By: Rebecca Miller
A tentative project since 2017, a serious one since 2018, is happening in downtown Montpelier as a large crane is used to tear down a portion of the 400 block of old buildings. “These buildings are not historic in any way,” Council member and business owner Chris Kannel said in a phone interview.
“If they were I would have fought it. I never want to tear anything down just to tear it down. These buildings honestly do not have any useful value in Montpelier and the community will be better served by the activity space that will be created.
There really is no value in them,” he restated, “and it will enhance what does remain of the downtown. It will help bring up the value of the ones that remain, as well.”
Montpelier Village Council has what Kannel called “a whole slew of projects” for which they can use “the green space” to tie the downtown together. Several years ago it was noted that the buildings had structural issues that would cost more for repairs than the buildings are worth and the Chamber of Commerce which was housed there could definitely not afford to repair them.
The buildings were non descriptive, used at times, but not maintained, and with vacancy issues already a problem for the village, extra buildings are not needed. The village bought them with grant funding from the State Capital Budget when $300,000 was awarded. No village funds have been used for the acquisition or the demolition of the buildings which are across from Fackler Monuments.
After the demolition was scheduled, a big section of the roof came off the building making it even clearer that it did need to be demolished. The demolition began on Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, at the back side of the buildings and moved around to the west side before completing the job during the first week in December.
The area where they stood will be turned into a park, benefitting the citizens and the beauty of Montpelier. Lori Eitniear, who has lived in Montpelier her entire life and was part owner in Hammer Athletics, shared that as the VP of the Chamber of Commerce while it met in that building, it held a lot of happy memories.
She feels that “this will be an asset to have people out enjoying the Ironhorse Trail” and this spot which will be a place for spending time with family and staying healthy.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com