Clear Lake City Council moves process forward on demolition of old Woodford-Wheeler building next to library
CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council Monday night approved moving forward with the demolition of the former Woodford-Wheeler building at 210 North 4th Street.
The council in early 2021 approved the purchase of the property for $343,000 with the idea of constructing a future expansion of the city’s Public Library.
Talking by phone, City Administrator Scott Flory says the city has negotiated a professional services agreement with Veenstra & Kimm to prepare the necessary plans and technical documents for soliciting proposals for the demolition of the building. “The project itself will involve the demolition of that existing structure, which is roughly 21,500 square feet. There will also be some pavement removal. I think there’s about 7,000 square feet of pavement removal. Disposal of the debris, removal of the existing building foundation, as well as footings, and backfilling and compacting of the site.”
Flory says there will also be some interim site work done prior to any planning of a library expansion. “In terms of the interim site work, we’ll be including stormwater drainage improvements there, as well as aggregate surfacing so that we’ll be able to utilize the property for short-term purposes for off-street parking.”
Flory says the building has been used recently to store items for the city’s Everybody Plays Playground project. “Since the fall of 2021, if you recall we had previously been storing the outdoor playground equipment for the South 15th Street Everybody Plays Playground project in that building itself, and of course now that playground equipment has been installed on South 15th Street and removed from that property, so we are in a position now where we will be able to demolish that structure.”
The demolition project is scheduled to be completed in the first part of February in time for the space to be used as off-street parking for the Color the Wind kite festival on February 17th.
