Demolition work on the former Kent Tavern building in Wallaceburg should be completed in the next few weeks.
Travis Maxwell, a building inspector and bylaw enforcement officer with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, told the Sydenham Current the work is in the hands of the contractor at the moment.
“I can tell you we are waiting for utility sign offs from hydro, water and Union Gas to make sure all of their lines are removed,” Maxwell said.
“We don’t want an excavator hitting a gas line or anything. Once they have removed their lines and everything and it is safe to proceed, it is in the contractors hands. I know their ready and waiting to get started on it. I believe some interior work has begun. So hopefully within the next few weeks it should be done at the very latest.”
Maxwell said it has been a long process to address the issues at the former strip club.
“A claim was filed claiming the bricks fell off the building,” he said.
I kind of started with that, attempting to work with the property owner at the time to make sure that the building was brought up to standard. Basically the owner failed to comply with what was required and the communication stopped with the owner.”
Maxwell said from there, the Municipality had contact with a “third party individual” who was taking over the building.
“They were going to do the work required and then they pulled out of it as well,” he said.
“Under the property standards bylaw, we have a section that says buildings boarded up more than six months shall be restored to conform with the standards or demolish. So basically over the last two years with nothing being done by the property owner, due to the condition of the building and the deterioration that was occurring, we would proceed with a demolition.”
Maxwell added: “One of the concerns was that there was numerous break-ins into the building and the inside of the building is not safe for anybody to be inside of it. So that kind of led us to move a little quicker on this after all the ownership parties had pulled out from it.”
Maxwell said he could not provide many details about the ownership of the property.
“I can tell you it does not belong to the city but I cannot tell you any further information about that,” he said.
A tender in the amount of $61,722 was awarded to the lowest bidder, Deer Landltd Equipment Leasing Inc., out of Loretto, Ontario.
The tender had been posted on September 11, closed on September 28 and was awarded on October 2.
A total of 10 bids were received for the demolition work of the 575 Wallace Street property, with the highest being $344,650.
The scope of the work on the tender, includes: “Demolition of vacant commercial building and the removal of all interior debris, leaving the property in a clean, level and graded condition with clean soil.”
– With files from Tami Eagen
