LYNN — More than five months after the city of Lynn handed over a foreclosed property on 47 Walnut St. to Tracy Elementary School, the house was demolished.
The city took possession of the house in 2015 after it was tax foreclosed. Ward 2 City Councilor Rick Starbard serves as chairman of the Public Property and Parks Committee. He said that the house was found in unsalvageable condition.
“Because of all the animals that had been in there, the urine had just gotten into all the floor joists so the house was not salvageable. I had always said we could expand the footprint here [Tracy] a little bit, add to the parking […] we were working on it, but we just couldn’t get it to come together because we needed to allocate the money to demolish it,” Starbard said.
Starbard said the city allocated funding toward the demolition when Mayor Jared Nicholson took office. The property, he said, sucked maintenance resources from the city, and wasted viable land that could have been of use to the elementary school.
“The city had to maintain it — we had to shovel the snow in for a vacant property and it just made no sense. This is a pretty landlocked property as it is, so it would make no sense to dispose of a property adjacent to a school,” Starbard said.
Since the abandoned house was in such close proximity to Tracy Elementary School, the demolition eliminated any risk that curious children might wander inside and get hurt, Starbard added.
After collaboration with the school district’s building and grounds committee, city council voted to give the lot to Tracy Elementary on Sept. 13.
Building and Grounds Committee Chair Lorraine Gately said that the annexed land could fit two of the school’s needs — parking spaces or a recess area for the children.
“It would be a good space for them. They could have a place for recess, or they could use that space for parking, and their current parking area, on the right side of the building, for recess,” Gately said.
Gately said that the repurposed land was a good example of the work that could be done “when city council and the school committee work together.”
City Council President Jay Walsh worked alongside Starbard, the mayor’s office, and the Building and Grounds Committee to advocate for the land’s repurposing. He said that the house had been a cause for concern for residents in the neighborhood.
“The neighborhood gets a derelict house that was in total disrepair, eliminated and cleans up the neighborhood and it also gets that school department a little bit more land that we know that they’re in dire need for,” Walsh said.
Construction crews are expected to finish filling the demolition site within a week. After the city paves the land, Starbard said, it should be ready for use.
In a written statement Sunday, Mayor Jared Nicholson called the demolition a “great step forward” for the city and the product of different governmental sectors working together to achieve a common goal.
“This will be a positive step forward for the school and the neighborhood made possible by great collaboration among the neighbors, City, School Department, Council, School Committee,” Nicholson said.
