Tracking down the right owner can be a challenge when a municipality looks to address blighted properties.

That can be an even bigger challenge when a governmental agency or other company owns a parcel.

That’s what the City of Warren Blighted Property Review Committee dealt with during its Thursday meeting regarding the property at 15 N. Irvine St.

Scott Taylor, the city’s code officials, said the property has been posted condemned and uninhabitable.

“It has been exchanging hands between mortgage companies for the last couple of years,” he said. “The neighborhood is not pleased with this house.”

Online county assessment records list the current owner as the “Secretary of Veterans Affairs.”

Taylor said there has been some abatement done at the property as the inside has been cleaned out.

He said the structure “potentially would be salvageable” and is located “in a nice neighborhood” though it needs a new roof, with a maintenance company tarping the roof in the last year.

Taylor added that there are property maintenance issues but said it can be “difficult” to find the appropriate person to speak with regarding the property.

He told the committee that the property may have recently been sold.

Committee chair Ray Pring then raised concern about notice, which prompted the committee to table action.

Taylor noted that the structure is secured and “not in fear of collapse.”

10 NESMITH ST.

The committee approved a second blight declaration against the property at 10 Nesmith St.

Taylor said there have been conversations between the owner and a potential buyer.

“The plan intended is to demolish that structure,” he said, “and rebuild on the same footprint.”

It’s a small structure and Taylor said the lot size is about half the size of a typical city lot.

Director of Codes and Planning Randy Rossey said the “potential owner is very aware of what needs to be done.”