Posted: March 24, 2009 |(0) Comments

Once city officials have the deed in hand, they will likely seek bids from wrecking companies to raze the rusted skeletal beams of the never-finished Powerade Iceport structure.

"I want to demolish that structure," Mayor Ryan McCue said. "It's a rusted trophy of failure."

City officials have already sought two separate bids from wrecking companies twice this year - one for just the annihilation of the beams and the other for the demolition of the structure and its footings.

Building Inspector Butch Loferski said that the first time the city sought bids the notice was worded in a manner in which the contractor would had salvage rights to some of the materials on the site. The bid was rewritten and published a second time, so that the contractor would not have salvage rights, he said.

The second time the city sought bids, nine wrecking companies responded. City officials were interested in one company's proposal that would have razed the structure for $97,796 and would have tore down the structure and footings for $164,742, but there were some concerns that those bids were not accurate.

"It's an important issue and we want to make sure it was done correctly," Loferski said.

Those bids are now expired.

Now that a judge has ruled in favor of the city foreclosing on the Iceport property, officials must wait out a two-month redemption period, allowing Sportsites the opportunity to come up with funding to regain ownership of the site.

The city, however, expects to acquire the property, and once that happens, it will be easier to go to bid, McCue said.

"It will be a lot cleaner to tear down that structure once we own the land," he said.

 

Chantel Balzell can be reached at (262) 446-6602.