Taking advantage of $180 million Ohio has set aside for the creation of land banks could help the county get rid of dilapidated and abandoned properties.

“That would give us so much leverage,” Lawrence County Commissioner Bill Pratt said. “It is a huge tool to help us resolve these abandoned properties.”

The land bank could be created by the county commission and could acquire property in a variety of ways.

It would be comparable to a port authority, which is a quasi governmental entity. There would be a board made up of two county commissioners, the mayor of the largest city in the county, the county treasurer and a trustee from the largest township in the county. The treasurer would be chair by statute.

“These properties could be rehabilitated and sold,” Pratt said. “And that money could come back to the land bank.”

For the past few years the county has focused on finding owners of eyesore properties to use Community Development Block Grants to tear them down.

“It is not the intention to take people’s property,” Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham said. “It is not designed to deprive anyone of their home. Many larger counties have used it in a way to revitalize their community.”