Neighborhood Nuisance: two vacant homes in Lagrange concerning an elderly neighbor

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - At the corner of Chestnut and Noble sit two houses that have been empty for years.

Joanna Quinn, who lives next door, has been pushing to get them torn down for years.

“They’ve been like that for years. I’ve been calling the city about it constantly, trying to get them to tear them down. Cats, animals, people, everything trash all up in there,” said Quinn. " They keep saying, well it’s in court, they pay their taxes. Then they say it’s up for demolition, but they don’t know when. It’s just so close to me that I’m worried that it’s going to catch fire again, and next time I might not be so lucky.”

According to Quinn, the grass is dangerously tall, and it’s a constant battle for city crews to try to maintain.

″They barely cut it the other day. I mean you can’t even walk down the sidewalk or anything, with all that grass and weeds... I have to walk in the street to get by. Driving you can’t see on the corner because the leaves are so high,” said Quinn.

The City of Toledo said that inspectors have been to both properties in the last month, noting the high grass and debris in the yard. A city representative said they told the owners to clean it up, but nothing has been done. The two properties are on the city’s target demo list, but demolitions have slowed down as the city waits on funding from the state.

“Don’t give up. We are coming around. It’s going to eventually come down, it’s a long and arduous process to remove all of them throughout the city, and we had a lot of them when we started this,” said Stephanie Beebe, who is in charge of demolitions in the City of Toledo.

If you have a problem or a troubled property in your community send an email to willie.daniely@13abc.com.

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