Pa. National Guard to help remove Monessen blight
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Plans are underway for the removal of this dilapidated building at Third Street and Schoonmaker Avenue in Monessen.
Monessen blight one
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
An alley behind the 500 block of Donner Avenue in Monessen if closed because of a collapsing building.
MONESSEN – The Pennsylvania National Guard is due to arrive in Monessen as early as April to assist in removing an overwhelming number of dilapidated buildings, a city councilman said.
Councilman David Feehan said the guard will be coming with a general plan to demolish properties, but that specific sites have yet to be determined.
“We have the ball rolling,” Feehan said Monday. “I’m trying.”
Feehan reached out to the guard for help in September after finding out it had sent an engineering crew to Beaver Falls to help deal with blight.
The city is still considering two existing bids for the demolition of a large, three-story brick building on the verge of collapsing at Third Street and Schoonmaker Avenue, Feehan said.
He said the Westmoreland County municipality is awaiting state funds to pay for that project.
The heart of the downtown is lined with blight. A former mini-mall was being demolished Monday in the 500 block of Donner Avenue. Meanwhile, two nearby buildings have collapsed, forcing the closure this year of a Citizens Bank branch. And an alley behind the 500 block of Donner is closed due to a collapsing building. There are hundreds of other abandoned houses in this Mon Valley city in Westmoreland County.
The guard has a unit named the Pennsylvania Counterdrug Task Force whose members eliminate or board up abandoned buildings that have been identified as potential drug havens.