Southern Illinois town struggles under the weight of deteriorating homes and abandoned properties
OLMSTED, Ill. (KBSI) – A small town in Southern Illinois is facing a serious decline as the community there says they are struggling under the weight of deteriorating homes and abandoned properties.
The village of Olmsted Illinois once a riverside retreat as it sets directly over the Ohio river is facing a crisis according to Olmsted Mayor Curtis Marshall. As he says now much of the town is full of abandoned homes and crumbling houses. They need help from state legislatures to get the place cleaned up.
“It’s not going to get any better” says Marshall. “A few years ago, we had the dam which it brought in good revenue. We had a lot of folks that brought campers into the area, we had a restaurant. When the dam left, we lost revenue, restaurant closed, and we have a seed company. Thats probably the only thing we have here.”
Mayor Marshall says people have been moving out of the Olmsted are because of lack, of jobs, grocery stores and other resources.
When they leave, they leave their homes behind for the city to take care of. Marshall says this is costing the city money they don’t have and leaving an overall bad look.
“Some of them have asbestos, some of them have led paint, and really, we can’t afford it. It’s just the cost is so high, we have very low revenue coming in and for a small town its hard” says Marshall.
I talked with some Olmsted residents who say they have noticed the town going downhill and some even pitch in to help mow the abandoned yards, but they all say it’s too much for one or two people. Mayor Marshall says he’s doing all he can to find investors who may be interested in investing in Olmsted and talking with state legislatures to try to secure funding to tear down the abandoned or over ran houses.
“As of now we are trying, we are trying very hard. We are so small that they don’t really want to invest within a small community” says Marshall.
Marshall has been Mayor for more than 25 years. He says Olmsted used to be a larger community full of life, with a grocery store and economic opportunity. Now the population is a little over 300 people and declining.
“I used to be told, Olmsted’s a nice little clean town, I love it but what I’m hearing now is wow, what happened?” says Marshall.
Marshall says the population size mixed with the income that many of the retired residents have put them right above the thresh hold to secure funding. He encourages citizens to contact state legislatures to make them aware of the need in Olmsted and fill out the city survey handed out to Olmsted citizens honestly.
“We need some revenue coming in, like I said we have a lot of senior citizen’s living here and if we had a dollar general or something here where they could go pick up some of their needs it would really help” says Marshall.
