MASON CITY – A building located at 318 3rd Street SW is scheduled to be demolished in the next few weeks.
The owners of the building, Lee and Mary Ellen Snell, as well as Joan Snell, have been in negotiations with City officials for some time on the issue. According to a City Hall memo, the Snells have been seeking City assistance to help with the cost of tearing down the building.
Back in October 2010, the City Council addressed the issue and moved toward condemning the building. “Council Member (Janet) Solberg stated the City has worked with Snell’s for two and a half years and thought that was an excessive timeline,” according to City Council meeting minutes from October 5, 2010.
Council member Don Nelson also said at that meeting “The Number 1 priority of the Council was safety and stressed this was a safety issue with Council Member Solberg concurring emphasizing the Chief Building Official had mentioned the west wall could cave in at any time and she would hate to see someone hurt because the City delayed something for two weeks.” (See photos below of the building.)
Since that meeting, the building has set virtually unchanged. Now it seems the Snells are ready to put the issue to rest and pay for the demolition of their building themselves.
“They were asking the City to review all options that might be available to assist with the costs of completing the demolition,” City Administrator Brent Trout said in an August 11, 2011 memo to the City Council and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer.
“The funding is not available,” Trout continued. “The Snells have been informed of that.”
According to the memo, demolition of the building will begin “as soon as the contractor is ready.”
The costs of the demolition will be covered by the Snells.
Below are pictures of the building (NIT PHOTOS):
