What a difference a day makes!
Above: Jean Kelly stands where a large crater was filled in and graded yesterday after weeks of inaction by Pless Jones’ P&J Contracting Co.
After The Brew posted a story Monday about debris piling up on Durham Street courtesy of demolition king Pless Jones, a city housing department spokesman said that Jones had four weeks to clean up the rubble.
But only a day later, the East Baltimore block had a less bombed-out look.
A big open crater – an imminent danger, according to residents – was filled with dirt and leveled to a gradual slope yesterday by Rodney Jones, the subcontractor and son of Pless Jones. Debris strewn along the sidewalk and street was swept up.
A city housing inspector looked over the demolition site yesterday, according to residents. Previously, inspectors drove down the street and past the lot without stopping, they said.
Debris at 1600 Durham St. has not been removed by the Jones demolition company. (Photo by Mark Reutter)
Scarcely Pristine
The demolition site is still not a paragon of neatness. There remains a muckle of debris at 1600 N. Durham Street where the contractor knocked down a rowhouse back in August.
Broken bricks, spare tires and other junk litter the rear boundary of the lot.
“They were out there getting busy today,” Ornat Erby, president of the Biddle-Broadway-North Ave.-Chester Support Council, said last night. “It’s definitely something. But they got a ways to go.”
The Brew applauds the Jones for cleaning up the worst of their mess quicker than the city required. We’ll be checking their future progress.