The City of Hartford is moving forward with plans for the demolition of its oldest building following damaging storms that blew through the town over the Fourth of July Holiday.
At their regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening, the Hartford City Council approved a motion to accept bids for the demolition of Hartford Town Hall and the old community building after both were condemned following an engineer’s inspection late last week. The city will now accept demolition bids from contractors through 4:30 pm next Friday, July 24th, before an emergency city council meeting that same evening, with the only item of business being to consider and potentially award a bid.
Hartford Mayor Kenny Hamman told KVOE News following Wednesday’s meeting that the city did not want to go this route initially, saying they went into the inspection with “open eyes” and hopes of repairing the facilities.
Hamman also stated the city has already received a bid and they could have moved forward with it Wednesday evening, as insurance will cover the entire cost of demolition. However, he says they wanted to provide the extra time in order to be fair to local businesses.
That said, Hamman tells KVOE News they do need to move forward quickly with the start of the school year a little more than a month away, noting the start of the school year brings with it several concerns.
As for steps after the building is demolished, Hamman says the plan is to rebuild; however, the exact scope and location of a new facility are up in the air, as while the council knows the cost of demolition is covered, the exact amount of money they will receive for construction is not known at this time.
Regardless, council members did seem in agreement that they would like for the new facility to go in the location of the current building, although Hamman did ask them to “Keep all of their options open” down the road.
The time for next Friday’s city council meeting has yet to be announced.
