Current and future City of Altoona elected and appointed officials should heed the lesson emanating from the longtime problem property on 21st Avenue at 14th Street.

That lesson is to address that which is rundown before it becomes too expensive and difficult to repair, necessitating demolition.

Had the city acted much sooner to try to address the house in question’s worsening condition, it might have ended up being cost-effective to bring the property back to life without demolition being a viable option. For a long time, it was no secret that the property had become a significant challenge, but city officials apparently hoped that luck would prevail and that someone would step forward on its behalf.

That didn’t happen.

Yet, this type of problem is common among municipalities of Altoona’s size, as well as communities larger and smaller. And, like in Altoona, these problem sites don’t simply one day disappear; they usually disappear only after officials muster the non-stop determination to resolve the issue, even if the solution involves “shedding” some hundreds or thousands of municipal dollars along the way on behalf of the community’s best interests.

But in the meantime, until there is meaningful action, such properties spawn neighborhood residents’ anger and frustration while, in many cases, undermining nearby property values.

Sometimes, when large-size structures are involved, they end up collapsing after having been exposed to neglect, vandalism or worse.

In all such situations, pride is nowhere to be found while excuses dominate — excuses with no productive value.

As the Mirror reported in its Aug. 20 edition, the 21st Avenue property in question finally became doomed to extinction when the Altoona Redevelopment Authority, on Aug. 16, awarded an $8,400 contract for razing of the structure — that after failing a number of times to interest a builder under what was to be a renovation project.

Always a question will be whether city officials reached out far enough for a renovation contractor.

According to the Aug. 20 Mirror article, “the (redevelopment) authority had hoped the proposed renovation of that house would launch a program under which the authority would routinely facilitate renovations of blighted homes, to reduce the percentage of those that end up being razed.”

It is believed that the renovation program still will be possible but, of course, it will not begin with the initially targeted 21st Avenue property.

“The severely deteriorated condition of the house seems to have made rehabilitation too expensive, even given the city’s willingness to subsidize the work,” the Aug. 20 article said.

According to that article, the fate of the house epitomizes the need for the city to create a better means for intervening before properties deteriorate so badly. In terms of the property in question, however, the next challenge will be figuring out what kind of house should replace the structure giving way.

That is because of the property’s small size. The proposed renovation would have eliminated the necessity of wasting time considering whatever number of new-house proposals are put forward.

The bottom line is that all happening now did not have to be, if the city had become more aggressive about resolving the situation-of-dilapidation long before the current steps were initiated.

However, what is happening now is a lesson for Altoona — as well as to anyone else within or beyond Blair County who might be watching how the local situation plays out.