After extensive debate and discussion, the Sterling City Council will proceed with plans to demolish a house at 701 First Ave. in Sterling.

“I think the writing is on the wall with this one. I don’t think we need to sink any more money into it than we already have. We’ve got enough opinions to say it needs to be torn down,” Ward 3 Alderman Josh Johnson said at Monday’s council meeting.

The conversation started during the budget study session and the review of the Strong Communities Program grant. That grant, through the Illinois Housing Development Authority, helps communities address local blight through grants to fund demolition of vacant, abandoned and unsafe residential properties. The city’s expected revenue from that grant for the 2025-26 budget year is $217,480.

The two properties on the list to be demolished are at 701 First Ave. and 508 W. Eighth St.

The house at 701 First Ave. was built in 1900, according to real estate records.

“Even though it’s got some historic elements, it’s been deemed unsaveable at this point without an outlay of some large sums of money that nobody will ever recoup,” City Manager Scott Shumard told the council.

City Attorney Timothy Zollinger clarified that while the house is old, it does not have any historic status or designation.

“It doesn’t have historical status. I want to be careful because that has a very specific meaning when we talk about what can and cannot be done,” Zollinger said.

Information on how long the city has owned the property wasn’t available, but property records show that M5 Industries of Rock Falls recently deeded the property back to the city of Sterling.

“We gave that to M5, hoping they could do something with it. No other contractor wanted to touch it. M5 thought they had the ability to, it didn’t work out so that property is going to come back to us,” Shumard said.

Alderman at Large Jim Wise expressed disappointment that the house would have to be demolished and asked if every effort had been made to save it.

Amanda Schmidt, Sterling building and zoning superintendent, said the interior of the house and the condition of the foundation would make restoration efforts difficult.

“I’ve been fighting for this one not to come down something fierce. It struck me that we should keep it. We’ve had so many contractors go through and so many people. Where the foundation damage is located, there’s no outside wall that you can get to in order to remove what needs to be removed and then come back in and repair. Everything would have to be hand-dug and hand-removed. Just getting to the foundation that’s crumbled is so bad that they would have to hand-dig everything,” Schmidt said.

Shumard said the foundation of the property has crumbled in on itself, and one estimate to repair the foundation was at least $30,000.

“One contractor said he’s seen the same type of basement in Dixon. It’s a crawl space where they dig a pit for the mechanicals and grade the wall to the pit,” Shumard said.

Shumard noted that while the house is more than a century old, the interior did not reflect any historic elements.

“The age of the home is historic in nature, the interior is not. It looked very 1980s. The whole layout was very odd,” he said.

Sterling Fire Chief David Northcutt told the council that a team from the SFD has been going through the house to prepare it to use for training.

“It’s taken us a week to go in and shore things up, like walls, for us to be able to train and train safely. We are going to be able to use it for training for quite some time, and obviously, when Amanda says we’re done, we’re done,” Northcutt said.

Northcutt told the council that the roof of the house needs significant work, as well. Additional work on windows, floors, electrical wiring and plumbing would be required, Mayor Diana Merdian said. Schmidt agreed that the costs to repair the structure go beyond the foundation work.

“It’s the cost, it’s getting to the work that needs to be done on the foundation, it’s all of it. It’s not just one piece of it,” Schmidt said.

Shumard said the house has to be demolished by November in order to pay for it with the Strong Communities Grant funds.

“It’s a shame that it has to come down, but I guess that’s inevitable,” Wise said.