Nick McWilliams reporting – Through Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office, area municipalities will see large sums to remove unwanted and unsightly properties.

Just under 600 properties will be demolished statewide as a part of efforts to lower blight in the latest round of funding, with the total project coming in at just under 3,700 projects in all but one of Ohio’s 88 counties.

New Philadelphia Zoning and Building Code Administrator Josh Matthias says that six applications were accepted for the city, and the program assists with a handful of teardowns they had their eye on.

“Hearing that the money was available to help out, it kind of fit in to our plan already. We were already working on a few of these homes, and a couple new ones once we knew that the money would be available.”

Some of the buildings that fall under the funding for dilapidated structures are 842 East High Avenue, two properties on Ray Avenue, 1796 Cherry Street, and 234 Third Street Southwest.

Other municipalities benefitting include the Twin Cities with one teardown each and Dover, which has five structures that will be addressed under the grant dollars.

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