Photo June 2017 after the Arcade Building fire in downtown Jamestown.

JAMESTOWN – Two downtown eyesores and safety hazards will soon be addressed by the city thanks to a recently acquired state grand.

On Monday night the Jamestown City Council approved accepting a $100,000 grant through the State and Municipal Facilities Program to tear down two downtown buildings, one at 24 N. Main St. and the other 8 E. Second St.

The building on N. Main Street, which sits between the vacant Arcade Building and the WNYP railroad tracks, was damage by fire in June 2017 and has been waiting to be removed since then.

The condemned building at 8 E Second St. has also been waiting to come down since the fall of 2016 when the building next to it (10-12 E. Second St.) had a partial roof collapse creating a safety hazard. The building with the partial roof collapse was immediately raised, but city officials had to wait to secure funding before they could address the structure at 8 E. Second St.

City officials discuss how to proceed with the demo of a building at 10-12 E. Second St. in Jamestown following a roof collapse on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. Two months later, a second building at 101 W. Third St. also experienced a partial collapse.

JAMESTOWN – The vast majority of the buildings in downtown Jamestown and across the city are in stable condition. That’s the message from Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who tells WRFA that despite two recent partial collapses in downtown Jamestown the past few months, the city’s aging building stock is in good shape.

“Those two incidents are anomalies,” Teresi said. “Both of these building were on the city’s radar from the beginning. Obviously, in the game of beat the clock, the clock won in these instances.”

In October, the city had to do an emergency demolition for a dilapidated building at 10-12 E. Second St., which saw a partial collapse of its roof. Then in December just before Christmas, the former Betty Dixon Candy store, located at 101 W. Third St., saw a partial roof collapse in the back part of the building.

The mayor also said that the city will continue to monitor all structures in the downtown and elsewhere.

“We’re going to continue to keep an eye on the building stock of the community,” Teresi explained, adding that Jamestown has some of the oldest building stock in the country when compared to communities of similar size. “We have a very old, significant, and historical commercial building stock in our downtown area. We’re very proud of that. Most places have lost their historic structures downtown – at least the cities that are the same size and age as Jamestown.”

The mayor made his comments during an interview which will run Thursday afternoon on WRFA during our Community Matters program. In addition to the downtown buildings, the mayor also discusses what impact a new contract with the Chautauqua County sheriff’s Office deputies would have on a proposed public safety consolidation plan between the county and the city. He also discusses the Jackson Spring housing development, as well as what his expectations are for the Trump administration, as it pertains to Jamestown.

The interview begins at 5 p.m. Thursday on WRFA and will be rebroadcast at noon on Sunday.

JAMESTOWN – A downtown building that saw a partial collapse last month leading to an emergency demolition will be completely raised on Friday, Nov. 4.

Jamestown Public Works Director Jeff Lehman says the building at 10-12 E. Second Street is scheduled for demolition today and as a result, the Contractor will restrict traffic. He adds that at times, workers from H.H. Raugh Construction may need to close the portion of E. Second Street between N. Main Street and Pine Street.

Motorists will experience delays when traveling through the project area and may wish to use alternate routes of travel.

Cost of the demolition is being covered by funding from the New York State Attorney General’s Office that was secured by the Chautauqua County Land Bank.

City officials discuss how to proceed with the demo of a building at 10-12 E. Second St. in Jamestown following a roof collapse on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. The building has since undergone emergency demolition, with the controlled demolition expected to be completed by mid November.

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown has received a major break when it comes to paying for the demolition of an abandoned downtown building that suffered a partial collapse last week.

On Thursday the building at 10-12 East Second Street suffered a partially collapse roof. The cause of the collapse was because the building had sat vacant without upkeep for more than 10 years.

Because of safety concerns city officials made the decision to totally demolition of the structure, which is owned Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation & Improvement Corporation (CHRIC).

The cost of the full demolition, clean up and abatement is expected to run between $150,000 and $200,000. That created a concern for city officials, because the city would have had to pay for the cost upfront and then worked to recoup that money.

However, city development director Vince DeJoy says that CHRIC was able to transfer the property over to the Chautauqua County Land Bank Corporation.

“What that means is it is now eligible to use Office of Attorney General funds from the land bank to demolish the property, so the cost burden isn’t put on the shoulders of the city of Jamestown,” DeJoy said.

DeJoy said the emergency demolition has now been completed and the city is now awaiting necessary permits to be filed and approved to move forward with the controlled demolition. He said that process will take about ten days.

“From there, the rest of the building will be demolished. The rubble pile will be cleaned up and sent to the Chautauqua County Landfill, where we’ll be using municipal landfill credits,” DeJoy said. “From there we’re going to come up with the next phase, which is basically making the site safe and not looking like a terrible ‘missing tooth’ in a hole in our downtown core.”

JAMESTOWN – An emergency demolition for a downtown building had to be scheduled Thursday evening due to a partial collapse.

Jamestown police and city fire crews were called to the scene at 10-12 East Second St. on Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m. after receiving word that the roof of the three story abandoned structure had fallen in. The building sits next to Potters Alley.

According to City Development Director Vince DeJoy, the roof collapse – which was came after a previous collapse of a back wall section – is likely due to poor maintenance.

“The structural integrity had been compromised in the previous collapse of the back wall section, and with all the rain and moisture that we’ve had, my assumption is that it was just too much weight and another large section collapsed [Thursday] afternoon,” DeJoy said.

City officials discuss how to proceed with the demo of a building at 10-12 E. Second St. in Jamestown following a roof collapse on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016.

DeJoy also said that the building – which is currently owned by Chautauqua Home Rehap and Improvement Corporation (CHRIC) – had applied for state funding to improve the structure stability.  But due to safety reasons following the collapse, city officials had no choice but to do an emergency demolition of the building.

“[The demolition crew] took the top two levels and basically brought the building down onto itself, just to remove the emergency situation that we have,” DeJoy said. “From there we’ll work on removing the debris pile and taking down the rest of it, stabilizing the hill, and there’s a bunch of other things that are going to have to happen to make sure its safe for pedestrians and adjacent properties.”

DeJoy added that it’s unlikely there are any other buildings in the downtown that pose a similar risk of collapse.

“We have a pretty good building stock here, even though they are old,” DeJoy said. “This one we’ve been watching for a long time. We’ve been aware of it and we’ve gotten a number of quotes to demolish it. [Earlier Thursday] there  were structural engineers looking at it so we knew that it was only a matter of time, but we were hoping that funds could have come through to save the building – stabilize it, save it, and redevelop it. That was our plan all along, but now that plan has turned into something different.”

The building had been vacant for more than ten years. DeJoy says the city will be using emergency demolition funds to pay for the cost of bringing the building down, but added that it will also be seeking reimbursement as well.