By: Charlotte Smith
In our article last week, “Home could soon face demolition”, Erin Smith reported a home in Elizabethtown is facing demolition. Since the news broke we discovered more details along the same subject matter should be shared with our readers.
First, yes, they can be eye sores for the community, but old abandoned property causes more problems for the community than aesthetics. Folks have been found trespassing in the abandoned properties, stealing assets found at the locations and even living in the buildings according to some law enforcement officers. North Carolina has laws strictly prohibiting trespassing.
Secondly, in our great state it is in violation of G.S. 14-71, to steal anything. The law states it is “unlawful to receive any property, the stealing or taking whereof amounts to larceny, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe the same to have been stolen.”
Last but not least, there are a lot of homes and properties needing destruction or repair. According to Eddie Madden, Elizabethtown Town Manger, the stately home in Elizabethtown on Broad Street is not the first or last house to face demolition.
Madden said in the past 18 months there have been four (4) properties around what is known as “New Town” in Elizabethtown to get demolished. There is an incentive program the town started to help home owners and property owners with dilapidated structures according to Madden.
Two other structures on Martin Street in Elizabethtown owned by Ms. Carolyn Smith are facing destruction to have new homes built on her properties, Madden reported. The area around Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has and is receiving 95% of the effort for this new incentive program due to the amount of old structures in the vicinity.
The incentive program makes the demolition process easier for some home owners according to Madden. Anyone interested in the Elizabethtown program is asked to contact Mrs. Billie Hall at (910)862-3979.
Bladen County Sheriff’s Office would like to take the opportunity to remind community members being found on abandoned property and/or taking items from abandoned properties may be a violation of the law.
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