The owners of the Pioneer building in downtown St. Joseph are facing a deadline to demolish the building this week.  A spokeswoman for the city says they are still on target to meet that deadline.

Preliminary work got underway Monday morning, as a worker suspended by a crane began chipping away at the topmost remnants of the historic building destroyed by fire last month.

“The contractor, Andrew Madget, is a local contractor,” said Mary Robertson, Communications Manager for the City of St. Joseph. “He is on site preparing the site for demo at this point.”

“The understanding was that when they did do the demo of the remaining standing wall, that it would be brought into the center of the area, and then it will be cleared away from that point.”

As we reported, city officials ordered the building be demolished under an emergency order December 1, which gave the owners ten business days to bring down the building.

The ten-day period ends at 1pm this Thursday, December 15.

“They have started the demo,” Robertson said.  “How quickly they move over the course of the next three days will determine when the fire inspectors will actually be able to access the site.

“But as far as we know now, they still are on schedule for the 15th deadline.”

That should come as good news for motorists, pedestrians and business owners on or near the 500 block of Francis St. who have been denied access for weeks for safety reasons.

“Once we have determined that that area is safe, the area will be reopened to one lane of traffic on Francis and Fifth Street,” Robertson said.

Once a structural engineer determines that the area can be safely occupied, one lane of traffic will be opened on Francis and Fifth Streets.

 

Fire destroyed the historic structure on November 21.