Photo by Jerry Sowden - Jim Hibbard, a maintenance inspector for the City of Oil City, takes pictures in the side yard of a property littered with trash. The property is hidden from view by trees and shrubs on a steep hill near the Allegheny River.

The June 30 written request to Oil City code enforcement officer Ed Yard minced no words: The house on Colbert Avenue has "deplorable living conditions" and "structural damage."

Those descriptions, offered by the Oil City Fire Department after a dispatched crew responded to a 911 call at the home, automatically tripped out Yard whose job is to investigate and enforce health and safety codes.

"The gas company, fire department, an ambulance driver, a neighbor - anyone can file a complaint with us and, if I feel there is an endangerment, I have the right to investigate it. If they refuse, I can get a warrant," Yard said.

The symptoms Yard addresses range from unsafe wiring and faulty natural gas lines to extreme mold, rodent or insect infestation, structural failure and more.

If one or more of the code violations present a serious safety or health issue, Yard issues a condemnation notice - Oil City has 78 such notices tacked up on properties within the city.

Their prevalence, added to scores of other structures that are dilapidated to a point just short of condemnation, has stirred up Oil City Council to launch a blight eradication program. It is in its very early stages and does not yet field a committee or follow a strategy or pack a bank account.

Even as council moves to deal with the problem, Yard and his assistant, property maintenance inspector Jim Hibbard, continue to see the blighted property numbers grow. At the head of the numbers line are the worst of the lot - condemned properties

"That condemnation sign is to protect the public because no one is allowed in the structure except the owners," Yard said. "A house can be condemned even if people are living there. I give them time to get out and find another place to live. You can't live in it - but you can fix it."

Not every condemned home stays that way, Yard said.

Some success stories

"Some of those signs won't come off because the buildings are too dangerous. But there are a lot of success stories, too. People do invest in and fix the properties - about 20 percent have people working on them," Yard said.

The "fixing" part of a condemned building focuses on property maintenance. Unsafe wiring? Repair it to meet standard property code safety requirements and the condemnation notice will come off. The repair requires a building permit which gives an owner 60 days to do the work. It can be renewed, too.

"We have a lot of people who cooperate with us. We talk to them and work with them as to property maintenance, from cutting their grass to repairing a condemned house," Hibbard said.

Regardless of the successes, though, the eye-catchers remain the decrepit and seedy Oil City properties in arrears for so long that the condemnation notices are themselves ragtag and torn.

It is those properties that confound Yard who laments there is no easy solution.

The Colbert Avenue house pointed out as deplorable by the fire department requires a visit from Yard and a city policeman. Hidden from view by untended trees and shrubs on a steep hill, the two-story house has a front porch that at its base has become detached from the foundation, a crumbling rear wall, a side yard filled with assorted trash as well as the carcass of a car. At least four dogs are on short tethers along a barren hillside.

Despite knocking on the door and loudly announcing the presence of "the code officer," Yard got no response at the property. Later in the day, he reached the property owner in South Carolina, told him there were significant code violations at the site, including a collapsed back wall that fits the condemnation standard, and directed him to fix them.

"If that conversation hadn't been held, and the guy hadn't said he would fix it, I would have posted the condemnation notice," Yard said. "Now, we wait some until we see repairs made."

Yard points to a vacant house right next door that appears to be in some stage of renovation.

"It was condemned before and then somebody bought it for $500 at a tax sale. He began renovating it, ran out of money and here it sits, empty," Yard said.

Misleading Internet photos

The buy-it-cheap on the delinquent tax list maneuver is a major culprit in Oil City's worrisome housing scenario. Yard said the county's property listing on the Internet entices buyers who "end up looking at an old picture and think it's a good deal." Buyers scoff up the properties in limbo, plugged there because of multiple years of back tax delinquencies, at usually no more than the minimum price of $500.

"Someone buys it, puts some money in it and then realizes that the repairs will cost too much. Then they walk away from it. And they won't tear it down because that costs too much - $6,000 to $8,000 to demolish and cart away," Yard said.

One such property on Bissell Avenue was bought by an out-of-towner looking for bargains over the Internet.

"He looked at a picture that was old and when he got here, he found the plumbing and wiring had been completely stripped from the building. So he said he had no money to fix it. I condemned it a year ago but I would tear it down tomorrow if I had the money," Yard said.

The pattern of condemnation-purchase-abandonment can be repeated again and again, Yard said. A house can be labeled as condemned but still purchased for back taxes. Yard then directs the new owner to make repairs in order to have the condemnation order lifted.

Sometimes, that works, he said.

"We keep track of people working on their condemned properties and as long as I see progress, I don't care how long it takes. I'll work with them," said Yard as he slowly drives up Pearl Avenue, home to a number of condemned houses. "Look at this street. It was once the worst but it's starting to clean up with siding and porch repairs."

More often, it does not work.

"For the out-of-town owners, everything is in litigation....I can keep taking them to court and they can keep paying the fines but they don't have the money to tear down the house so we end up with junk properties. They are condemned and there they stand, unless someone buys them and then we start all over again," Yard said.

Blight in every area of OC

There are sections of blight in every area within the city, Hibbard said.

"It's sad. We have the good and the bad in every neighborhood. I understand people getting upset that this is happening on their block but we're doing everything we can within the law," he said.

Oil City has torn down some condemned properties but the process is cumbersome, slow and expensive, Yard said. A dozen garages or homes have either been demolished or are in the process of being demolished this year. The city paid for razing four of the homes. Next year, seven buildings are on the demolition list.

As for vacant lots that have been abandoned, Hibbard and Yard try to convince neighbors to maintain those properties for aesthetic reasons or buy them in order to expand their turf.

Although cautious as to advocating the cheap purchase of buildings in tax arrears, Yard believes there are opportunities for success.

Standing at the corner of Spruce Street and Cooper Avenue, Yard gestures up the hill at two properties. Both are vacant and condemned. One is a house and the other is a former neighborhood shop that was heavily damaged in a fire.

"The old store is beyond repair. The owner is in a convalescent home and the place is on the tax list. Obviously, it needs to be torn down but who pays for that? The city doesn't have the money," Yard said. "But, for an investor, this is the ideal corner to buy because it's zoned commercial. You could get multiple lots, plus the old (Spruce Street) store across the street is empty. The owner, who's from Colorado, did some renovations and then walked away."

The bulk of the privately owned and condemned properties are in litigation as the city presses the owners to make repairs. Meanwhile, they slip into tax arrears and are picked up on the cheap by would-be property developers. That starts the condemn-buy-repair-abandon cycle all over again.

It is those buildings with overwhelming repair costs bedevil efforts to eradicate Oil City blight.

"It's the money for demolition - we don't have it," Yard said.

Obstacles to demo plans

There are legal and bureaucratic obstacles to demolition plans. Oil City uses Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), or state funding, to raze buildings. Yard said that requires pre-approvals and "lots of paperwork" and eventual endorsement from the state, a process that consumes a long time.

Standing on Emerald Street, Yard looks over at a burned-out home. A 2006 fire destroyed much of the building, a single-family home owned by a Greenville woman. It has been condemned and the owner has been notified that its existing condition "violates the property maintenance code" and she must tear it down, Yard said.

That overture hasn't gone anywhere in 18 months.

"We've sent numerous letters. If the city had money, we could tear it down and lien her property in Greenville. But we don't have that money up front so we just wait," Yard said. "That's what we need to do - create an emergency fund to do at least the fire-damaged ones."

The house next door also is condemned and its windows are boarded up, a safety courtesy of the code enforcement office. Owned by a businessman, the residence shows little signs of any renovation work.

Such blight is hurting neighborhoods, insists fellow Emerald Street resident Carl Rodgers who lives in a neat, pretty little house just a few doors away. The 86-year-old retiree and his wife have owned their home for 60 years.

"We keep our house nice, our grass cut. But you know what they say: if one house has windows broken out, soon you'll have them all over. All the Oil City neighborhoods are falling apart and something needs to be done," Rodgers said. "I think Ed (Yard) is doing his job but the city at least needs to get the fire ones down. I know it costs money but we need a bigger push."