Lawmaker proposes grant program, to allow communities to address dilapidated structures

BEATRICE – A Nebraska State Senator is proposing help for villages and second-class cities to address dilapidated, vacant or abandoned buildings.
Senator Myron Dorn of Adams has introduced a bill (LB 45) that would establish a grant program for villages and towns. They could apply for grants to help demolish dilapidated buildings. If any grant support is left over, first class cities could make application to the program, administered by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy.

"Many of these buildings have absentee or out-of-state owners who either no longer care or no longer can afford to demolish the buildings they own. Even more, they create a safety hazard and an environmental hazard. Oftentimes, these buildings share a wall to a business next door, which also puts that business property at risk, as well."

The bill would direct the legislature to appropriate ten million dollars for each fiscal year from 2023-24…..through 2027-28. Communities using the grant support would have to provide matching funds…whether in-kind support or cash.  Dorn and Senator Tom Brandt visited Hebron this past fall and saw several buildings crumbling along with a community that wants to address the issue, but doesn’t have the funds to do so. Dorn says it convinced him of the need for state help.
Hebron City Clerk Jana Tietjen said town residents, in a survey from 2020, used words such as neglected, embarrassing, dilapidated and unattractive to describe downtown buildings.

"Since 2020, Hebron has been fortunate to receive CDBG downtown revitalization funds to rehab the facades of seventeen buildings. But these funds do not address the dilapidated, unsafe commercial structures that are adjoining them."

Tietjen says the community doesn’t want to create empty spaces, but promote economic development. She says Hebron isn’t the only community with dilapidated buildings.

"We've looked at the city purchasing some of these vacant buildings to do rehabilitation to them. The problem with it, is the last grant, I could only get $90,000. When we looked at the building and had a professional contractor look at it, they realized that the roof was a wood structure that was completely rotted out. Just to complete that roof was over $350,000...and that does not include the other rehabilitation that needs to be done to the building."

In Thayer County in the village of Chester, there are four buildings that are extremely dilapidated, but with little funds to accomplish demolition. Tietjen says poorly conditioned buildings can constitute a safety hazard.  Geneva City Administrator Kyle Svec says his community wants to address dilapidated buildings, but just doesn’t have the money to do it.

"Money's tight, in these types of communities for this purpose. We all know that. What I wanted to talk is that what this really means is economic development. There's things that are put in place in rural areas that really help.....TIF, there's fiber, LB 840 has been mentioned....housing monies...this LB 45 fits right in with that kind of thing....and it can work together."

As written in the bill, villages would have to match 10-percent of the grant….second-class cities, 15-percent…..and first-class cities, 20-percent. Dorn acknowledged that those amounts could be adjusted.  The bill, which proposes the Revitalize Rural Nebraska Grant Program, was before the legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee, on Tuesday.