The village of Roscoe intends to demolish an empty home on Pearl Street before winter arrives. The Village Board gave the OK Thursday to remove asbestos, shut off utilities and have the Public Works Department raze the building for a total cost of about $6,000.
The building was previously slated to be used as a training ground for the Harlem Roscoe Fire Protection District, but it turned out that fire fighters wouldn’t be able to burn the building as quickly as village officials would have liked.
“The fire department couldn’t get it done in the time allotted,” Trustee Dennis Sole said.
Trustee Rob Baxter voted against the demolition, saying he was concerned that the village did not notify neighbors that the home was going to be demolished.
The Village Board bought the property when trustees began plans to renovate and expand Village Hall. Board members have been kicking around ideas for how to use the land, which is less than an acre and adjacent to Village Hall, ever since.
After learning how much it would cost to renovate the building, board members decided to demolish it.
Village President Dave Krienke said the final cost could turn out to be less than expected.
“Basically all the remains have to be trucked out to a landfill and we don’t know what that’s going to cost,” he said. “We don’t know how many tons of (debris) need to be dumped — at most it’s going to be $4,200 for disposal, but it might only cost us $1,000.”
