ELLSWORTH – During a special meeting Monday, Oct. 23, the Ellsworth Village Board unanimously approved a contract with a Milwaukee-based company to demolish the former junior high at 254 S. Chestnut St.

“The bids came in much lower than we were expecting,” said Village Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer Brad Roy.

The village received six bids ranging from $481,470 to $929,000. When the Roy and Village President Becky Beissel went before the Pierce County Ad Hoc ARPA Committee in April, the estimate for to demolish the building and make the 2.35-acre site shovel ready was $1.2 million on the high end.

The base bid amount is for the contractors to provide labor, services, materials and equipment to provide asbestos abatement and demolition.

The lowest bid came from The MRD Group, while the next lowest was over $600,000. The village has been consulting with engineering firm CBS Squared, who had concerns about the low bid. However, Roy said, after speaking with The MRD Group, CBS consultants felt confident the company could get the job done well.

Contractors will be removing the structure and asphalt, taking contaminated (asbestos, etc.) materials to an Environmental Protection Agency approved landfill. The other “clean” material will then be crushed onsite.

Board members and Roy debated whether to have the clean material crushed onsite or hauled to the village dump for crushing. Either option will affect residents in some way. Roy said the crushing will take place over a span of three to four days. It’s the best option financially, but will create a disturbance temporarily for nearby residents.

“Unfortunately, we’re not going to get away from the noise,” said Trustee Andrew Borner. “I am mindful of the dust and noise, but it’s a demo site.”

Trustee Ryan Bench asked if there was potential cost savings by not using the clean material to fill the hole left behind by the demo. Roy said The MRD Group will not fill in the hole, even though it may be a cost savings to a developer down the road.

“Public Works has capability of filling in the hole if needed,” Roy said. “One reason the price is lower is because it’s winter work. If we leave the hole open, we’d probably want some fencing around it. There’s a lot of reasons why we’d want it filled in. Can do it on our own with a savings. Really it’s do we crush it onsite or haul it uncrushed to the compost site. We should be aware of the nuisance that would create in the area, but it does make sense financially.”

Roy estimated the demo will take place at the end of February or early March. Trustee Tom Schutz seemed to dislike the timeline and said Beissel told him it would be completed by the end of November, a point she vehemently denied. When she said maybe he misunderstood, he accused her of lying.

“I never said that,” Beissel said. “You’re being disrespectful.”

“I’m not being disrespectful, I’m looking out for the people in the village,” Schutz countered. “I’ve been lied to ever since I’ve been on this board.”

“You can believe that all you want,” Beissel said.

Roy jumped in, saying the timeline may have changed as the process has progressed.

Bench also worried about pests infiltrating the neighborhood once forced from their dilapidated home.

“I’ve seen raccoons going in and out of windows, bats,” Bench said. “I heard about when they took a business down in the East End, all the rats that were going to other businesses.”

Roy agreed to look into pest control options before the demolition.

The village has asked the Pierce County ARPA Committee to consider appropriating a portion of its $8.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to the demolition, in order to allow the village to develop the site into workforce housing. They are still waiting for the committee’s answer. On June 5, 2023, the board accepted a site assessment grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for $150,000, to go toward the demolition.

The village purchased the blighted property for $25,000 on Aug. 1, 2022.

During public comment time, a resident questioned why meeting minutes for the Community Development Authority committee, which has been mulling over ideas for the property, are so vague. Roy said the CDA has recommended the lot to be utilized as multi-family housing.

“Before any bid document goes out, the village board would need to approve what type of development we’d be sending out to bid,” Roy said.