Eyesore in east Idaho neighborhood getting facelift

POCATELLO — An eyesore in a local neighborhood will soon be getting a facelift.

Area residents say they are looking forward to seeing improvements to an abandoned home on Satterfield Drive that went up in flames back in February.

One neighbor who has lived next door to the house for over 20 years says she doesn’t like what she has to look at every time she looks out her windows.

“I can basically see through one side of the garage out to the other side to the street and what I see is a burned out car and the whole side of the house is burned and in the garage everything inside is burned,” Shawna Nelson says.

She says she’s worried the house next door will decrease her property value.

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“All the neighbors up here are very conscious about keeping their yards up and they care about their homes,” Nelson says.

City officials say they plan on putting about $20,000 into the damaged home to bring it back up to par for the neighborhood.

“We ruled it as a dangerous building and the city council made a decision to go ahead and abate the dangers, and try and help the folks in the neighborhood. They want to do it in an ascetically pleasing manner, so we are going to try and abate the dangers and still make it look like a real house, instead of just a boarded up shell,’ says Lynn Transtrum, building official for city of Pocatello.

Transtrum says they have received numerous calls from people in the area. He says they will begin the process by getting bids for the construction of the house and go from there.

“We take a certain percentage of building permits fees and we put them in a fund for an abatement of dangerous buildings. We will use that money to do the abatement and then we will place a special assessment on that property and we will be right behind the tax lien on it, so if it ever sells, we will get our money back at that point and time,” Transtrum says.

Another resident in the area says after going to the city council with his concerns, his was impressed with the action they are taking on one of the nicest subdivisions in the city.

“I admire city officials for doing what they can to eliminate something that is detrimental to property value to all of these people in the entire Highland area,” resident Randy Spencer says. “This is a well known home. It’s been unkempt with weeds growing four foot tall for up to 10 years.

The city does not have a date yet of when the project will begin.

This article was originally published by KPVI. It is used here with permission.