Ed Kemmick/Last Best News
Carol Kraft talks about her plans to demolish several structures on her property at 115 N. 22nd St. Behind her, shrouded by overgrown vegetation, is one of two long-vacant houses on the land.
Carol Kraft is looking forward to Tuesday morning.
The police are supposed to show up first, about 8 a.m., to roust anyone still squatting in the two vacant houses at 115 N. 22nd St. Then, about 9:30, Cayton Excavation is supposed to start demolishing the two houses and a burnt-out shed.
Kraft has been waiting for this day for 15 years.
That’s how long ago she bought the rental property next door, a duplex at 119 N. 22nd. Ever since, her tenants have had to deal with a steady stream of squatters, graffiti, vandalism, waist-high weeds, varmints, wasps and at least one fire.
“I don’t remember anyone ever living here,” at least not legally, Kraft said Monday afternoon.
Relatives of the owner did some maintenance over the years, but Kraft never managed to get a hold of the owner himself to talk about a better solution than occasionally cutting the weeds or boarding up doors and windows.
She finally managed to reach the owner through an intermediary, a local lawyer, and in January she paid $40,000 for the property.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Kraft said. “I thought I could salvage it.”
She was speaking of the main house, the one nearest the street. A second house and the shed are on the alley. Once she took possession and examined the houses, she knew they’d both have to come down.
They’d been vacant too long, trashed by successive waves of squatters, damaged by the elements and years of neglect.
Last week, the City Council authorized her to use $6,343 in tax increment funds to help pay for the demolition. The money is from the East Billings Urban Renewal District, a 400-acre tax-increment district roughly bordered by Montana Avenue, Sixth Avenue North, North 22nd Street and MetraPark.
We are aware that simply saying “tax increment district” out loud has been known to put people to sleep, but bear with us. The concept is simple enough.
Such districts are created by the City Council, and for whatever length of time the district is to last, any property taxes collected are to be spent on public improvements in the district, usually in the form of new roads, sewer lines and the like. Or, as in this case, the demolition of eyesores.
That’s how Kraft described her project when she applied for tax increment funding: “Elimination of Blight.”
Her application was approved by the East Billings Revitalization District, which is the association of businesses in the EBURD, and then OK’d by the City Council on June 23.
That money will pay for only a portion of the work on the property. Kraft will pay $14,095 for demolition and backfill, power line relocation and asbestos testing. All that’s on top of the $40,000 she paid for the property.
In the words of Kelly McCarthy, development director for revitalization district, “What she gets is bare ground for all her efforts.”
Ed Kemmick/Last Best News
Kraft and her dog, Jip, behind the main house.
But she’s not the only one who will be pleased with the demolition. McCarthy said Police Chief Rich St. John and Candi Millar, director of the Planning Department, “are kinda doing cartwheels to see this thing gone.”
That’s because police officers and code enforcement personnel have been called to the property innumerable times over the years. As St. John said in a letter to the council in support of Kraft’s grant application, “The address has been a nuisance property for the department in that we have been there many times for trespassing, graffiti, intoxicated persons and disorderly conduct.”
Kraft said animal control once came to collect rock chucks — also known as yellow-bellied marmots — that had set up housekeeping on the property. There have been problems with snakes and wasps, too. A few years ago, somebody set the shed on fire.
Kraft has no definite plans for the property, but she said one possibility is a mixed-use development, with commercial property on the ground floor and apartments or condos up above.
Despite all the problems over the years, Kraft acknowledged that some of the squatters at least tried to make their living space bearable.
New people recently moved into the main house and tied the door shut from the inside. Kraft’s son came over and kicked the door in, only to find that the squatters had tidied the place up considerably. There was even a bottle of liquid cleaner in the kitchen.
But no more.
“My son said, ‘You better leave them a note telling them Tuesday is moving day,’” she said.
