24 More Hoffman Grove Homes May Be Demolished

The town council will vote Wednesday on whether or not to award a contract to demolish two dozen homes in the Hoffman Grove section of town.

If the council approves the $174,000 contract between the township and Grinnell Recycling Inc. 24 homes in one of the worse flood-prone areas in the township will be demolished. Each home will be demolished at a cost of no more than $7,200; an additional $800 will be spent on the abatement of asbestos at one of the properties. Debris from each site will be removed.

The township has already purchased and demolished more than 70 homes in Hoffman Grove in two rounds of acquisitions. It cost approximately $450,000 to demolish those homes.

Residents participating in the program are given fair market value for their property. The homes are purchased with a $20 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Inclusion in the program is based on the amount and frequency of flood damange that has occurred on a specific property.

Sandy Galacio, director of the township’s office of emergency management, said that the township will not be taking any more bids out on contracts to demolish homes in Hoffman Grove this year.

Galacio said officials may take bids out on contracts to demolish 70 properties outside of Hoffman Grove later on this year, but the township is waiting to receive grant money to start the process.

The state Department of Environmental Protection will contract to demolish 56 properties in town this year, including one or two in Hoffman Grove, but the township must first purchase the homes.

Galacio said if they are acquired before the end of the year, the township would put out bid requests to demolish those properties in 2012.

The township from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Program to buy out the homes.  FEMA announced in December 2011 that it awarded more than $28 million in grants to municipalities to buy out in the Passaic River Flood Basin.

Wayne was one of the municipalities in the basin that experienced record flooding when Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee swept through the area last August and September.  

Residents said the flooding resulting from those two storms was the . That flooding came not even six months after another flood event shut down major highways and drove people from their homes .