Improving one’s community can take many forms.

Last month on this page, we celebrated community groups and federal funding aimed at combating the state’s opioid crisis. Last week’s community improvement efforts involve removing eyesores that damage municipalities around the county.

At the county commissioners’ meeting Wednesday, the director of the county’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority was given approval to set up a new funding system to demolish blighted properties.

This is a smart move.

Blighted properties have numerous effects on the communities in which they’re located — and none of them are positive.

Abandoned and vacant buildings can be dangerous, especially for children who play on the premises. Such buildings can attract rodents and pose fire hazards.

Blighted properties often attract a criminal element. Drug users frequently seek out abandoned properties as places to squat.

Beyond safety issues, blighted properties can affect the property value of homes surrounding them, and discourage potential homeowners from moving onto a particular street.

Cities lose money on maintenance costs — from pest control to cleaning up waste — at blighted properties and, in some cases, buildings that sit vacant for long periods of time result in uncollected property taxes.

We agree with Commissioner Kevin Boozel’s comment that “a blighted property can become a house where things happen that are not so good.”

Under the Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s new funding program, the authority would have a $50,000 maximum balance at all times for demolition.

The money would come from a pool of funds the county receives as the result of a $15 fee that was added to title transfers in 2017. As part of the agreement, authority officials will report demolition work to the commissioners each quarter.

The program’s balance will enable the authority to plan ahead and carry out more demolitions. The authority will also no longer be required to ask the commissioners for funding before each project.

As demolition work is carried out at a site, a lien would be placed on the property, forcing its owner to pay the authority back if the property was sold and, in the process, preventing the property owner from getting a free upgrade.

We’re very pleased to hear that the county is planning to step up its initiatives to identify and remove blighted properties.

At the same time, we hope the initiative doesn’t end there. The county should work toward getting abandoned properties without owners back on the tax roll.

— NCD