Buckeye Lake Looks To County To Help Demolish Vacant Homes

The mayor of Buckeye Lake said on Wednesday that he hoped to receive a portion of a $1 million grant to help demolish vacant, blighted homes.

Mayor Rick Baker said that a home that sits on the corner of Myer Avenue and Monroe Street is among the worst of the vacant houses in the village, 10TV’s Jessa Goddard reported.

The home is one of 24 properties village officials hoped to receive money from Licking County to demolish.

“This is probably the priority house,” Baker said. “I’m very optimistic that we’ll get funding to clean this up.”

Sandra Foster said that she opened Our Lakeside Diner, located on Hebron Road, six years ago.

“You try to run a business and you’ve got houses all around you that are just eyesores,” Foster said.

In the past three years, two houses on each side of Foster's diner have fallen vacant, Goddard reported.

"You see trash falling out from underneath the house,” Foster said. “It’s just holes in the roof in the house over there, windows knocked out of this house.’

Foster said that her customers know her diner's reputation and look past the rundown, empty houses nearby.

The business owner said that she was still concerned about the number of out-of-town travelers that turn away because of the blight.

Baker said that he expected to find out in a few weeks how much of a $1 million grant Buckeye Lake would receive.

"Almost every street might have a bad house on it, but most of the houses are decent houses,” Baker said. “So, we need to clean up the whole village.”

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