Unstable Building in Mon Valley Has Residents Worried For Safety

GLASSPORT, Pa. (KDKA) -- Concerns continue to grow in the Mon Valley about a building that's unstable.

The empty building sits at the corner of Monongahela Avenue and Fifth Street in Glassport, and part of the structure was on the verge of collapsing Tuesday morning.

"I've been here four years, and it's slowly falling down," said Delores Peluso, who lives next to the structure.

According to her neighbor Anna Yeager, the building has been empty for well over a decade.

"It looks terrible," she told KDKA while looking at the structure from across the street from her front porch.

Yeager and Peluso said the wooden porches on the back of the empty brick building have slowly been falling down.

After another round of storms over the weekend, the porches became an imminent danger, according to Glassport Mayor Keith DiMarco. He told KDKA over the phone they wanted to remove the porches before anyone got hurt.

Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, demolition crews ripped down the collapsing porches. They put the debris in dumpsters and sent it off. The rest of the empty brick building is still standing.

"They need to take the whole building down," Yeager said. "The bricks are starting to show, and they're going to go next."

Mayor DiMarco said they are looking to take down the building, but they need the money to do so. He said they are looking at funding sources, including grants, to get the job done.

Yeager and Peluso are happy the immediate danger is gone, but they said the building is still a nuisance in their neighborhood.

"I'm scared it's going to fall over and kill me," Peluso said while pointing at loose bricks at the top of the building.

According to borough administrators, there is a meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the borough building to discuss the future of the building.