Two Brick Township homes, one of which was named by its neighbors the “haunted house” due to the length of time it had been abandoned, will be demolished under a resolution passed by the township council last week.
The homes at 204 Winchester Drive, in the Arrowhead Village neighborhood, and 250 Riverside Drive North, in the Herbertsville section, were both the subject of contracts awarded to demolition companies that will tear down the structures following recommendations made by the township’s Property Maintenance Board and engineers.
The saga surrounding the Winchester Drive home has played out over a decade. As far back as 2014, Shorebeat reported that neighbors had complained about the abandonment of the home, and it was one of the first to be added to the township’s abandoned properties list after it was first created 10 years ago.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so horrific in my life,” then-Council President Susan Lydecker said at the time.
The home had been the subject of summonses over a lack of maintenance dating as far back as 2008, however officials said its owners had kept up with property taxes, complicating the matter. The township has, however, performed some emergency work on the property for safety purposes and placed liens accordingly. Now, a contractor has been hired to raze the structure, the cost of which will also be recorded as a lien on the property.
The other property, 250 Riverside Drive North, is a generally dilapidated structure located north of Herbertsville Road, about a block away from the Manasquan River.
Situated on a corner lot, the home has had violation notices pinned to its front door for some time, has fallen into extreme disrepair and some of its windows have been boarded up. Its roof has separated from the frame of the home in some areas, and the steps to access the home appear ready to collapse.
The contracts for demolition were both awarded to Frank Lurch Demolition, of Avon-by-the-Sea. The Winchester Drive property will cost $21,900 to demolish, plus $2,000 per ton for asbestos remediation. The Riverside Drive North property will cost $16,200 to demolish plus, likewise, $2,000 per ton for asbestos remediation.
Both of the contracts were awarded by a unanimous vote of the township council. No one representing the owners of either property spoke at the meeting.