Another dilapidated building to fall

The Springfield Select Board voted unanimously last week to have a building at 23 Valley Street demolished.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140217/NEWS02/702179935

Published February 17, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Another dilapidated building to fall By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Another dilapidated building will be coming down. The Springfield Select Board voted unanimously last week to have a building at 23 Valley St. in downtown Springfield demolished. The board later voted to have the building’s owner, Don Bishop, do the demolition himself, rather than have the town do it. The board also backed off an earlier order to have the town hire someone to demolish 9 Furnace St., Town Manager Robert Forguites said Friday. Instead, the new property owner, who is buying the adjacent building at 5-7 Furnace St., will do the demolition as well. Bishop, who has been on notice since last summer that the small building at 23 Valley St. was structurally deficient, had made repairs, Forguites said. But the repairs were not adequate and a bearing wall was bowing. “They voted to have the building taken down, and they asked him if he wanted to do it,” said Forguites. Bishop told the board that he had property inside the building, and he had no place to store it. “But he agreed to tear the building down. The board gave him until April 30, because of the weather. But that is the drop-dead date,” said Forguites. Earlier, the board had set a deadline of Dec. 1 for Bishop to complete repairs on the building, which Forguites said might have once been a bakery. He said the soon-to-be-demolished building is immediately adjacent to another building owned by Bishop that borders the exit from the People’s United Bank parking lot. Bishop couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. As for the Furnace Street property, which is tied up in an estate, Forguites said Town Attorney Stephen Ankuda was working with someone who is interested in buying the buildings from the estate. “With the understanding the building will be torn down and the little house will be kept standing as part of the deal,” he said. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzTZ-f-iVow4BsP9BR2JepmSSKrpHgXHisRYZvK81zlpYYJS9CNAEXHs6ZJ_uejxtB7llUciJI9he2fCzBlHmBA5ber71txMMpmoLSDgQRO1tS1XhXO_IvtaGteCcr3LgRvqcA-xoA3gx/s1600/23valleystLG.jpg