City tears down tenements
WOONSOCKET – Two large tenements on Dulude Avenue – including one that served as a “stash” house for a three-state drug-trafficking conspiracy that was broken up by federal agents in 2017 – are no more.
The boxy multi-families that stood shoulder-to-shoulder – 34-38 Burnside Ave. and 46-48 Burnside Ave. – are the latest targets of Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s blight eradication and density reduction program.
The J.R. Vinagro Corporation of Johnston won a $79,000 contract to demolish the structures, a job that began on Thursday and is expected to take several days to complete. The two dwellings, comprising nine housing units, were emblematic of the residential architecture that exists in a neighborhood known for some of the biggest tenements in the city.
The demolition was funded through one of Baldelli-Hunt’s pet programs aimed at decluttering congested neighborhoods to eliminate eye-pollution, create more open space, parking or free
up land for private investment.
In this case, %aldelli +unt said she’s open to marNeting the property for the development of new housing that provides more diversity to the housing stocN.
³(liminating some of that density, we allow for a little more breathing room and open space,´ the mayor said. ³3otentially we could subdivide and re coup some of our costs.´
In 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that 34 %urnside Ave. was being used as a warehouse of sorts ± a stash house in law enforcement par lance ± for three brothers to supply a steady stream of cocaine and opiates, imported from 0e[ico, to destinations in the +artford, %oston and 3rovidence metropolitan areas. The long term investigation that led to the arrest of the siblings ± and 15 others ± had been dubbed Operation Triple 3lay.
%aldelli +unt said both homes had a less than stel lar reputation with the city’s treasury and minimum housing enforcement department. %oth residences carried hefty ta[ bills that were long in arrears. They also had a lengthy list of minimum housing viola tions that had been unresolved for some time.
The ta[ obligations on the properties were so high that potential bidders steered clear of buying them at regular ta[ sales. So the city eventually stepped in to pay the debt.
That paved the way for the city to file an action in Superior Court to acquire the title to the properties. After having done so, there were still families living in some units of the buildings. (yeing demolition of the structures, the city worNed with a number of agencies to find alternative living arrangements for them before the wrecNer showed up.
The mayor, for whom blight eradication has been a marquee cause since she was first elected in 2013, says the program is very popular with constituents because, well, who liNes living ne[t door to blighted property"
³This is a quality of life issue,´ says the mayor. ³If I had a bigger budget, I would demolish more.´
)unding levels for the program are far below what they were in some of the early budgets of the %aldelli +unt administration. %ut the city has spent more than 500,000 to tear down ugly, abandoned or otherwise troubled residential structures during the last few years, and the program Neeps chugging along, resulting in the elimination of 37 properties to date.
This year ± an uncertain time for municipalities as the state faces massive revenue shortfalls due to CO9I' 1 ± %aldelli +unt proposed 125,000 to maintain the program. 'espite the City Council’s tweaNing of %aldelli +unt’s 152.2 million spend ing plan for the fiscal year that began July 1, the lev el of funding requested for blight eradication was basically left untouched, according to Councilman James Cournoyer.
The council cut the request by 50,000, accord ing to Cournoyer, but it transferred the same amount to another line item in the Community 'evelopment %locN *rant account that’s used for the same pur pose.