County to tear down crumbling Russellville building

The building at 200 S. Harrison St. in Russellville will be demolished soon, but county officials now have to consider also razing the building at 202 S. Harrison.

Courtesy photo

RUSSELLVILLE — A crumbling downtown building in Russellville will be brought all the way down soon.

But first, the county must perform a little more due diligence.

The Putnam County Board of Zoning Appeals met Monday to discuss the matter of the building at 200 S. Harrison St., which began to crumble in early August, with bricks from the parapet wall at the top of the front of the building falling through the awning on the front of the building and onto the sidewalk.

The back wall is also leaning inward.

The Russellville Fire Department closed the intersection of Harrison and First streets almost immediately, an arrangement that remains in place.

The consensus reached during the special meeting, which was attended by building owners Elizabeth and Matthew Allee of Wisconsin as well as Russellville Fire Chief Darrick Wiatt, was that the building needs to be taken down.

Unfortunately, razing the building will likely compromise the structure immediately to the south, meaning it will likely have to come down as well.

With the Putnam County Building and Planning Department working to contact owner Douglas Veach of Gosport, another special meeting has been set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to discuss the demolition and removal of the Veach building at 202 S. Harrison St.

That means the closure will remain in place for a few more weeks.

“We ask that people give us a little more patience,” Fire Chief Darrick Wiatt said. “It’s just an unfortunate situation that we’re dealing with, and there’s a lot of red tape we have to go through to get to that solution.”