Town Hall Demolition Begins This Week (Maybe Tuesday)

Demolition of town hall may finally begin Tuesday morning. Members of council expect it to. The design group for the new municipal complex expects it to.

Then again, it might not.

The township thought the razing of the building—out of use since it was damaged by fire in 2007—would start Monday morning. But crews from Mazza Construction who arrived early Monday said they were just putting up protective barriers to keep mud and silt from flowing into the street and clogging up storm drains once demolition began.

Architect Daniel Nichols, with Ragan Design Group, said the demolition crews won’t work if it’s raining heavily because silt control then becomes a problem. There is rain in the forecast later this week.

However, “a light rain is actually a good thing,” Nichols added, “because it controls dust.”

He said the building should be completely down by the end of the week and the rest of the month Mazza will devote to arranging the debris into piles for recycling.

According to a release from the township, town hall will be demolished using a hydraulic claw machine, and possibly an arm-mounted jackhammer, “which will tap, push and grab pieces of the building and place them in piles.”

One of the Mazza crew members at town hall Monday indicated there was a good possibility demolition would begin Tuesday morning, but couldn’t say for sure.

Township council met Monday morning to continue its discussion about the new municipal complex. Rick Ragan, principal of Ragan Design Group, said council decided to keep the recreation department offices in the existing recreation building—with some improvements—rather than creating new office space.

He said council advised his firm to seek bids on that portion of the project. Those bids should be ready soon, Ragan said.

Mayor John Button said council has been working diligently to advance the project. About the demolition of town hall, he said, “I’m glad we’ve reached a point where we can see something tangible.”

The of the municipal complex bundles the township offices, library and municipal court in one building, with the police department in a separate building and the recreation department staying in its existing building (with improvements).

Ragan said bids won’t be ready for the main municipal-library-court building until the spring.

The project is currently estimated to cost roughly $16 million.