YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The city of Youngstown has a long list of houses to be demolished, but neighbors don't always realize that it's a long process before the actual demolition happens.

Neighbors on Mumford Street want a long-abandoned house torn down. 

"Not only is it an eyesore but when you get strangers going in and out of the house you don't know what might happen in the neighborhood," said Curtis Williams who lives across the street. 

"We have kids on this street, little girls and little boys, anybody can grab somebody in this house, and we'll never know it," said Rose Jordan who lives next door to the house.

Ms. Jordan thought the problem would be solved when she received this voicemail from Mayor Tito Brown.

"I got some information about that house, I think it was 193 Mumford, they have until June 24 to have that house taken down per their contract," the mayor stated on the voicemail.

The mayor is correct in that the house has a demo contract; however it does not give a specific date.  The city's demolition superintendent Mike Durkin says the process takes time.

Criteria-wise, you have to identify the worst of the worst," according to Durkin.

He says some homes are designated as emergency demos by the Fire Chief. But contract homes require title searches, plus a series of notifications and approvals.

"Once those come back we have to have the property tested for asbestos abatement, and those take anywhere from a month to two months to complete," 

The abatement must come first; then the contract goes out to bid. So even if a house has been vacant for years, with a list of 600 or more, it's a process that takes time. "It does take time, it takes us probably about nine months to get a contract started," Durkin said. 

The Mumford Street house should come down by the end of this month.