Panel condemns three houses

Seneca County General Health District’s Board of Health voted to condemn three vacant Seneca County houses before they are sold at auction and rescind a previous condemnation during a meeting Thursday. Environmental Director Laura Wallrabenstein told board members the three houses did not necessarily need to be demolished, but all were “unfit for human habitation” as they are now. She said 212 and 216 E. North St. in Fostoria were owned by Timothy and Candace Harding and had been surrendered to the county auditor and state for non-payment of taxes. The houses are to be sold at a “dollar auction” in September, Wallrabenstein said. “That’s why I wanted to get them condemned, so someone wouldn’t pick them up dirt cheap and think they could just sit on them forever,” she said. She said at least one of the houses has a hole in a basement window “which would let critters in.” She said she would attend the auction to inform potential buyers that the houses would need either to be demolished or brought into compliance within six months, with the possibility of extending the deadline if the new owners make progress on the necessary renovation. Wallrabenstein said 6087 E. TR 122 in Republic, owned by Joshua J. Walters, was rendered uninhabitable after being damaged by fire in 2014 and is “really spooky-looking.” She told the board the property would be brought to auction May 19. “I want to be able to stand up at that tax auction and say, ‘You buy this house, you’ve got to do something,'” she said. The board rescinded its condemnation of 802 Hart Ave., Fostoria. Wallrabenstein said the property’s new owner, Randy L. Cunningham, had made the improvements necessary to rescind. The house had been condemned in 2013, Wallrabenstein said. “Mr. Cunningham was not the owner when we did the condemnation,” she said. “He proceeded to do a nice remodel.” Also at the meeting, Health Commissioner Beth Schweitzer updated the board about the district’s work to meet the Ohio Department of Health’s requirement that county health departments become accredited with the Public Health Accreditation Board, a national organization. She said a committee of health commissioners had been meeting with ODH and the legislative committee working on the accreditation. She said the current expectation is health departments are to send accreditation documents to the Public Health Accreditation Board by July 1, 2018. Though the commissioners hope to see that deadline extended, Schweitzer said they had “really not made any headway, unfortunately.” She said the accreditation process requires much documentation, and preparing that documentation takes a lot of time. “It’s this timeline that they’ve put out that’s a little concerning for us,” she said. Schweitzer said the legislation regarding accreditation has not been finalized, but language indicates that county health departments must be accredited by 2020.