Burned out house sits untouched for over a year in Canton

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Residents say township officials made empty promises to do something about it, but never followed through.

The house on Merrimac Street in Canton Township has been called not pretty by some neighbors, but an eyesore is more like it.

"Four in the morning caught fire one morning and the next morning caught fire again," said Tom Taylor, neighbor.

Two fires at the same house, a day apart and this happened on Sept. 1 of last year. 

"The house just kept blowing up and the fire department thought they would have it extinguished and it blew up again," said Rob Olson, Director, Brookside Village subdivision.

A Real estate agent said this house once was worth $225,000. Not now. 

The Brookside Village Park is in the backyard of this house. Calls to the owner went unanswered but the owner did speak to one of the subdivision directors.

"He keeps saying it's coming down and like I said, here we are," Olson said.

Canton township officials have slapped several violations on the property, including an official notice that it is a dangerous property. 

Subdivision board-members say that there is insurance, but there may be a dispute between the owner and his insurance company. 

Olson says the subdivision association does not have the authority to demolish the house. By laws don't usually allow subdivision boards to tear down abandon homes. 

"When someone gets hurt and unfortunately it may be a child, and then maybe something will get done," Olson said.

The Township Board will have a meeting on Tuesday and on the agenda will be the request to tear the house down.

Township supervisor Pat Williams said they already have two bids to tear the house down and he wants to assure residents that the township is not going to wait any longer.