PROPERTY OWNER WORKING TO CLEAN UP NEIGHBORHOOD
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Some historic properties on Union Street will soon come down in Lafayette. It’s a project that has been several months in the making.
The homes are located in the Lincoln historic neighborhood. The property owner, who is also a doctor of western and Chinese Medicine, hopes to build a pain management clinic there.
These homes are able to be torn down because they aren’t on any local historic registries, only a national one. The homes are also in such bad shape, they would be close to impossible to restore.
Angelica Kokkalis said the project is about more than re-building that area.
“If the people are sick, the most beautiful buildings won’t make any difference,” said Kokkalis.
The idea for this project has a little history.
“Unless I was restoring the historic house on New York Street, I would have no clue of how bad this problem is,” said Kokkalis.
She said building a pain management clinic won’t end the opioid epidemic, but she believes it is a step.
“It’s not low-income, it’s families of judges, families of doctors, families of professors, it’s an epidemic and it’s everywhere,” she said.
Mayor Tony Roswarski supports the project.
“When you get new development in an area, it does spur interest and it gives people hope,” Roswarski said.
“There’s certainly some hoops that people have to jump through when they go from an R-1 residential type area into doing a project like this but it’s certainly something that we are willing to help them through and if it can improve the area and help people, then it’s a good thing for the community,” said Roswarski.
Kokkalis knows it won’t be an easy task to accomplish, but that won’t stop her from trying.
“I’ll try my very best and I hope my very best is going to be enough,” she said.
