Bad Buildings, Bad Roads and cleanup in general are taking place all over Tyler County and it’s great. Nothing makes it harder to draw business or people to our communities than rundown homes, buildings and unkept property. Streets and roads also play a major factor along with parks and activities.

These things are improving big time in the area. Paden City is getting a new facelift along route 2, as they repair the road through town. New sidewalks are coming to several areas of Sistersville. With the identification of 12 Bad Buildings in Sistersville, and more work is yet to come.

Recently it’s been announced that two new businesses are opening in downtown Sistersville. However, while some property owners are making investments in restoring older downtown structures to open new business, there are still others neglecting their properites and they are becoming eyesores. Several are not on the list of Bad Buildings, but a recent tour through the community revealed a couple on the main drag that could use quite a bit of sprucing up themselves.

We hope the process of selecting Bad Buildings is completed in a fair and honest manner and not tainted by a biased committee. Many times a building may look bad from the outside but can be structurally sound on the inside. Setting vacant for a number of years does not make a bad building as is the case with those currently under restoration.

We believe in clean and healthy communities and we encourage all residents and business owners to do the best they can to make our small towns attractive for potential business, and future residents. Visitors to our area may just like what they see and want to stay. To those who are working hard to make improvements, keep up the good work, there is still many things to do.

One complaint has already crossed our desk, the accusation that they were targeted because they don’t have the funds to make repairs and the Bad Buildings committee has an individual who is interested in the property for his own use. We hope this is not true and we ask that careful consideration is given to each property owner before listing them as Bad Buildings owners.