Sean C. Morgan
The neighborhood around Poplar Street and 11th Avenue is much quieter now in the wake of a foreclosure by Linn County and the demolition of an old house on the corner.
In 2012, neighbor Gerritt Schaffer was fed up with ongoing disruptions from the people living in and visiting the house.
Property tax payments had fallen five years behind by 2012 for 1650 11th Ave. The owner, Dennis Duncan was deceased. The county foreclosed in an accelerated process because the owner wasn’t living in the house at the end of 2012.
In the year up to that point, traffic increased day and night, and Schaffer had watched money exchanging hands in the front yard. People would gather in the yard around a bonfire, drinking whiskey, cussing and yelling, passing around a joint. He also had problems with vandalism.
Schaffer frequently called the police.
After the foreclosure hearing, the occupants left the home, and it grew quieter.
Linn County demolished the house in January, said County Commissioner Roger Nyquist. “It was a unique situation. I’ve never seen anything like it in 15 years. Glad to get it resolved. I wish we could’ve done that faster. That really had some urgency to it, and that was a problem.”
The county boarded it up, it went through the hearing process and “then it just sat vacant,” Schaffer said. Since then, “even with the eyesore, it’s been quiet at least for me right here.”
Two men in his neighborhood regularly walk the area and check in with everybody, he said.
“That was a major change,” Schaffer said. “Without that here, I’m not out here calling the police every night at 3 a.m.”