Just What Is The Bill For Tearing Down The Columbus

By Ben Meisner

Someone at the City Council table needs to ask the questions about the tearing down of the Columbus Hotel.

On September 17^th the bid to tear down the remains of the burned out building was awarded for $46,875.00. In recent days the rumble around the city has been that there have been overruns on the cost of tearing down the structure and the bill will be higher, how much higher and why?

The lowest bid was accepted and if the City operates on the premise that the lowest bidder gets the job under normal circumstances then the company that got the job should eat the overrun, and if not, why not?

If the City intends to toss out the notion that the matter of asbestos being in the walls is the reason for the increase in costs, they might want to look at their own departments.  Several days before Council decided to  go ahead with the tear down"as soon as possible" samples had been taken from the Columbus site, samples beleived to contain asbestos. Now if a higher bidder was factoring in the cost of removing that material, then it should be of interest for the City Council to know why the price has gone up.

The owner of the hotel asked City Council for an extension to allow time for bids to come in from the insurance company as to the demolition, he was not granted that extension and the City chose the lowest bidder to tear the place down.

If the insurance company is being saddled with a new cost they may balk at paying and reasonably so. It might also be well to remember that the insurance company has deep pockets, not like the previous owner of the hotel, and they are unlikely to cut a check just because the City would like them to.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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