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PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission on Monday approved putting two dilapidated properties out for bid for demolition.

County Compliance Officer Levi Brady appeared before the commission to discuss the properties at 402 Dickens Drive in Mineral Wells and 190 Valley Mills Road in Parkersburg.

Once they are awarded, the work would be paid through the state Division of Environmental Protection Dilapidated Properties Program Grant, officials said.

The house on Dickens Drive was heavily damaged by a fire that claimed the owner’s life in 2024. The owner’s two daughters have taken over the home and have been trying to deal with a number of issues.

“A number of people have called me about the half-burnt structure,” Brady said. “The inside is nothing but black char.

“It is just a shell left in a really nice neighborhood and development area.”

He talked to the owners about the program and they were on board with having the structural remains torn down and the lot cleaned up, Brady said.

The home on Valley Mills Road was called in by a number of people because of its location near a main road in that area.

“It was an old home a long time ago with plans to build, but it has basically become a storage building,” Brady said, adding the structure is failing and falling into the basement.

The owner had plans to tear it down and fill in the hole with a mound of earth, but has had ongoing medical issues.

“It was something where his plans kept getting put on hold and put on hold and put on hold,” Brady said, adding the owner was interested in participating in the demolition program.

The grant covers the costs of the demolition and cleanup. Brady said the owners retain the land and are responsible for maintaining and taking care of it.

Under this program, the county originally applied to have 12 properties torn down at an estimated cost of $13,500 for each job.

“We completed 12 properties but the bids for demos were coming in lower than the averages,” Brady said. “We had money left over, so we extended it on to another five, six properties.”

The program is scheduled to finish at the end of July, and Brady is working on the final properties to be addressed. He said it takes about four months to have everything lined up.

“With these two properties that will bring us to 17 properties,” Brady said. “There are still two more properties under consideration for this grant.

“We are using as much as we can, as quick as we can.”

In other business:

∫ The commission put Melvin Turner in nomination to fill a vacancy on the Wood County Planning Commission.

∫ The commission unanimously approved “The Week of the Young Child Proclamation.” for April 11-17. The proclamation honors early learning efforts for young children as well as their teachers, families and communities.

The proclamation says the first years of a child’s life are the period of the most rapid brain development and lay the foundation for all future learning. It states that 66% of parents are in the workforce and early education programs for young children provide important benefits to children, families, the state and the overall economy.

“Children’s cognitive, physical, social, emotional, language and literacy development are built on a foundation of a child’s positive interaction with adults, peers and their environment of high quality early childhood programs,” the proclamation states, adding that “high quality early childhood education, provided in a mixed delivery system, is good for the public and should be financed as such.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com