Town Demolishes House on Maple Street

If you’ve driven through the center of Ellington in the last couple days, you may have noticed that there is now an open space in Maple Street where a house once stood.

The reason for this is that the town demolished 82 Maple St., which was a town-owned home.

The home had been being rented, but when the tenant moved out, the question came up about what to do with the home.

Public Works Director Timothy Webb had been asked to look into the possibility of selling the property, and a market analysis, done by assigned a suggested market value to the property of between $115,000 and $125,000.

Webb also looked into the possibility of renting the home out again. Before it could be rented, it would have to be updated and brought back to rentable condition. The estimated cost for this would be approximately $22,500, Webb said.

The third option that was considered was demolition of the house. It would cost $2,200 to test for lead and asbestos, and if everything was clear, it would cost approximately $11,000 to take the building down. If the house was to be demolished, a town meeting would be needed because it would reduce the value of the property by more than $40,000.

At a Board of Selectmen meeting in January, some members of the board were in favor of demolishing the house while others were not. Some were in favor of tearing the home down in order to give the land to – which will need larger playing fields when . Some were in favor of holding onto the home in order to continue bringing in revenue for the town until such a time came.

Ultimately, the decision was made when the Board of Finance would not allot any money to renovate the home.

At the Feb. 6 Board of Selectmen meeting, the board approved the  $11,000 to demolish the house, and at a town meeting on Feb. 27, it was decided that the house would be demolished. It was said that the cost would be less than $10,000 with assistance from public works employees.

According to Webb, the land will be given to Center School and the playground will be expanded, beginning this summer or early fall.