EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP): Evansville elected leaders will again consider a plan to tear down blighted and vacant buildings across the city.

The Evansville Courier & Press reports that Mayor Lloyd Winnecke plans to ask the City Council on Monday to use $1.7 million in riverboat casino rent payments to finance the program.

A different council rejected a mayoral effort to launch the land bank project last year.
Nearly 150 properties are targeted in the first round of demolitions. A five-year plan aims to tear down close to 2,000 blighted or empty buildings.

City leaders hope the program will make it easier to find new owners to develop the once-downtrodden properties.