Possibility of Asbestos Holds up Demolition of Unsafe House

By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

In August, the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors approved requiring a landowner to clean up their property and demolish a dilapidated home within 30 days of notice.

However, that hasn’t happened yet, according to Joel Hollowell, building inspector for Lafayette County.

The next step would be for the county to send in crews to clean up the property located 8 CR 2001 and remove the house that was condemned in August. The cost for the cleanup and demolition would be added to the property owner’s taxes as a lien against the property.

The property has piles of industrial-sized empty food cans and scrap metal littering the yard. Old mattresses are piled on top of the debris. There is one house, that was condemned in August, and one mobile home on the property. A man rents and lives in the mobile home.

However, the demolition of the older home may be stalled since an inspector informed the county that it’s very possible some of the building materials in the house may contain asbestos.

Hollowell asked the supervisors to approve spending $750 to find out if there is, in fact, asbestos in the house to make sure it’s disposed of safely during demolition.

The supervisors voted to allow for the inspection, and for the county to move ahead with cleaning up the debris from the property.

The supervisors also approved going into property at 30 CR 514 to clean up weeds, rubbish and dilapidated outbuilding after granting the property 30 days to clean up the property in August.