A demolition crew on Tuesday began clearing away the first of 18 Keystone Drive properties bought by Yeager Airport following the March 12 slope failure at the Charleston airport's safety-overrun area.
A stick-built house and a mobile home were demolished and hauled to a landfill Tuesday by Rodney Loftis & Son Contracting. The Loftis crew is expected to demolish and remove about one house a day until the project is complete.
Yeager bought the 18 properties from willing sellers in the months after the landslide, which destroyed two houses and a church and also temporarily dammed up Elk Two-Mile Creek, causing flood damage to six houses. Since the airport's insurer declined to pay for the buyouts, pending the resolution of lawsuits filed in the wake of the slide, the Charleston airport's governing board voted to proceed independently with the buyouts as funds and settlement agreements became available.
A $180,000 grant from the Kanawha County Commission will cover the cost of demolishing and removing houses and outbuildings from the 18 properties, according to airport officials.
"For area residents whose lives have been disrupted through no fault of their own, we recognize this has been a long time coming," said Yeager Airport Director Terry Sayre, who thanked the County Commission for the demolition funding. "We want to assure everyone that we're moving as quickly as possible to mitigate the issues caused by the March 12 failure of the mechanically stabilized earth-retention structure."
All houses involved in the current demolition project lie between the toe of the slide and Keystone Drive's intersection with Airport Road.
"We appreciate everyone's patience," said airport spokesman Mike Plante. "The issue has always been getting the money needed to pay for the properties and their demolition."
Yeager officials said they hope that the airport will be reimbursed for its property buyout and demolition projects by its insurance carrier and the parties the airport is suing over the safety-overrun collapse.
Updates on the progress of the demolition will be posted on the Charleston airport's Facebook page or on Twitter, at @yeagerEmerMgmnt.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.