By Steve Klamkin WPRO News

A front-end loader took huge ‘bites’ out of a two-story home on Lawton Street in Fall River Wednesday morning, the first of several abandoned homes targeted for demolition under a city program aimed at removing what is being called “spot blight”.

“I think the neighbors will probably be having a block party tonight because this eyesore is gone,” said Mayor Paul Coogan of what he calls the Fall River Building Blocks Program. Neighbors tended to agree.

“Well, we’re all happy, of course,” said Barbara Borges, who lives near the Lawton St. home as it was being torn down. “We’ve been trying to get it demolished for years.”

“It is a quality of life issue,” Coogan said. “Far too many times in Fall River you drive down a street or you go around the corner and there’s one house that stand out as a drag on the entire neighborhood. And we don’t need it. We will do anything to help people bring their property back up to standards, renovate it,” he said.

He said three properties were scheduled for demolition this week, calling them a serious threat to the neighborhoods. Inspections were completed for four other properties, four others were scheduled for inspections, Coogan said.

The demolitions, costing between $17,500 and $23,500 would be paid with Community Development Block Grants and city funding. He said the city would issue liens against the properties to recover the money.