Murrysville authorizes emergency demolition for damaged White Valley garage

Murrysville officials are hoping a White Valley property owner demolishes a fire-damaged garage on their own, but one way or another, it’s coming down.

The garage, at the rear of a property on Carolina Street, was heavily damaged in a Jan. 8 fire. Murrysville Council on Wednesday authorized the emergency demolition of the building, if it becomes necessary.

“Our engineer is recommending an emergency demolition,” Murrysville Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said. “There’s no defined timeline, but we sent out a 1o-day notice ordering the demolition.

“We do believe the homeowner will take responsibility and demolish it, but we just want to have our bases covered.”

The town has a formal process for approving a typical demolition for blighted structures, but those procedures can be waived if there is danger owing to structural integrity or another serious issue.

“Only half of it is remaining,” Nestico said. “Authorizing the emergency demolition puts a safeguard in place for the municipality. With this property we’ve had a history of sporadic (code) compliance.”

Salt supply

The days of mild winters and overfilled salt sheds are gone for the Murrysville Public Works Department.

Nestico said road crews have been called out for plowing and salting on 16 of 21 days so far in January, and trucks have dropped 3,000 tons of rock salt — nearly 60% of the municipality’s salt supply.

It’s a far cry from the past couple years, when Murrysville was storing salt from its neighbors in Export, who had run out of room in their salt shed after several mild winters.

“We’ve used a lot this year, and we’ve placed an order for additional salt,” Nestico said. “We’re in pretty good shape, but the way the winter has come in required quite a few call-outs for our public works crew.”