Town of Vestal, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Vestal officials move forward with flood recovery by agreeing to demolish some of the town's most flood-damaged homes.
Town board members voted unanimously Wednesday to tear down 17 homes and add two more to a list for the future.
The homes will be the first to go in the Vestal buyout program with the Federal Emergency Management Agency because they've been declared unsafe.
"We have to give them the order to tear them down," said Town Supervisor John Schaffer. "Nobody can go in those houses and remove the asbestos for fear of being either killed or seriously injured."
Schaffer says there are 59 Vestal homes in the buyout program.
The rest of the homes will have to undergo asbestos abatement before they are torn down.
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