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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Address: 1310 Bowman Ave., Lower Price Hill
Owner: James Paul and Patricia Sue Collins of Harrison
Year Built: 1883
Value: $16,300 in 2001, down from $20,500 in 1998, according to the Hamilton County Auditor's Office
Comments: This building is slip-sliding away, according to report by the Cincinnati Department of Buildings and Inspections, which says the foundation has "failed and it is sliding down the hill."
The report also says, "Windows and doors are racked and the barricades are repeatedly stripped and the building sits open. This is an attractive nuisance and a public safety hazard."
James Paul and Patricia Sue Collins bought the building in 1995 for $42,000, according to the Hamilton County Auditor's Office.
The building is in foreclosure, and the owners are delinquent on taxes of $2,291.08.
Bobbye Wood, inspector for the Department of Buildings and Inspections, says that in the six years she has been working on the Lower Price Hill area she has had no contact with the owners of the property.
There are all sorts of stop-gaps along the way of the process at which an owner can intercede, but they often don't, Wood says.
In June, she issued a noncompliance citation, meaning "They didn't contact me, they didn't tear it down and they didn't do anything to (the building)," Wood says.
The two-story, two-bedroom building was condemned in May. The next step is to place the building on the "dead buildings list." Then comes a hearing and declaration the building is a public nuisance. Bids will eventually be taken to have the building demolished.
The owners could not be reached for comment by phone and a letter sent to their address was returned as undeliverable.
BLIGHT OF THE WEEK is an effort to highlight the problem of abandoned buildings -- and who's responsible for them.
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