Citing concerns about blight and public safety, Butler County commissioners agreed Monday, May 17, to purchase the Fairgrove Mobile Home Park off Ohio 4 just north of Hamilton.
“It’s just a nuisance,” said Commissioner Donald Dixon. “It’s got to be cleaned up. It affects all the properties around it.”
The county will pay property owners Damon and Kimberly Steiner of Hamilton $70,000 for the property. Officials expect to spend another $30,000 clearing it.
Commissioners will then give it to the Butler County Engineer’s Office next door, which has eyed the property for years to get heavy trucks in and out of its compound.
“We can use the road to access the back of our property,” said Chris Petrocy, engineer’s office spokesman. “It was an opportunity that presented itself.”
The county will use Neighborhood Stabilization Program money for the project. The federal grant is intended to ease the housing crisis by addressing the problem of foreclosed, abandoned and blighted buildings.
Robert Neely has lived next to the mobile home park for 30 years. He said he’ll be happy to see it go.
“All that’s going on now is people stealing things off the trailers,” he said.
The park covers less than an acre off Ohio 4 just outside Hamilton in Fairfield Twp., across from the Hamilton Quick Stop. It contains 16 trailers, a house and a laundry building.
All have been abandoned since the water and gas were turned off in June 2009, according to Donna Everson, Butler County community development director.
“It was about to go into foreclosure,” she said. “(The owners) don’t have the means to fix it up, so they’ve pretty much just let it go.
“Because it was abandoned and it was a health and safety issue, we were able to acquire it,” she said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.
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