Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
County officials demolished a former methamphetamine house Monday at the north end of 13th Avenue, above the railroad tracks.
Commissioner John Lindsay said the house was the first of three, two of them in the Sweet Home area, that will be demolished per order of the County Commission.
The house, at the end of the street, north of Nandina Street, was used “quite some time ago” for a methamphetamine lab, said Rick Portipilo, county environmental health manager. The county foreclosed on the property in September 2005, he said.
“It sat for years as an abandoned house,” Portipilo said. “The board decided to tear it down.”
He said the next step, after the cleanup is completed by Atez, a drug lab remediation contractor, will be to auction off the property. County road workers did the actual demolition.
Lindsay said experience has shown that removing such drug houses often results in a different neighborhood.
“Historically, this is how they get rid of crack houses,” he said. “You get rid of the house, someone builds something else, and the neighborhood is changed.”