Elyria starts condemned home demolitions, credits NewsChannel5's Building Better Neighborhoods

ELYRIA, Ohio - The city of Elyria launched a new round of condemned home demolitions on South Maple Street, taking down one dilapidated house and made plans to demolish another in the coming days.

The demolitions are taking place on the same street where NewsChannel5 conducted its Building Better Neighborhoods clean-up last year, on Sept. 28.

The Elyria clean-up was led by NewsChannel5 anchor Chris Flanagan and 120 community volunteers who helped improve two dozen homes in the neighborhood.

Elyria Mayor Holly Brinda said she believes the Building Better Neighborhoods event helped spark home demolitions in that neighborhood and will result in additional community improvement projects this summer.

"I think people want to participate, sometimes they just need a mechanism to do that," Brinda said. "Building Better Neighborhoods really gave us the mechanism to rally around the community and the city learned something from that process."

Brinda reported dozens of other condemned homes will be demolished in 2013, thanks to the new city land bank and neighborhood stabilization program.

NewsChannel5 continues to try and spark neighborhood involvement by residents, who volunteer to make a difference when it comes to vacant and condemned properties. We're inviting residents to report nuisance properties through our Building Better Neighborhood initiative.

Just send us pictures and information on vacant homes in your neighborhood and we'll forward the information to your city building department, in an effort to move the properties to progress.

We are also giving residents information on how they can volunteer in their neighborhoods to make them better. Those interested in starting a volunteer effort in their neighborhood should contact Hands on Northeast Ohio for more information.