MANSFIELD, Ohio — Demolition of the residence located at 36 Randall Road–the site of the roughly 27-hour standoff in April–will take place soon.
H & T Demolition will perform the demolition on Aug. 15.
Previous homeowner Jonathan Parker donated the home to the Richland County Land Reutilization Corporation–a nonprofit entity that oversees the county land bank.
“Jonathan Parker owned it, but he lives in the Philippines. His wife’s sister lives up here, and it was his wife’s sister and her husband who were given power of attorney,” said land bank administrator Amy Hamrick.
She explained, “Power of attorney is a legal document that gives someone else the right to sign away property for you.”
Parker’s brother, David Parker, was involved in the police standoff, which began the morning of April 27 after a Columbia Gas employee called 911 to report that a man (David Parker) had pointed a gun at him when approaching the home.
The standoff ended the next day when police reported they shot David Parker after he fired on them.
Hamrick said that Jonathan Parker allowed his brother to stay in the home on two conditions: that he pay the property taxes–which he did not do–and that he make the insurance payments.
“Jonathan Parker was not aware that his property insurance had lapsed, so he had no insurance to help recover the damages,” she said.
She added that there were approximately $2,200 in back taxes.
RCLRC voted to take ownership of the property in May and officially became the owner July 28.
“We wanted the family to have time to get their things out,” Hamrick said.
“Plus there were legal issues we had to get worked out, too,” added RCLRC chairman Bart Hamilton.
“The big thing here is that we did not want to see the property abandoned,” he said. “It would be very easy for someone who lives out of the country to just walk away from this and do absolutely nothing, and then where would the neighbors be?”
The process to have the building demolished has been much quicker than most that RCLRC handles.
“Normally, to get the asbestos analysis, it takes about six weeks. In this case we got it in two days. We paid extra for a rush,” Hamrick said.
Hamilton added they worked with the utility companies to see that house was ready for demolition as quickly as possible.
“We’ve done everything we can do to try to get this demolition done as quickly as possible,” he said, noting, “We want to help those people in that neighborhood out.”
The house was severely damaged during the standoff. “There were battering rams that knocked the sides of the house down,” Hamilton said. Water was also pumped into the basement to get Parker out, later causing a mold infestation.
Hamrick said, “We have neighbors complaining about the stench coming out of the house.”
The house will be abated Aug. 14–the day before it will be demolished. The demolition and abatement cost $12,500, which will be paid for using Neighborhood Initiative Program (NIP) funds.
Already, letters have been sent to the next-door neighbors to see if they would be interested in purchasing the plot of land.
“We think that makes the most sense. We’ve found with our land bank that the person who seems to really have the most interest in [maintaining the property] is the person who lives next door to that vacant property,” explained Hamilton.
