Baptist Church demo awaits funding source

This 100-year-old plus church was purchased from the owner in Minnesota for back taxes so it could be demolished. The project has turned out to be time consuming and very expensive.

Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail

By Ralph Pokorny

ndmeditorial@gmail.com

In response to a question from a council member, Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman told the city council Tuesday night the city is looking at its options for demolishing the old Baptist Church at the intersection of Cedar and Hunter streets which is assumed to have asbestos and other hazardous materials. And, he said none of the options are good.

Kehrman told the council the inspector from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said the original part of the church is unsafe and he will not enter that part of the building to inspect it. Kehrman told the council this means that entire portion of the building must be considered to be contaminated with hazardous material and the structure removed using a wet demolition process to control any dust. This process requires the building be kept continuously wet during the demolition and all of the material must be kept wet until it is sealed into impervious bags or containers to be transported to an appropriate landfill. Kehrman told the council this greatly increases the cost of the demolition and the city is looking for a source of money to cover the cost of the process. He said the addition on the north side of the building, could possibly be demolished using normal methods of handling hazardous materials.