Historic but dilapidated Newton building to be demolished

A white paper adorned with the city seal hangs on the door at 815 N. Main in Newton’s downtown.

It reads: “Dangerous Structure: Do Not Occupy.”

Demolition work began Saturday on a two-story historic property in downtown Newton that was deemed too unsafe to let stand.

The building had been vacant for at least a couple of years, said Newton Mayor Glen Davis.

Last week’s rainfall loosened some of the north-facing limestone on the building, causing about 17,000 pounds of it to fall onto the roof of a neighboring business, according to Commissioner David Nygaard.

“With all the rain, it just deteriorated – (water) getting in there between the walls,” Davis said. “After this last rainfall, we had a city engineer look at it. It’s just beyond hope.”

Newton city commissioners voted unanimously Friday to allot up to $60,000 of city funds for the “emergency demolition” of the building.

“I was kind of divided on this,” Davis said. “I had more people call and tell me we shouldn’t be spending city funds to tear down the building, but it reached the stage where it was unsafe and we had to step up to the plate and do something. So we did what we had to do, even though it wasn’t the city’s responsibility.”

The vote was “one of the hardest votes” Nygaard said he’s had to make on the commission.

“We’ve lost a historic building, and we were trying to save all the historic buildings,” he said Saturday. “Now we’ve lost that, and what’s going to replace it?”

The current owners of the building had fallen into financial difficulty since purchasing it and were unable to rehabilitate it. They owe back taxes on the building, Davis said.

A hand-painted sign advertising the building as for sale, along with a disconnected phone number, remained in the window Saturday.

The owners of the building will be billed for the “full amount” of the demolition, though they have no way of paying for it, Davis said.

Goering Enterprises, based out of Newton, won the $52,000 bid to demolish the building – the commission budgeted for an additional $8,000 for any unforeseen contingencies, Nygaard said.

Scott Goering, president of Goering Enterprises, said his crews assessed the condition of the building Saturday and determined it would have to be taken down largely by hand.

“It’s going to add some time,” Goering said. “It’s not going to be a real fast process, depending on the weather and everything else. It’s going to take what it takes.”

Goering said the building will be demolished carefully so as to avoid further damage to neighboring businesses.

“It’s a pretty much unstable building,” he said. “It’s going to have to be taken apart pretty gently.”

The tanning salon that the 17,000 pounds of limestone damaged last week has been closed since then – the landlord of the building had safety concerns, Davis said.

Davis said it is unfortunate the city has lost a building downtown that is more than a century old but that the city had to get involved “because of the danger to the community.”

“It’s a no-win situation for anybody,” he said.

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Historic but dilapidated Newton building to be demolished."