Monongahela homeowner upset with demo contractor

By KRISTIE LINDEN
klinden@yourmvi.com
The house that was heavily damaged on Second Street in Monongahela after a landslide in September has been demolished, but not before causing the property owner a little more heartbreak.
Gretchen de Lopez owns the property, including the house next door to the landslide, where she still lives.
“I don’t want to be here,” de Lopez told city council members during a meeting Wednesday night. “Things have been very rough the last few days. The building has been demolished, it was a tragic process and I didn’t know it was happening until just before.”
She said her husband was in the process of removing a brand-new deck that had been installed just months before the devastation.
When the demolition crew arrived, she tried to tell them her family was attempting to save the deck materials.
“I was told I was no longer the owner of the property,” she said. “We had to stand at the side and we watched them enter the house and take some of our things out of the building.”

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Thursday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.