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Aldermen to Decide Fate of Warehouse

A property owner is trying to prevent one of his buildings from being demolished under Macomb's “Fix or Flatten” program for dilapidated structures.

Chad Hunziker, who is a landlord, said he is using the building at 121 South Albert Street as a warehouse to store appliances and other items. He told aldermen the building is not unsafe.

“We're trying to be proactive here and I think we try to work with the city well,” Hunziker said.

But Fourth Ward Alderman Thomas Koch said photos of the building show there are a number of loose bricks.

Koch: “It looks to me like you need to do a massive repair on the brick structure itself.”

Hunziker: “There's a few loose bricks in the front door. None of the other bricks are loose. And we went through and tuck pointed it”

Koch: “There's one on the top of the chimney that's at a 45-degree angle.”

Hunziker: “OK. We've tuck pointed it since then.”

City Attorney Kristen Petrie: “These were today. These photos were from today.”

Hunziker: “I haven't seen today. I don't know. They might have missed one.”

Sixth Ward Alderman Tim Lobdell also pointed out the building's windows are boarded up, which is not considered a long-term solution for broken windows.

Aldermen are scheduled to vote Monday, July 16, on whether to accept the low bids for demolishing the building and seven others.  Shawn Stoneking Corporation of Macomb submitted the low bid on seven of the eight buildings and the second lowest on the other.

City Administrator Dean Torreson said the low bid for the eighth building was submitted by a Springfield-based company that decided it's not worth hauling equipment up to Macomb for demolishing a single building. So he recommended aldermen award all the projects to Stoneking.

The breakdown:

1002 East Carroll, a house and garage: $6,000
403 West Washington, a house: $,4500
307 East Carroll, a garage: $1,200
121 South Albert, a storage building: $2,500
1310 East Carroll, a house and garage: $7,100
806 East Carroll, a house: $6,600
115 West Adams, a house: $8,900
119 West Adams, a house: $5,500

The total cost is $42,300.

The two houses on West Adams Street are being demolished as the city prepares for the possibility of moving ahead with a revitalization program for corridor that leads into Western Illinois University.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.