By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – A pair of companies soon will move forward with clearing two dilapidated, overgrown lots and tearing down abandoned homes on the lots, after the Alabaster City Council approved bids for the projects during a May 8 meeting.

Council members voted unanimously to approve a $6,000 bid from Cornerstone Tree Service to demolish an abandoned structure at 2040 Butler Road and to approve a $14,000 bid from Coston General Contractors to demolish an abandoned structure at 2022 Butler Road.

The bids came a few months after the council voted unanimously to accept recommendations from the city’s Housing Abatement Board to demolish the long-vacant homes at 2022 Butler Road and 2040 Butler Road.

During a Jan. 19 work session, Alabaster Fire Department Planning and Safety Division Lt. Rick Benson said the pair of homes have been empty for a significant amount of time, and said they present safety hazards for those who live near them.

Benson said the properties are so overgrown many passersby don’t know they contain homes, and said the lots pose a hazard to children and others who trespass there.

Since the city paid to have the properties cleared, it will attach the demolition cost as liens against the properties. The liens will have to be repaid to the city if the properties are sold in the future.

Benson previously said the two properties are owned by the same people, who were in favor of the city tearing them down.