Springfield bakery building comes down

Dan Perkins has been waiting three years for the dilapidated building at 23 Valley St. to come down.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150410/NEWS02/704109961

Springfield bakery building comes down By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer | April 10,2015 Email Article Print Article Photo by Len Emery Shawn Pollard of Crown Point Excavating takes down a wall of a blighted building at 23 Valley St. in Springfield. SPRINGFIELD — Dan Perkins has been waiting three years for the dilapidated building at 23 Valley St. to come down. Thursday, he finally got his wish. Perkins, co-owner with his wife and son of Perkins Deli, across the street from the old bakery building, said the rundown building was a drag on his business and other businesses in the area. “I wish they could take the one next to it,” said Perkins, tending to the cash register while watching the crews from Crown Point Excavating get ready to tear down the building. The building, which through its life had been a Polish bakery, a tropical fish store and a signmaker’s shop, was pushed and pulled down into a pile. Excavator operator Shawn Pollard had to navigate between overhead power lines, the Five Mile Brook and a nearby building. The demolition ends a year-plus fight between the building’s owner, Don Bishop of Springfield, and the town, to get Bishop to either fix up the building or tear it down. Thursday, armed with a pair of decisions from the state’s highest court, the town’s contractor got to work. Bishop said he was called by Town Manager Tom Yennerell at about 10 a.m. and told to have all his stuff out of the building since crews were coming in at 12:30 p.m. The crews waited until after 2:30 p.m., as Bishop and a friend or two dragged pieces of junk and old pipes and some lumber from the building. He moved it next door to another building he owns. Bishop said he had worked on the building last summer, putting in new timbers to shore up the building in places. But the work wasn’t enough and the town pushed for demolition. Yennerell came by to see if the work had started, and talked with Bishop. The town is wrangling with Bishop about another fire-damaged building he owns on Wall Street. Perkins said he was glad the town was working to address dilapidated buildings throughout the town. “I think the town is a nice pretty town, and the town deserves better than that,” he said. Yenerell said Bishop’s other building does not meet the town’s criteria for being a dilapidated building, despite how unsightly it is. “It’s actually structurally sound,” Yennerell said. Matt Priestley of Crown Point Excavating said his crew would be back at the beginning of the week to load the debris into dumpsters and truck it away. He and his partner, Pollard, were the low bidders at $5,500 to take down the building, Yennerell said. A lien will be placed on Bishop’s property, Yenerell said, to recover the costs. If Bishop doesn’t pay the town back, the town is within its rights to foreclose on the property, he said.