- Associated Press - Wednesday, January 22, 2014

BICKNELL, Ind. (AP) - A downtown revitalization project scheduled to begin this fall may be stalled unless the city can find the money to raze a group of condemned buildings in the 100 block of Main Street.

“We’re already scheduled to start on the revitalization of downtown later this year, so I’d really like these (buildings) down before we get started down there,” said Mayor Jon Flickinger. “These buildings are just falling in and falling down, we don’t need that kind of liability when people are working down there and when we’re pouring money into the renovation of that area.

“It would just be best if we were able to get them to come down before that starts,” he said. “I really just don’t want them falling down on anyone when we’re working out there, and when we have new sidewalks put in.”

The only limitation to bring down the buildings at 105, 107 and 111 Main St. is money, Flickinger told the Vincennes Sun-Commercial (https://bit.ly/1eA1R5r ).

“We’ve already got some sealed bids (to do the work) but we can’t open them until we come up with the money,” the mayor said. “This is a long and slow process, but we have to do something now because they’re just falling down, they’re in such bad condition they could fall on themselves, on neighboring businesses or even someone who’s minding their own business walking down the street.”

City attorney Michael Edwards said funding may become available through state legislation aimed at helping communities deal with such abandoned properties. But if such funding becomes available there will be a lot of competition for it from larger cities.

Edwards said he hopes if it becomes available Bicknell can get even a small share of it, because that may be the only way the city can pay for the demolitions.

“If those dollars don’t come into play, I’m not sure where the funding would come from,” he said. “The board would have to decide on the next course of action at that point.”

Flickinger said even if the county or the city can secure additional funds, it’d still may be a tight schedule to complete the work before the downtown revitalization is set to begin.

The mayor’s not sure what the state would say if the city asked to delay the downtown revitalization project until after the buildings are town down.

“I’m not sure if the state will allow us to delay that project a month or two if we need to,” Flickinger said. “I’d like to think they would, but I really just don’t know.

“We’re getting new street lights, we’re getting new sidewalks, the last thing I’d want to do is ruin those by action or inaction on these buildings,” he said. “We need these buildings down before we start, we can’t let it interfere with the revitalization project - we worked too hard for that grant.”

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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, https://www.vincennes.com

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