By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Common Council heard almost an hour’s worth of complaints on July 2 about the decision to schedule a controlled burn of a house at 116 S. Fifth St. on June 22, the same day the Brick Street Days event was scheduled in Delavan’s downtown.
The house was purchased by the city in June of 2017 for $130,000 to make way for the future expansion of Aram Public Library. The house and garage were to be removed from the property to provide space for parking. The decision to raze the buildings came after attempts were made to use the buildings short-term or allow someone to buy and relocate the buildings, according to Director of Public Works Mark Wendorf.
The city, Wendorf said, solicited bids to have the buildings demolished but both were rejected by the council as non-responsive. On May 21, the council authorized the fire department to use the buildings for training in a controlled burn. Permits were issued June 4.
The controlled burn of the house took place as scheduled, just around the corner from where Walworth Street had been blocked off for Brick Street Days. It was reported that the wind changed direction during the burn and smoke and as a result, ashes interfered with the downtown event.
Read more on the lengthy discussion that took place at the special meeting in the July 11 Delavan Enterprise.
