Administrative work on demolishing the abandoned Bresee Tower in downtown Danville could get going in the next few months, says Danville Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr., but actual demolition could take 9-12 months to begin.
“We finally came to terms on an intergovernmental agreement with the county for the demolition of Bresee and the courthouse annex. It just passed our committee last night, so it will have to go to full council next week,” Williams said.
The Vermilion County Board was supposed to vote on the agreement last night, says Williams, but it didn’t happen, as far as he knows. Attempts to reach Board Chairman Larry Vaughn were unsuccessful as of Wednesday afternoon.
“For some reason, there was no vote on it. So I’m not sure what that’s about and we haven’t heard anything back from them yet,” Williams said on Wednesday afternoon.
Should the agreement be ratified by both bodies in the coming weeks, the next step will be issuing an Request For Proposal (RFP) bids from demolition companies. Companies will have 60 days to submit their bids.
“The process of choosing a bid will take about a month, and then once the bid is awarded, the first thing that will happen is asbestos remediation,” a process which could take anywhere from four to six months, says Williams.
“So it would likely be nine months or so before you actually see what most people will consider demolition of the building itself, the structure actually starts coming down,” says Williams.
As for the surrounding buildings, including the city hall building on the corner of Main and Walnut, Williams says they should remain unaffected by the eventual demolition.
“There might be a rare occasion where we’re not able to work in the city hall building for a day or two, but otherwise they’ll be able to work without closing our building,” says Williams.