighted and send them to the next step in the process — 200 Horton Ave., 14 W. Main St. and 17 Hall St.

County staff presented photos from the Horton Avenue owner that showed windows replaced and purportedly a stabilized front porch.

“I would dispute some of the information you received,” Labesky said, noting that the front porch is “falling off the house.”

He said any chances to the property make the property “only worse than it was rather than better.”

Someone took up residence in the property and Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said the county should work more directly with the municipalities regarding status changes with these properties.

County Planner Dan Glotz said there is a template for how a property can be posted as a blighted property to prevent someone moving in.

At 14 W. Main St., Labesky said there have been people working at the residence but Pascuzzi said it is uninhabited and in a “falling-down condition.”

“The rest of the building is a mess, too,” Eggleston said.

Labesky said 17 Hall St. has been unoccupied for over 10 years and that there are adjacent properties owners eager to purchase the property and demolish the structure.

The owner told the commission that the cost to demolish was in the range of $10,000, an amount he could not afford.

“It’ll have to come down,” Labesky acknowledged.

Pascuzzi recommended that the owner make sure the property is “buttoned-up and secured for your safety” for liability reasons.”

Work has been undertaken at 336 Horton Ave. and the panel tabled action on that property given the progress.

The committee briefly discussed the former Columbus Library at 16 E. Main St. Glotz said the panel gave the owner until October to come back with a plan for the future of that parcel.