Apr 2, 2015 2 min read

City Council is forging ahead with its plan to demolish dilapidated buildings, most recently crossing the former Nor-Mane Hotel in Washington off its “to-raze” list.

The demolition process began last week, and it will be completed soon. The building’s “deplorable condition” made it a more pressing matter, Mayor Brenda Davis said.

The Nor-Mane, at 160 N. Main St., dates back to at least the early 1950s, and prior to that it was the Shank Hotel. Davis said the current owner lives in Australia, and the building fell into disrepair as a result of its absent caretaker. Council declared the former hotel, along with several other properties, a public nuisance last year.

“Several times throughout the last few years, we’ve had to red-tag that building because it was completely unsafe for anyone to go in it because of the floors being rotted out,” Davis said.

Washington attorney Thomas Lonich said he attended a public hearing on demolitions last year on behalf of his client, Anthony Zenner, who owns a building next to the Nor-Mane.

He asked council to demolish the hotel because it was “so dilapidated that it’s leaning and causing problems to my client’s structure,” Lonich said.

It damaged the roof and allowed water to infiltrate Zenner’s building, he said. Council indicated it was already on the list to be demolished, and a lawsuit was never filed.

The Nor-Mane demolition, which will cost $62,000, is the first to be funded with a community block grant made available through Washington County Redevelopment Authority. Four residential properties – two on Chestnut Street, one on Linn Avenue and one on Woodland Avenue – are slated to be demolished within the next couple weeks, Davis said.

“It’s been long overdue,” Davis said, adding the demolitions are a positive step toward the revitalization of downtown Washington.

Davis said the city will lien the properties for the cost of demolition in an attempt to recoup the money spent.