Hatchery near demolition (8/5/05)

Demolition day for a vacant building on South Wayne Street in Portland is drawing near.

The Portland Board of Works opened bids Thursday morning to demolish the former hatchery building, located at 509 S. Wayne St. The building is set to be torn down to make way for the planned Hudson Family Park.

The board received bids from Shroyer Bros. Inc. of Muncie, Jensen Environmental Engineering Services Inc. of Indianapolis, LPI Paving and Excavating of Portland and TW Excavating and Demolition Inc. of Anderson.

Shroyer submitted a $67,200 bid and said the razing should take 15 to 20 days to complete. Jenson submitted a bid of $85,605 and estimated work would take 28 days. LPI submitted a $108,600 bid, and TW Excavating submitted a bid of $232,922. Neither LPI nor TW gave a time frame for the demolition work.

The bids include the cost of tearing down the building and removing the debris.

David Dixon, senior architect for The Schneider Corporation, which has been hired to do the engineering work for the park, said he and the other architects would review the bids and make a recommendation to the board by Monday.

Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier said the board of works could meet as early as Tuesday to accept a bid.

Hosier told the Portland City Council on Monday that environmental assessments have determined a large amount of money would be needed to restore the building. The structure and property around it were donated to the city by Hy-Line North American LLC in May of 2004.

The hatchery is located along the west side of the planned park. Drawings created by Schneider call for the park entrance to be where the building currently stands.

Dixon said the razing should take about three weeks to complete. No start date has been set.

Also Thursday, board members signed a title sheet for the planned Boundary Pike/Wayne Street project.

Hosier said the board needed to sign the sheet because it is required by the Indiana Department of Transportation, which is helping fund the $4.6 million project.

Bonar Group vice president Greg Smith said this morning the title sheet serves as an indication to INDOT that city officials are aware of and involved in the project. Bonar Group, an engineering firm, has been hired to design the Boundary Pike/Wayne Street project.

Smith said the title sheet has a map of the project on it. This will be helpful to contractors who plan to bid on the project and want to know where the construction will take place, he said.

City officials had hoped the project would begin this summer. However, the city still needs to acquire five more rights-of-way before the work can start, Hosier said.

The Boundary Pike/Wayne Street project will improve drainage and the water main, improve and run the storm sewer to the Salamonie River and add new street lights and sidewalks.

INDOT will give the city $3,680,000 to fund the project, which is 80 percent of the cost, Smith said. The city is responsible for the remaining 20 percent. The funding from INDOT comes from federal gasoline taxes, he said.[[In-content Ad]]