After securing signatures from most of the property’s owners, the City of Algood has torn down and cleaned up a long-vacant house on Main Street that had fallen into severe disrepair.
The update follows ongoing efforts by city officials to address the deteriorating property at 164 Main Street. Algood City Administrator Keith Morrison said the city ultimately had to locate seven individuals with ownership interests in the home, six of whom agreed to sign their portions over to the city.
“The property had fell into disrepair and needed to be torn down, and there were relatives that had owned it that had passed away, so it had heired to family members.”
With those six signatures, Morrison said the city became the majority owner of the property, allowing demolition and cleanup work to move forward.
“Once we had six signatures, we were majority owners, so we were able to tear the house down and clean it up,” Morrison said.
Morrison said the structure was in extremely poor condition before it was removed.
“The roof had already fell in, the floor had fell in, there was huge holes in it, the windows were collapsing,” Morrison said. “It was just in terrible disrepair.”
City officials are still working with the remaining owner and addressing a TennCare issue tied to the property before determining its final status.
“We’ll have to work with TennCare, ’cause there is a TennCare issue with the house,” Morrison said. “Once all of that’s cleared, then we’ll come back to council and decide what to do at that point.”
Morrison said the cleanup itself marked a major milestone for the city.
“We’ve got it torn down and cleaned up, which was the big step,” Morrison said.
Looking ahead, Morrison said the small parcel will likely be incorporated into nearby city-owned property.
“It’s such a small parcel, and we already own all the property up to it with the tennis court,” Morrison said. “So we’ll probably just add it to the tennis court property and then figure out something we can do with it from there.”