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Address: 1442 State Ave., South Fairmount
Owner: Britten Germaine
Value: $19,100
Year Built: 1925
Comments: Where in the world is Britten Germaine? This is the question dogging the city of Cincinnati's Department of Buildings and Inspections.
"It appears that she has vanished off the face of the Earth," says Inspections Supervisor Dave Edwards.
In December 2001 the department ordered her to keep the building at 1442 State Ave. vacant, barricade it and obtain a vacant building maintenance license. The problem is Germaine's only listed address is this hillside home. Searches of public records turned up no other traces of her, Edwards says.
"She's probably deceased," he says.
Germaine has owned the building since 1998, according to the Hamilton County Auditor's Office. One month before she bought it, the building had changed hands twice.
"We've been monitoring the building," Edwards says. "It's been secured. We've had it barricaded once."
The property's thick weeds and broken windows seem to show no one has been home in a long time.
"We will continue to monitor it," Edwards says.
BLIGHT OF THE WEEK is an effort to highlight the problem of abandoned buildings — and who's responsible for them.
