Cameron Honored With Missouri Municipal League Innovation Award

The City of Cameron was one of three municipalities honored late last week by the Missouri Municipal League Innovation awards.

These awards honor outstanding projects happening in communities across the state that enhance the quality of life for Missouri cities. Awards are based on city population size, with the exception of a Members’ Choice award, where MML members vote for their favorite project regardless of city size.

Cameron was honored with both the medium-sized population (5,000 to 15,000) award and the Member’s Choice Award for their program taking dilapidated properties and turning them into productive pieces of property.

The program allows the City to encourage property owners to remove certain structures that are substandard, hazardous, and dangerous through a pair of options. Each year the city of Cameron appropriates funds to partner with residential property owners to remove these structures.

The City offers two programs for the demolition of these properties, the 50/50 or 100% demolition programs.

The 50/50 demolition program is designed to allow property owners the opportunity to share the cost of removing dilapidated structures. The average cost per structure is $7,000 per single-family home.

The 100% program allows property owners with limited funding to sign over the property entirely and allow the City to remove the structure. The City covers the total cost of the demolition process. Once the structure is removed, the property is placed for sale. As part of the demolition agreement, the buyer will be responsible for constructing a single-family home within two years.