Councilman: Marianna blight is overwhelming
Marianna Councilman Jeremy Berardinelli is shown on Seventh Street in front of an abandoned house that is a priority for demolition in the small borough.
Other examples of houses that were abandoned in Marianna
One of a string of abandoned houses on Seventh Street in Marianna
Marianna was an impressive and modern coal mining town when it grew up around Ten Mile Creek in 1908, so much so that President Theodore Roosevelt once hosted a tour there for international experts in the field.
The borough that once depended on one industry for its economic survival now serves as a model of what happens to a small, rural community in the decades after its coal mine permanently closed.
“This was the most modern coal mining town in America,” Marianna Councilman Jeremy Berardinelli said Monday as the borough began new plans to deal with the blighted and abandoned houses that litter its streets.
“Some houses are being rehabilitated,” Berardinelli said. “Others are too far gone. It’s overwhelming.”
Fifteen percent of Marianna’s 180 houses, 42 to be exact, landed on the list of blighted properties whose owners will receive letters from the borough instructing them to either demolish them or bring them up to code.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. There is just no money,” Berardinelli said.
The borough’s budget is supported by $213,000 in revenues this year, its records indicate, leaving little money for dealing with blight.
The municipality is further hampered in using federal grants to demolish the blight because the borough is listed on the National Register of Historic Districts. Unless it performs a complicated review and documentation process, it can’t get clearance to remove a house.
Some of the houses were purchased over the Internet, making it more challenging to locate their owners, borough secretary Stacie Brown said.
“There is a house on Seventh Street with no roof and a tree growing through it,” Brown said.
The historic district was created in 1984 because Marianna is a significant example of community planning and development around an industry, according to the National Register.
The Pittsburgh-Buffalo Co. constructed 261 yellow brick houses with indoor plumbing for its Marianna miners at a time when other companies in the area offered cramped frame dwelling with outhouses to its workers.
A fire in 1988 forever closed the mine, leaving Marianna’s business district in neighboring West Bethlehem Township to eventually become a ghost town.
Now, when the wind blows, it knocks bricks off the abandoned house next to where Chris Kelley lives on Third Street.
“My husband has gone over to screw-gun the front door closed,” Kelley said. “The chimney is falling apart. These properties detract from the historical significance of the town.”
Berardinelli said many municipalities in Washington County have problems with blight. West Beth has about 10 houses on its blight list, township supervisor Tom Donahoo said.
Berardinelli said commissioners in Washington County are willing to meet with Marianna officials to discuss the blight problem.
“They have made no promises,” he said.