City preparing to demolish 9 abandoned houses

Amsterdam is inking a deal to demolish nine properties the city foreclosed on earlier this year as part of an annual program to cut down on the amount of abandoned and dilapidated homes in the city.

“I wish we could tear down 10 times as much, but it’s prohibitive in cost,” said Amsterdam Mayor Michael Villa.

The properties are being demolished by Utica-based Ritter & Paratore Contracting Inc. for $247,000. In a resolution passed Wednesday authorizing the funds, city officials said Ritter & Paratore was the “lowest responsible bidder.”

Other bidders include Jackson Demolition, which gave an estimate of $317,800, Dan’s Hauling, which bid $329,700 and Cristo Demolition, which bid $469,000.

Villa said that this year the city has already foreclosed on over 350 properties, and is aggressively pursuing foreclosure proceedings against other abandoned properties and those that owe back taxes.

“It’s something we’re going to do every year. I don’t know what’s been done in the past, but obviously we have a lot of abandoned properties and properties that have been boarded up,” said Villa, who took office in 2015. “When this process began, I believe there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 [abandoned properties], so they foreclosed on somewhere near 400, some went into repayment agreements.”

Villa said each of the properties to be demolished is residential and, as far as he knows, unoccupied. Those properties include 5-7 Vedder St., 20 Bayard St., 258 W. Main St., 46 Union St., 20 Kimball St., 55-57 Guy Park Ave., 92 Grove St., 24 James St. and 30 Lyon St.