Members of the City Council’s Housing Committee look at a spreadsheet detailing the status of demolitions in the city during their Monday meeting. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Housing demolitions are picking up speed in Jamestown.

A spreadsheet was discussed at Monday’s City Council Housing Committee meeting detailing a status update from the Chautauqua County Land Bank that is handling ARPA-funded demolitions in the city. Some of the properties on the spreadsheet were marked as having their demolition bids due Dec.13.

“There’s two more that will be coming down, it might be kind of tight to get them in before the end of the year, but it will be very soon if not before the end of the year, I would venture January, February,” said Crystal Surdyk, city development director. “And then towards the bottom you will see there are three more having their asbestos inspections, with the bids due today. So, those ones will move forward as well.”

Surdyk said there has been quite a bit of demolition activity, with a few on Prendergast Avenue that are just about done and on the ground for the most part. About 10 demolitions were shown on the spreadsheet to have been completed.

Surdyk added that a lot of progress is being made by the Chautauqua County Land Bank.

“You’ll see that so far they have had over half a million dollars in project costs to date,” Surdyk said. “And that’s since they started their project with us, so they are making very good progress.”

The sheet did not reflect the demolitions planned that will be utilizing matching funds from the state through the Homes and Community Renewal program, so Surdyk said a number of demolitions will still be coming that utilize those funds, and that the report is just from the American Rescue Plan funded demolitions.

Total project costs and some looking like they were under or over bid were discussed by the committee, along with emergency demolitions that will utilize Community Development Block Grant funding. It was noted that the city is making headway with these demolitions, and that there is a schedule now.

“It’s a busy time of year for demolitions,” Brent Sheldon, R-Ward I said.

Surdyk also said that there are not a lot of contractors that are bidding for demolitions, and that it is usually the same three or four all of the time.

“But you know, they’re consistent and they’re reliable and they’re local,” Surdyk said. “The out of towners don’t tend to unless there’s a large enough of a contract where it makes sense for them, but they don’t tend to bid. If it was a great big building, like a commercial structure that would make more sense for the out of towners, but you know the houses where they can knock down two or three a day, that makes more sense for the locals.”